New meme tokens on Solana seemingly take off immediately with surprisingly high volumes. However, a form of wash trading may be inflating the reported volumes, leading to more rug pulls.
On-chain investigators have noticed something suspicious about new meme token launches. Some of the assets started trading with significant volumes, leading to fast rallies. At that time, the tokens were seemingly traded by small wallets, and retail joined, expecting high returns.
Whale wallets use a technique of splitting their SOL into smaller batches, then buying and selling the tokens repeatedly. That way, they can benefit from the rally while keeping risk low.
Retail, however, may end up with losses, as meme tokens are still mostly sold for profit. Analysis of whale wallets showed that some of the newly traded memes on Solana reach valuations of $200K to $300K before crashing. While valuations above $50M are now rare, even smaller pumps can lead to losses for retail traders.
Researchers have intercepted cases where even one whale can create a fake ‘wallet army’ to boost early volumes and fool retail traders that the token is liquid. Traders take small losses, but can profit and sell if the token rallies.
Solana DEX users retreat, volumes remain high
The potential for wash trading on Solana and the presence of whales are reflected in the shift of active users.
Solana DEX volumes remained relatively high, reaching $3.74B in 24 hours. The volumes recovered from the slump in April and May, rising to a higher baseline.
At the same time, traders saw a significant outflow in 2025. As of September 2025, Solana carried around 1M traders daily, with 300K single-day traders and around 600K repeat traders. The chain still retains higher economic value, but there are reports that the ‘trenches’ and retail are not that influential.
One whale creates fake JUP volumes
Wash trading not only affects meme tokens but can also pump existing assets linked to other Solana projects.
Jupiter’s native token JUP is one example. On-chain analysts have noted that a single whale produced outsized trading volumes.
The whale used lending facilities to generate up to $48.8B in trading volume in a short timespan. The whale did not make profits, but the constant buying and selling of tokens kept the wallets ready to benefit from any token rally or inflows of external liquidity.
The wallet’s history shows constant small swaps between USDC and JUP, leading to the inflated volumes. The wallet adds to the general presence of high-frequency bots deployed on DEX pools.
The presence of fake volumes may undermine trust in Solana, as the chain boasts record metrics in terms of value locked and fee production. At the same time, fake volumes and hype are one of the factors leading to fee extraction for apps.
Whale wash trading is somewhat similar to bot activities. However, recent data shows anonymous whales now target even smaller projects. Their activity is more limited than market-makers pumping celebrity tokens, but it can still lead to losses for any retail buyers.
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