Solana DEX Raydium's Meme Token Launch 'Didn't Exactly Go as Expected'

Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium launched a meme coin called CTO using a new crypto launchpad, but things didn’t go according to plan.

One of the largest DEXs on Solana, Raydium's meme coin launch on a new token launchpad backfired after the launch “didn't exactly go as expected,” with two identical tokens created and the first dropping 92% in just 10 minutes.

Raydium, an automated market maker that has a daily trading volume over $300 million per CoinGecko, launched a token called CTO on Thursday. Raydium created the token by interacting with a new meme coin launchpad, Makenow.meme, which creates tokens just by tagging them in a tweet.

“Test. $CTO wen? @Makenowmeme,” Raydium posted on Twitter. As promised, Makenow.meme created a token called CTO but, in typical crypto style, things soon went awry.

As one of the largest DEXs had launched a token, a large group of people were scraping the blockchain looking for the token in an attempt to buy early. Before an official tweet was posted, users found a token created by Makememe.now using the CTO name and ticker that Raydium requested.

“Is this coin really launched by Raydium?,” one Discord user said. “What coin are you referring to?” a Discord mod replied. The initial user sent the freshly launched token, “Ah let me check,” the mod replied.

In 16 minutes, the token spiked to a $7 million market cap. It fell slightly as eight minutes passed but then plummeted 92% over the next 10 minutes to a market cap of $488,000. “Is it rug?” another Discord user said.

This price drop perfectly lines up with Makenow.meme posting the real CTO token, causing the first token to lose all credibility. This real token was minted 30 minutes after the first token was minted, according to blockchain data, both deployed by Makenow.meme.

There appears to have be no tweet prior to Raydium’s request to create the CTO token that would have triggered the first token to be made by Makenow.meme.

“What the fuck,” pseudonymous trader Value & Time replied on Twitter.

The official token didn’t perform too well either. It rose to a market cap of $6.7 million within half an hour of launch and fell 70% to $2 million over the next 40 minutes. At the time of writing, the official CTO token currently sits at a $1.9 million market cap.

“Oops, that didn't exactly go as expected,” Raydium’s official Twitter account posted. “Started with an idea to highlight a new protocol, now we're here...With all new technology, boundaries will be pushed—or inadvertently stumbled over. #UndoTest.”

Investors were not happy with this apology. "The community is really disappointed," one Discord user said. Another chimed in that, "We get an oops tweet like clowns. No apology, no refund, no money put back into the coin that got dumped. Just a tweet saying oops."

When Decrypt asked for clarity around what Raydium meant when it said the launch didn’t go as expected, a Raydium Discord moderator replied, “I do not have any additional info other than what was tweeted, so my guesses are as good as yours.”

Decrypt has reached out to makenow.meme for comment, and will update this article should they respond.