A few months back, I was thinking about how meme coins can make a lot of money, especially for the creators. So I decided to start my own meme coin.
I went with the Base network since Solana was running into some problems at that point. I considered using TON too, but there wasn’t as much money there. Base works with EVM, which means the tools used for Ethereum or other EVM networks would work here too.
Initially, I wanted the token to score 100 out of 100 on checkers. This meant I had to make a contract where I wouldn’t control it after launch, and I had to lock or burn the liquidity pool so people couldn’t pull any quick tricks on investors.
I came to learn that a good meme coin needs a website, Twitter account, and Telegram, along with the meme itself and plenty of images. After putting together the pool, you need to pay to have your logo and links shown on DexTools and DexScreener.
I opted for a stealth launch instead of a presale. A common practice is to put 100% of the tokens into the pool at the start and possibly keep around 7% for yourself.
So how does the developer profit if all the tokens are in the pool? They buy back some tokens right after launching the pool, when the price is at its lowest.
I planned to put all the tokens into the pool along with 0.4 ETH. If I bought back 0.4 ETH worth of tokens right after the launch, I would end up with 50% of all tokens. If I wanted 75%, I would need to invest 1.2 ETH worth.
The total expense for launching my meme coin, including creating a website, setting up the pool, buying back 50% of tokens, and paying for listings, came to around $5,300.
I found out that spreading the tokens across many wallets is better than keeping all in one place, as large amounts in one wallet can scare off potential buyers. No wallet should ideally hold more than 2% of the total tokens.
To make things look appealing on bubble maps (which indicate connections between token holders), spreading ETH across several wallets and then buying from each one on Uniswap is necessary.
For a successful token, you have to create buzz by buying tokens, then selling to profit, and simulating activity between buying events. It’s impossible to do this manually, so hiring a market maker is essential. I couldn’t afford one, so I chose to make my own market maker bot. I built a wallet generator and wrote a script for the initial buyback.
When I launched, sniper bots bought a lot of tokens in the first minute. I had to cancel that pool and set up a new one. On my second attempt, only two sniper bots grabbed small amounts. I ran my script to buy tokens from 100 wallets, then I burned the liquidity pool and paid for the listings.
Some users came in and bought a few tokens in the first half-day, but most sold afterwards, and the token didn’t grow any further. I worked on my bot to do wash trading to create more hype around it, but I realized that older tokens don’t get much attention with pumps. To grow my project, I would need to learn effective ways to advertise, which I’m currently not knowledgeable about and can’t afford.
Basically, it looks like you can’t simply launch a token and expect to make money without spending on ads. I’ve put my meme coin project on hold for now. I’d like to continue with someone who has experience in crypto traffic or promoting meme coins.
I won’t disclose the token, but I’m open to answering any technical questions in the comments. If anyone wants the market maker script or is interested in a partnership, feel free to message me on Telegram: akamitch