The Madness of Meme Coin Trading: Nigerian Traders Share Their Wild Stories of Profits and Losses

Meme coins are a class of crypto driven by wildly resonant memes, hype, narratives, and internet culture rather than actual use cases. Think of them as the crypto equivalent of a viral trend. They can blow up overnight, make some people rich, and then disappear just as fast.

Meme coins are a class of cryptocurrency that is driven by internet culture, hype, narratives, and resonant memes rather than actual use cases. Think of them as the crypto equivalent of a viral trend that can blow up overnight, making some people rich and then disappearing just as fast.

Despite having no fundamental value, meme coins have made people overnight millionaires and bankrupted them just as quickly.

We spoke to four Nigerian meme coin traders who have experienced the madness firsthand. From wild profits to crushing losses, here’s what they said.

Wale, 25, a crypto Twitter influencer, turned $400 into $22k with a meme coin.

In September 2024, I bought 224,000 units of a meme coin called BabyBNB for $400. Five days later, I made $22,000. This is how it happened.

I stumbled on BabyBNB during a random Twitter scroll. The meme coin was a spin-off of BNB (Binance Coin), a cryptocurrency issued by Binance, the largest crypto exchange in the world.

While the original BNB has been used to facilitate payments and trades since 2017, this spinoff had no clear utility or purpose. But it didn’t matter.

Meme coins thrive on hype, and Binance was all the rage on Twitter because of a scandal: Changpeng Zhao (CZ), who founded the crypto exchange, had just been released from a four-month sentence. This shot BNB’s price through the moon, and meme coin traders quickly capitalised on the trend.

BabyBNB launched on September 27, the same day Binance founder Zhao was released. I started buying large units at fractions of cents: $50 here, $100 there, and slowly built my position. The prices took off on the first day, and I started taking profits immediately. In just a few hours, I sold the first 36,000 units for $3,600.

The price peaked at $0.143 per unit on the third day, and I offloaded almost everything. I knew it was time to sell because early buyers with significant holdings had started taking their profit and offloading the coin. I figured they knew something I didn’t, and that was my signal to sell.

Imagine stocking 224,000 litres of petrol at ₦180 per litre. Three days later, fuel scarcity hits, and the price jumps to ₦600 per litre. You sell everything at the peak and cash out big before things return to normal. That was exactly what this was. I withdrew all my money in five days and locked in $22k. I turned ₦600K to ₦33 million with one insane gamble.

Baby BNB is practically worthless today. If I had held onto my coins, they’d be worth $274. That’s the thing about meme coins; you either take your profits when you can or cry later.

Abdul*, 24, a community moderator, turned $670 into $11K overnight with $TRUMP.

January 17, 2025, was a regular Friday until it wasn’t. I returned from the gym, showered, and dozed off briefly. When I woke up at midnight, my night turned into absolute madness.

I sat down to my usual routine of filtering through meme coin updates, looking for my next potential stake. Around 4 a.m., a friend sent me an update on Telegram: Donald Trump had launched an official meme coin.

It was three days before his inauguration, and the announcement was right there on his Twitter account.

The idea of a U.S. president-elect launching a meme coin for quick returns was insane, and I was sceptical, fearing it was a scam. Reputable accounts get hacked on Twitter, and this meme coin was riding on a political trend.

I caved when I saw that the market value had exploded from zero to $4 billion a few hours after launch.

Something big was happening.

I threw in $670, and my money increased to $1,600 in the blink of an eye. I quickly took out $800, which was enough to cover my initial stake and secure some profit. Then I went to sleep.

I woke up a few hours later and was in utter disbelief when I checked my balance. My wallet had $11,000 in it. I withdrew everything instantly; I didn’t spend a second mulling over it.

I had learned not to be over-greedy. Even though I was technically greedy for leaving the remaining money overnight, it was something I could afford to lose.

The following day, just before Donald Trump’s Inauguration, the Trump coin ($TRUMP) hit its highest, $1