Solana Pre-Order Buyers See Windfall from Airdropped Memecoins

Pre-order holders of Solana's Chapter 2 mobile phone briefly profited from airdropped memecoins that exceeded the phone's cost ($450). Cat-themed projects MEW and MANEKI distributed tokens to wallets, reaching peak values of $334 and $138, respectively. Combined with other airdrops, holders could cover the phone's cost and make a $30 profit. However, the memecoins have since lost value, with MEW at $220 and MANEKI at $124.

Solana Pre-Order Holders Temporarily Profit from Airdropped Memecoins

Pre-order holders of Solana's "Chapter 2" mobile phone briefly experienced a rare opportunity to profit from the yet-to-be-released device, as the value of airdropped memecoins surged beyond the phone's upfront cost.

In April, the teams behind two cat-themed memecoin projects, Cat in a dog's world (MEW) and Maneki (MANEKI), airdropped tokens to the wallets of crypto users who had pre-ordered the new Chapter 2 device, which initially cost $450 upfront.

On April 1, the MEW team airdropped 37,600 tokens to each holder. At its peak post-airdrop price of $0.0089, this allocation was worth $334, according to data from CoinGecko.

Similarly, on April 24, a total of 5,199 MANEKI tokens were airdropped to each holder, which also reached a peak price of $0.269 on April 25.

Combined with other memecoin projects, including Wuffi (WUFFI), which airdropped 114,000 tokens to Chapter 2 wallets, the total value of the airdrops would have yielded holders a profit of $480, enabling them to cover the cost of the device and realize an additional $30 profit, as per airdrop value checker twoloot.com.

However, the value of the memecoins has since declined, with MEW currently worth $220 and MANEKI down to $124.

Pre-order holders were required to provide a Solana wallet address when reserving their Chapter 2 devices, which allowed the airdropped tokens to be available to them before the phone arrived.

Owners of Solana's first mobile device, the "Saga," also received the same number of Maneki tokens in their wallets.

The Solana Saga, released in May 2022, initially faced criticism due to technical issues and usability concerns. However, the phones gained popularity in December when speculators recognized an arbitrage opportunity presented by a memecoin rally for Bonk (BONK).

Between November 15 and December 15, 2022, the price of BONK skyrocketed by over 1,100%. At its peak, the value of the 30,000 BONK airdrop exceeded $1,150, significantly higher than the original $599 price of the Saga phone.