Solana Treasury Company Attributes Suspicious Meme Coin Transactions to Sniper

DeFi Development Corp. Faces Insider Trading Claims After Meme Coin Launch

DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), a Solana-based company listed on public markets, introduced its own meme coin, DisclaimerCoin (DONT), on Thursday. The launch quickly sparked accusations of insider trading across social media platforms.

According to the company, a trader known as an “early sniper”—someone who targets new token launches—acquired $4,000 worth of DONT tokens before the official announcement. Following the company’s promotion of the token, the value of the trader’s holdings soared to over $1 million as DONT’s price surged.

Blockchain records from Solscan show that the trader, using a Solana wallet ending in “8FziB,” began buying DONT tokens at 7:39 a.m. ET, roughly 25 minutes after the token was created on the Bonk.fun launchpad. The trader accumulated about 29 billion DONT tokens through several transactions, spending just over $4,000 and securing nearly 7% of the total 420 billion token supply by 8:39 a.m. ET.

These purchases occurred when DONT’s market cap was still very low—almost an hour before DeFi Development Corp., which holds over 2.2 million SOL (valued at approximately $283 million), publicly revealed the launch at 8:30 a.m. ET.

The company’s press release was published at 8:30 a.m. ET, and notifications were received by Decrypt at 8:39 a.m. ET. The announcement was also shared with DFDV’s 15,900 followers on X at 8:33 a.m. ET, nearly an hour after the “8FziB” wallet began its large purchases.

After the public launch, DONT’s market cap quickly climbed to $16.5 million within an hour, generating significant profits for the early trader. As the price rose, the “8FziB” wallet began selling some of its tokens, ultimately realizing over $200,000 in profits while its holdings dropped to about 17.4 billion DONT tokens.

While these trades could be seen as a fortunate win for a meme coin speculator, blockchain analysts noticed suspicious patterns. Hours after the launch, on-chain investigators highlighted a link between the sniper’s wallet and another Solana address holding DFDV’s liquid staking token.

Ian Unsworth, co-founder of Kairos Research, noted on X that the wallet funding the trader’s account also held $30,000 worth of DFDV’s liquid staking token (LST). Further analysis revealed that the wallet funding the sniper’s wallet had early ties to DeFi Development Corp’s validator—a Solana account responsible for staking SOL and supporting network security.

Decrypt independently confirmed these findings using blockchain data, with additional verification from on-chain analytics firm Bubblemaps.

DFDV Responds to Allegations

Upon learning of the allegations, DeFi Development Corp. stated that it reviewed the launch and identified the “8FziB” address as an early sniper. However, the company did not address whether there were any connections between itself and the trader.

“We became aware of the early sniper allegations a few hours ago. After a prompt and thorough investigation, we identified the individual involved,” the company wrote on X. “We remain committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity, not only throughout this experiment but in all our future projects. Transparency and ethical conduct will continue to guide us.”

Aftermath and Token Burn

The profits from the sniper’s DONT sales—about $200,000 in Solana—were returned to a wallet controlled by DeFi Development Corp., along with over 17 billion DONT tokens (worth approximately $1.5 million). These tokens were subsequently burned, meaning they were sent to an inaccessible blockchain address and permanently removed from circulation. The company did not clarify how it retrieved the tokens or whether it knew the trader’s identity.

Following the announcement of the token burn, DONT’s market cap surged by about 92% within an hour, reaching $35 million—roughly 19% of DFDV’s own $190 million market cap, based on its stock price.

When asked about measures to prevent information leaks or the reasons behind suspecting the sniper’s involvement, a company representative did not provide details, instead referring to the official statement on X.

Shares of DeFi Development Corp. fell by approximately 2.33% on Thursday and have declined 73% over the past six months, currently trading near $6.29.