How a Meme Coin Turned $180K into Over $1.5M & Chuckled All the Way to the Bank

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While the broader crypto market was doing its best impression of a sad trombone in early December, one Solana-based meme coin, PIPPIN, decided to turn the tables and throw a party. Spoiler: it’s winning.

Its rapid price surge made some traders rich enough to buy a small island-or at least a really fancy blender. But, of course, with great gains come great fears of a crash that could make latecomers wish they’d just gone fishing instead.

How One Trader Made More Than $1.3 Million With PIPPIN

PIPPIN started life as a digital unicorn-yes, a unicorn SVG, because apparently that’s what the kids are into these days. Somehow, it evolved into a meme coin on Solana-because if there’s one thing meme coins love, it’s a good transformation story.

Instead of promising a future filled with moonshots and unicorn tears, the developers promised open-source tools-think AI tutors, marketing bots, and coding geniuses capable of launching your startup while you binge-watch cat videos. Naturally, everyone ignored the risk and just bought in, because who doesn’t love a rollercoaster?

Despite being essentially a glorified joke, PIPPIN became THE talk of Solana’s meme wave at the end of 2025. Because when in doubt, meme it out.

As BeInCrypto reports, PIPPIN exploded over 400% last month, trading at a fresh $0.139. To put that in perspective, it was trading at a measly $0.02 in November. Now it’s worth ten times what it was-because who doesn’t love a good ten-bagger? Daily volume shot past $120 million, up from under $10 million. That’s not just a rally; that’s a full-blown crypto conga line.

Enter our hero: an early investor who sank $179,800 into 8.2 million PIPPINs. Today, that stash is worth roughly $1.51 million. Unrealized profits? Over $1.35 million. Somewhere, a guy in pajamas is smiling so hard, he might need a new face.

A month ago, someone created a new wallet, BxNU5a, and spent $179.8K to buy 8.2M $pippin($1.51M now).

This guy is now sitting on over $1.35M in unrealized profits.

– Lookonchain (@lookonchain) December 1, 2025

Nansen jumped in with data: whales are piling in, wallets are multiplying faster than rabbits, and exchanges are seeing outflows because nobody wants to hold their PIPPINs on someone else’s platform. It’s the classic “everything’s fine” sign-except it isn’t.

“PIPPIN didn’t just ‘go up,’ it detonated. 437% in 7 days with $43.9M volume is a different tempo. Whales added +6.6M, fresh wallets put in +11M, and exchanges saw sharp outflows,” – Nansen reported.

All signs point to PIPPIN riding high and maybe, just maybe, becoming the next Solana meme-coin superstar. Or so the hype engines tell us. But wait-what’s that lurking in the shadows?

Warning Signs Emerge

As with any good circus act, the show is not without its hiccups. The first sign: PIPPIN’s short positions are getting annihilated-liquidated, in trader-speak. Over $15 million was wiped out in one day alone, mostly on December 1, with over $11 million from shorts.

Meanwhile, on-chain activity is shrinking faster than your New Year’s resolutions. Despite the price soaring, trading volume fell 45% compared to last week, probably because everyone is too busy watching PIPPIN’s rollercoaster ride to bother actually trading.

Traders are shifting their activity from the wild west of on-chain trades to the more predictable (and often less honest) exchanges. That’s the kind of divergence that makes you think, “Hmm, sell high, buy low,” unless you prefer gambling with someone else’s money.

Analysts like Altcoin Sherpa are already warning that PIPPIN’s just playing a game of “pump and dump,” and the other meme tokens like AVA, GRIFFAIN, and ACT aren’t looking any better. It’s the same dance everyone’s seen before-buy the hype, sell the dip.

Remember last year’s market cap of over $300 million? Now it’s down to a sad $8 million. Investors are skeptical-and probably wise-to expect another potential dump faster than you can say “pump-and-dump.”

As another wise observer said, this spiking-and-dropping is classic: a small group loads up, pushes the price, liquidates shorts, and then, voilà-the cycle repeats. It’s the meme coin version of “keep your hands and feet inside at all times.”

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2025-12-01 11:03