A trader earned $871,600 in two days on BAN, increasing his deposit by 490 times. It turned out to be an insider who issued a meme token, Lookonchain analysts noted.
According to experts, he purchased 36.27 million BAN for 10.2 SOL ($1795).
During the first rise in the meme token price, a user sold 12 million BAN for $56,900, after which the coin collapsed by almost 90%. However, the trader did not sell the rest in a panic.
He waited for the growth to resume and sold another 6.13 million BAN for $80,700. The user's wallet was left with 18.13 million BAN worth $734,000.
"Everyone can learn from this trader's strategy: instead of selling everything at once in a panic, he sold gradually and in portions after each spike so as not to miss the rally," the analysts noted.
However, Lookonchain later found out that BAN was issued by Michael Buchanna, vice president and head of digital art at Sotheby’s. Experts noted that he had been unsuccessfully trading various meme tokens, so he launched his own.
Analysts accused Bouhanna of insider trading using a separate wallet. According to them, it was the Sotheby’s top manager who successfully sold BAN on the rise and did not panic on the fall.
The auction house has not yet commented on the accusations against the employee.
An insider trader previously made $5.6 million on DADDY, which is promoted by Andrew Tate. The former kickboxer launched the meme token as a competitor to Iggy Azalea's MOTHER coin.
In June, some users made millions when WaterCoin (WATER) was listed on the Jupiter and Raydium exchanges. The meme token soared by 83% immediately after the start of trading, earning one trader $2.9 million.
Recall that Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin criticized celebrity experiments with meme coins and called for focusing on projects with a focus on public goods, rather than on enriching insiders.
