Dev Dump Disaster: How a 0x Launch Went -93% in 12 Minutes
A dev wallet timed a liquidity yank + dump on an Ethereum meme, leaving LP dust and 4,200 trapped buyers. Here’s how to catch it early.
- Dev pre-loaded 18% of supply across 3 wallets
- LP yanked from $620K → $14K in one transaction
- Price collapsed -93% in 12 minutes
Timeline
T+0: Launch with $220K initial liquidity on Uniswap v2.
T+9 min: Dev-linked wallets sold 18% supply into their own LP.
T+12 min: LP remove + burn event pulled $606K, leaving $14K.
T+15 min: Socials went silent; Telegram mods deleted chats, and the deployer wallets bridged funds to CEX.
Detection Signals
Supply concentration: top 5 wallets held 38%, all funded from the same CEX deposit.
LP lock: none. LP token sat in deployer wallet.
Velocity: sudden 5x volume spike followed by LP remove.
No renounce, upgradeable proxy with unrestricted owner.
Funding pattern: deployer wallets created within hours of launch and never interacted with other protocols.
What Could Have Stopped This
Check LP lock TX before entry. No lock? size tiny or skip.
Watch holder clustering; if top wallets are funded by one CEX hash, treat as single actor.
Set personal alerts for LP remove events and abnormal volume spikes.
Require a second stable pair; single-pair launches are easier to drain.
Tips to Find Better Entries
Favor teams that lock LP >30 days and provide verifiable lock links.
Demand owner renounce or multisig with public policy; avoid single-EOA upgradeables.
Monitor early volume/LP ratio — if volume surges without matching LP depth, be cautious.
Track top holder funding sources; if all from one CEX txn, assume they’re linked.
How do I verify an LP lock?
Check the LP token holder. If it’s the deployer or a fresh wallet, it isn’t locked.
Is a proxy always bad?
Not always, but upgradeable proxies with a single EOA owner are dangerous; they can change logic post-launch.