{"id":24581,"date":"2026-03-27T14:50:18","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/whitewhale-founder-exits-as-solana-meme-coin-crashes-50\/"},"modified":"2026-03-27T14:50:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T14:50:31","slug":"whitewhale-founder-exits-as-solana-meme-coin-crashes-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/whitewhale-founder-exits-as-solana-meme-coin-crashes-50\/","title":{"rendered":"WhiteWhale founder exits as Solana meme coin crashes 50%"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-detail__content blocks\">\n<p class=\"is-style-lead\">Solana meme coin WhiteWhale has crashed about 50% after its founder quit over family pressure and \u201cpump the price\u201d demands, locking $13m in tokens as the meme hangover deepens.<\/p>\n<div id=\"cn-block-summary-block_b1e67fb3516c6e929e77d2b821f6d125\" class=\"cn-block-summary\">\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__nav tabs\">\n        <span class=\"tabs__item is-selected\">Summary<\/span>\n    <\/div>\n<div class=\"cn-block-summary__content\">\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Solana-based meme coin WhiteWhale plunged about 50% after its founder \u201cThe White Whale\u201d abruptly quit the project.<\/li>\n<li>The trader cited a family crisis and pressure to \u201cpump the price,\u201d permanently locking 500 million tokens worth roughly $13 million.<\/li>\n<li>WhiteWhale\u2019s market cap now sits near $12 million, with $5.4 million in 24-hour trading volume as traders reassess the project.<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><!-- .cn-block-summary --><\/p>\n<p>Solana (SOL) meme coin WhiteWhale has crashed by roughly 50% after its leading figure, the trader known as \u201cThe White Whale,\u201d suddenly announced his exit from the project, saying he could no longer handle the personal and community pressures surrounding the token. According to a ChainCatcher report relayed by KuCoin, the coin\u2019s market capitalization has dropped to about $12 million, with 24-hour trading volume at $5.4 million as of March 27. In his farewell, the founder cited a \u201cpersonal family crisis\u201d and exhaustion from constant demands to \u201cpump the price,\u201d and moved to lock 500 million WHITEWHALE tokens\u2014valued at approximately $13 million at the time\u2014into a non-spendable address.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p>\n<p>Before the latest plunge, WhiteWhale had become one of Solana\u2019s breakout meme assets, briefly topping a $110 million market cap in early January while trading near $0.11 and logging a 2,700% gain over 30 days, with more than 12,000 holding addresses and $4.8 million in daily volume, according to BlockBeats data cited by KuCoin. <\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SOLANA MEMECOIN <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24WHITEWHALE&amp;src=ctag&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">$WHITEWHALE<\/a> DROPS OVER 70% AFTER <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WhiteWhaleLabs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">@WHITEWHALELABS<\/a> SAYS HE\u2019S LEAVING THE PROJECT <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/6lbIhiN1Pw\">https:\/\/t.co\/6lbIhiN1Pw<\/a> <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0fUKXTZlts\">pic.twitter.com\/0fUKXTZlts<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 0xMarioNawfal (@RoundtableSpace) <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RoundtableSpace\/status\/2037272529924948269?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">March 26, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>BlockBeats separately reported that the token\u2019s market cap had earlier surpassed $90 million on a rebound from around $0.04, with a 24-hour volume of $3.84 million. That speculative run-up made WhiteWhale a key part of Solana\u2019s late-2025 meme coin narrative, where tokens routinely added tens of millions of dollars in value on little more than social media momentum.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"founder-locks-13m-in-tokens-on-exit\">Founder locks $13m in tokens on exit<\/h1>\n<p>In his parting note, the trader behind @TheWhiteWhaleV2 insisted the move was not a rug pull but an attempt to remove himself from the price loop. \u201cOur largest private holder exited the majority of their position\u2026 we didn\u2019t participate in the selling, although we did do some buybacks,\u201d he had previously written when defending an earlier January crash, framing it as a \u201cliquidity event\u201d that broadened token distribution rather than a treasury-driven dump. This time, however, he said he could not continue with the community\u2019s constant fixation on short-term gains and accusations whenever the chart turned.<\/p>\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"solana-meme-hangover-deepens\">Solana meme hangover deepens<\/h1>\n<p>WhiteWhale\u2019s collapse comes against a darker backdrop for Solana\u2019s meme ecosystem. A Protos investigation last year found that 12 Solana pre-sale meme coin founders who raised a combined $26.7 million had already abandoned their projects, leaving most tokens nearly worthless. As Phemex recently noted, Solana\u2019s broader meme coin crash in early 2026 saw weekly DEX volume on key platforms like Pump.fun and Meteora collapse, as speculative flows dried up and SOL itself slid from around $116 to $85, erasing billions in paper wealth.<\/p>\n<p>In a previous crypto.news story, analysts warned that meme coins like WhiteWhale\u2014despite occasional 2,000% rallies\u2014are structurally fragile, with concentration among early insiders and no fundamental cash flows to anchor valuations. WhiteWhale\u2019s latest 50% wipeout, triggered not by code exploits but by one trader\u2019s decision to walk away and lock $13 million in tokens, now serves as a stark reminder of how much of this market still revolves around personalities rather than products.<\/p>\n<p>    <!-- .cn-block-related-link --><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Solana meme coin WhiteWhale has crashed about 50% after its founder quit over family pressure and \u201cpump the price\u201d demands, locking $13m in tokens as the meme hangover deepens. Summary&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24581","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cryptocurrency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24581"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24583,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24581\/revisions\/24583"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitunikey.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}