The Solana meme market fluctuates greatly, so it is unusual for a project to survive. But The White Whale (WHITEWHALE), a token launched on Pump.fun at the end of 2025, has succeeded against the odds.
WHITEWHALE has experienced major price declines, allegations of rug pull, and intense scrutiny from both traders and analysts.
WHITEWHALE's significant price movements and how its meme history began
Currently, WHITEWHALE is trading at 0.089 USD, and figures from CoinGecko show a market capitalization of 89.6 million USD.
The broader cryptocurrency market has declined, but the White Whale token increased by 180% in the past two weeks. This shows how much the price has fluctuated.
WHITEWHALE memecoins launched in October 2025 and were inspired by the X (Twitter) profile @TheWhiteWhaleV2, a well-known trader who became famous for a notorious liquidation of 80 million USD.
The token had no roadmap, no promise of utility, and no known founder. Just a meme story and a fixed supply of nearly 1 billion tokens, as stated in early community posts on Medium.
@TheWhiteWhaleV2 became worried that frauds using his name could ruin his reputation. In December, he therefore bought tokens, added liquidity, and helped the community take over the project.
Pump.fun's fees went back to the owners, and they openly showed what happened with the project's treasury, something unusual among Solana's meme projects.
But who is really responsible for the WHITEWHALE project's treasury today?
“I do it. That's the point. The token that has my name, there I take full responsibility. DAOs and similar often give a false sense of democracy that almost never exists. You trust that Jeff manages HyperLiquid correctly. You trust that The White Whale manages his brand correctly,” said The White Whale to BeInCrypto.
Early participants made large sums, and several reports tell of traders turning a few hundred USD into more than 1 million USD.
But the same trader, Remus on X, lost almost all his profits a week later and withdrew only 220,000 USD.
“This trader has lost 1 million USD on WHITEWHALE in the past week. Remus had made 1.5 million USD on WHITEWHALE, but only managed to withdraw 220,000 USD before the price fell by 80%. Now he only has 464,000 USD left. Will Remus win them back, or is it time to move on to the next coin?” reported Arkham.
How retail investors' revenge made WHITEWHALE soar
In early January 2026, interest surged rapidly. From a bottom of 0.0082 USD in December, the price rose almost 930% to nearly 0.20 USD according to CoinGecko.
The market cap went over 200 million USD, making it one of the most successful Pump.fun launches in several months according to Messari.
Listings on various exchanges such as Bybit, MEXC, KuCoin, and LBank led to trading volumes of up to 48 million USD in a day.
On X, traders described WHITEWHALE as “retail revenge” – a reaction against bots, snipers, and insider-driven meme launches.
Then came the price crash.
Rug or liquidity event? Inside WHITEWHALE's crash on January 20
On January 20, 2026, a large holder sold tokens for about 1.3 million USD. This caused the price to quickly drop by 60%.
The market cap dropped from about 200 million USD to between 20-40 million USD. This sparked a wave of rug pull claims on social media.
Many headlines called the event a rug pull, but on-chain analysts using Bubblemaps traced the sale to a single large wallet, which does not belong to Remus.
The team contradicted and called it a “liquidity event” instead of an exit scam, but the trust was already damaged.
“…our largest private holder sold the majority of their position…we did not participate in the sale, but we did some buybacks… What has changed is the distribution. A single large private position is no longer over the market. Now the supply is spread among more holders. This was not something our treasury drove. This did not deviate from our principles. It was a liquidity event,” wrote The White Whale.
BeInCrypto asked The White Whale why this concentration had continued despite the project’s anti-whale narrative. He replied that the project adheres to the core idea of cryptocurrency: permissionless economy. He therefore emphasized that traders should be allowed to do as they wish.
“I want to clarify that I did not launch this token. If I had done so, I would not have used any launchpad, as I do not believe any existing launchpad would have had the right token supply or liquidity structure to protect investors from this kind of thing. We are of course trying to talk to as many of our major holders as possible, offer OTC deals to reduce market impact, and so on, but people will do what they want.”
The most important thing according to The White Whale is that a single wallet's sale did not cause the entire crash. He believes it triggered a panic sell-off.
Recovery is strengthened by Locks, but control affects
Against all expectations, the WHITEWHALE price rose again. Within a few days, it increased by over 70% daily and approached a market cap of 80-90 million USD.
The treasury locked 40 million tokens for a year, reducing the number of tokens on the market and showing long-term commitment. Several in the community confirmed this publicly on X.
“This greatly reduces the circulating supply, removes the treasury’s sell pressure, and clearly shows a commitment to the long term - no short-term dumps here. Serious projects do this to build trust; it’s a discipline that quickly creates positive sentiment,” observed a user.
On-chain data from Rootsdata shows that the treasury and its associated wallets control a large portion of the supply, over 50%.
The concentration can both protect against excessive selling according to some, but critics warn that it makes the token vulnerable to a new sudden crash.
The risks are clear. WHITEWHALE token has no utility other than narrative, and price movements over 60% are common. Most traders expect continued decline as most Solana memecoins ultimately fail. But The White Whale himself remains optimistic and believes the project can set good examples for similar tokens in the future.
“I believe the point of a meme is that it doesn’t try to pretend to be something else. Many projects fail because they pretend to be more than they are. We stand instead for what we are, and we are proud of it. The main goal of the $WhiteWhale movement is therefore to show that something can succeed while still maintaining integrity. My goal is to set the bar so high that memecoin investors start demanding the same transparency, accountability, engagement, and integrity from all developers.”
But survival is crucial. In a market where many tokens disappear overnight, WHITEWHALE stands out by surviving and being transparent about the treasury's decisions.
However, there are significant risks, as the price is driven by large holders, narrative, and momentum, not by fundamentals.
Risk Factor Details Impact Level Whale Concentration 54% on one address High - Major risk of massive sell-offs Volatility Over 60% movements per week Extreme - Common for retail investors to lose everything Rug History January 20 “liquidity event” Medium - FUD remains, but survived No Utility Just narrative High - Dependent on hype cycles Community Power Unlocks, redistributions Counteracts - Creates loyalty
WHITEWHALE memecoin risk analysis
Therefore, WHITEWHALE token does not appear to be a scam, supported by the fact that it is traded on major exchanges. It also has real trading volume and an active, engaged community, as shown in the exchange support documentation.
As a conclusion, BeInCrypto asked The White Whale what could happen to the token if he decided to leave.
“Ironically, if I were to be hit by a bus, it would probably be very good for the price. The project still has my name, and I can’t even think about leaving it.”