A public Solana treasury firm’s experiment with a self-made memecoin turned into a mini scandal this week after an “early sniper” scooped up tokens before the project was publicly announced — then profited handsomely as the token exploded in value. What happened DeFi Development Corp. (DFDV), a publicly traded Solana treasury firm, launched DisclaimerCoin (ticker: DONT) on Bonk.fun on January 22, 2026. The token was created around 7:14 a.m. ET, and blockchain records show one wallet (identified in blockchain logs by an address suffix “8FziB”) began buying DONT roughly 25 minutes later, at about 7:39 a.m. ET — almost an hour before DFDV’s public announcement. The wallet bought roughly $4,000 worth of DONT across multiple transactions, accumulating about 29 billion tokens — nearly 7% of the total 420 billion supply. After DFDV posted the launch to its 15,900 followers on X (at about 8:33 a.m. ET) and issued a GlobeNewswire press release (timestamped 8:30 a.m. ET), DONT’s price surged. Around an hour after the public announcement the token reached roughly a $16.5 million market cap. Profit, suspicions, and on-chain sleuthing As prices climbed, the “8FziB” wallet began selling and realized more than $200,000 in gains, reducing its holdings to about 17.4 billion DONT. What might have looked like a lucky trade attracted attention from on-chain investigators, who flagged odd connections between the sniper wallet and other addresses tied to DFDV. Researchers including Kairos Research co-founder Ian Unsworth and independent sleuths pointed to a funding wallet that had supplied the sniper. That funding address held about $30,000 of DFDV’s liquid staking token (LST) and showed early interactions with DFDV’s Solana validator. Decrypt independently verified the links using Solscan data, and on-chain research firm Bubblemaps confirmed those findings — although the evidence was presented as suspicious activity rather than proof of wrongdoing. DFDV response and token recovery DFDV said it conducted a rapid review after the allegations surfaced and identified the “early sniper,” calling the launch an “experiment” and reaffirming the company’s commitment to transparency and ethical standards. The firm did not publicly dispute that the wallet was an early sniper but declined to comment on alleged ties between the trader and the company. Notably, the proceeds from the sniper’s sales (about $200,000 in SOL) and roughly 17 billion DONT (estimated at $1.5 million at the time) were returned to a DFDV team wallet and then burned — sent to an inaccessible address to remove them from circulation. DFDV didn’t explain how it recovered the tokens or whether the trader was known to the company. Market fallout The burn triggered another price move: DONT jumped about 92% within an hour to an estimated $35 million market cap. That figure was roughly 19% of DFDV’s own corporate market capitalization (about $190 million, based on DFDV stock price). Meanwhile, DFDV shares slipped roughly 2.33% on the day and have fallen about 73% over the past six months, changing hands near $6.29. Big picture The episode highlights how fast-moving token launches, public-company involvement, and transparent on-chain data can collide in ways that raise questions about front-running, information leaks, and internal controls. While on-chain evidence tied the profitable trades to wallets with connections to DFDV infrastructure, the firm’s public statements stopped short of confirming any internal involvement. Key questions remain unanswered: how the tokens and proceeds were recovered, whether any employee or insider was implicated, and what steps DFDV will take to prevent similar incidents in future launches. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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