‘Oh Fuck’: Solana Meme Coin Refunds Investors—A Year After Accidentally Burning $10 Million

A meme coin dev by chance burned $10 million of investor cash final yr with a single misclick, asserting the error on X with a message that’s develop into a part of crypto degen lore: “Oh fuck.” 

“There may be nothing I can do to repair this,” the pseudonymous dev posted on the time. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

Now, 19 months later, the dev behind Slerf has lastly been in a position to do one thing to repair it, refunding everybody who participated within the notorious token pre-sale.



In most different industries, setting hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of investor cash on hearth would end in strenuous lawsuits, jobs misplaced, and numerous tears. However in crypto, it was became a advertising and marketing stunt that rallied group help and despatched the Slerf token hovering to a $740 million market cap, per DEX Screener.

“It’s been a curler coaster, to say the least,” the Slerf dev, who goes by Grumpy, advised Decrypt. “When the burn occurred, I truthfully had virtually no hope of ever recovering the $10 million owed to presalers. It felt like an unimaginable scenario. What saved me going was the group’s response.”

As Slerf migrated its contract to improve its complete provide, the meme coin’s X account yesterday introduced that it was lastly in a position to end sending in-kind refunds to everybody who participated within the token pre-sale. The meme coin dev despatched a complete of 53,359.62 SOL, or $10.3 million, to 25,444 wallets. The funds have been collected by means of a mixture of donations and income derived from buying and selling charges. The refunds have been then slowly rolled out to buyers because the burn, with some not realizing they’d even been refunded.

“The refund course of ended up taking greater than a yr, just because we needed to rebuild from nothing,” Grumpy mentioned. “Each little bit of donations, income, or help we acquired was directed straight towards making presalers entire once more. It’s been 1.8 years of persistence, transparency, and dedication, and I couldn’t be extra pleased with what the group achieved collectively.”

Many Slerf pre-sale members took to X to have fun their refunds. One posted that Slerf is “the one memecoin that truly saved its promise.” The coin right now stands at a market cap of just below $30 million, effectively under its peak.

The Slerf meme: How’d we get right here?

Slerf was a hyped Solana meme coin that attracted $10 million in Solana for its pre-sale—a way used to boost cash for tokens earlier than launchpads like Pump.enjoyable gained recognition. Grumpy burned all of those funds, by chance sending the tokens to an irretrievable handle, in what he calls “the most important mistake of my life.” 

As can be anticipated after shedding $10 million of different folks’s cash, Grumpy advised Decrypt that many individuals have been understandably indignant. However, finally, frustrations appeared to ease as he took accountability for what had occurred.

“I went straight to Twitter Areas to clarify what occurred and took full accountability for the error,” Grumpy advised Decrypt. “It wasn’t simple, however being clear appeared to resonate with folks. Over time, that honesty turned what began as outrage into one thing unimaginable: a way of unity and shared goal. I believe that’s what actually outlined Slerf and its group.”

Slerf has since develop into deeply embedded in meme coin lore, with merchants turning the preliminary “oh fuck” publish right into a meme itself and utilizing it as copy-pasta within the degen trenches. Fortunately for them, the story now has a cheerful ending—no less than for many who misplaced funds within the pre-sale.

“I advised you we’d full the 10m in Slerf refunds,” Grumpy posted on X. “Now I’m telling you Slerf shall be an S-tier memecoin.”

With a $28.1 million market cap underneath its new contract handle, in line with DEX Screener, the meme coin has a protracted technique to go but to reclaim the hype it as soon as had.