The Wen meme coin experienced a significant price drop on Monday as traders grappled with how to assess the news that 27% of the token’s airdropped supply would be burned. The Solana-based token found itself trading more than 30% below its daily high around the time of the announcement. This decline was largely attributed to a substantial market downturn triggered by a whale seller exiting their position shortly after 11:00 AM on the East Coast.
This downward movement was part of a broader “sell the news” event linked to the Wen project’s decision to burn all tokens that remained unclaimed during its three-day airdrop, which concluded on Monday. It appeared that traders had already factored in the impact of the supply reduction, totaling over 270 billion tokens. In the Discord server for Jupiter, the protocol that facilitated the airdrop, pseudonymous crypto traders were expressing their sentiments. One user, under the name Sonofkarm, commented, “Wen burn has no effect on price. Moonbois in the mud.”
The Wen burn marked a frenzied conclusion to the lead-up to the main event known as “Jupuary,” a month dedicated to testing and preparing for Jupiter’s extensive token airdrop. The trade routing protocol plans to distribute 40% of its upcoming JUP tokens to users on January 31. Reflecting on the Wen launch, Jupiter’s pseudonymous co-founder, Weremeow, described it as a “fantastic test,” highlighting its role as a stress test for the same infrastructure that will soon be used for the distribution of JUP tokens.
However, Weremeow acknowledged a significant oversight by the team, referring to it as “one big mistake.” This involved accidentally leaving 100 tokens designated for airdrop in an engineer’s account, which were subsequently incorrectly supplied to a trading pool. While Weremeow clarified that it wasn’t an ethical issue, they acknowledged the error as a case of “incredible dumbness.”
