Neiro on Ethereum, the CTO version, has locked its X account. The token, picked out to gain a liquid Binance spot market, has locked its relatively harmless page of memes.

Neiro on Ethereum (community controlled) has locked its X handle, @neiroethcto. The move caused puzzled reactions, precisely because a community coin would cut off its potential community.

The Binance-listed NEIRO version has caused controversy since its start. The asset is a community takeover of the previously launched Neiro on Ethereum, which also included early token sniping and whale holdings.

In August, the competing coin also briefly locked its X account, but recently reopened for posting. The temporary protection was again tied to accusations of cabal trading and attacks from competing communities. The locked X account also coincided with research from Bubblemaps, which exposed the early sniping of 78% of the token’s supply.

The locked account of the CTO version raised concerns that the community-based NEIRO was also at risk for being cabal-controlled. Locking the account goes against the initial message of NEIRO for transparency. At the same time, multiple other X accounts on alternative Neiro memes are trying to win over as the legitimate community.

Whales circle NEIRO, forming wallet clusters

Even with no insiders, meme tokens are illiquid enough and can be sniped by whales or large ETH owners ready to take the risk. Tokens can be sniped from the lows in preparation for a new rally.

NEIRO sees just this type of activity, as visualized on Bubblemaps. Several whale wallets are interacting with high-frequency transactions, using their influence to snipe tokens on both DEXs and smaller exchanges.

More than 50% of the NEIRO activity is concentrated on Binance, which is not transparent to Bubblemaps. The tracking service also mapped ongoing decentralized activity, with wallet clusters forming. A wallet cluster has formed around Gate.IO trading.

The biggest single whale wallet, ranked #9 based on NEIRO holdings, has been sniping the token since September 17.

One of the top wallets has been accumulating NEIRO and PEIPEI since September 17. | Source: Nansen

In the past day, the same whale has been divesting some of the NEIRO, decreasing the holdings to $2.59M.

What is even more suspicious, the whale started sniping another meme, PEIPEI, at the same time as NEIRO. The PEIPEI meme is also considered a cabal token, risky for insider pumps and rapid selling. The very same whale wallet was also at the center of a wallet cluster for PEIPEI, interacting with other millionaire wallets. The formation of wallet clusters suggests spoofing activity and potentially non-organic price action.

PEIPEI, another hot meme token, is forming a wallet cluster tied to the wallet of an active NEIRO buyer. | Source: Bubblemaps

Paradoxically, NEIRO has only 14,475 holders of the community version, while the initial version is distributed to 21,310 wallets. The wallet count is not entirely accurate when it comes to real holders. However, it may indicate a more organic ownership, outside the influence of cabals.

As for the competing version, Wintermute remains its biggest market-maker, which holds 4.35% of the token’s supply. The token relies on Bybit and Bitget trading, with several smaller wallets also activating their balances in the past day. As for price action, NEIRO (community-owned) trades at around $0.001 through its Uniswap pairs.

The competing NEIRO is at $0.06, for now stabilizing after Binance refused to list the asset on its spot market. The competing asset still has its perpetual futures contract with more than $13M in open interest. Because of that contract, whales may have incentives to sway the spot price, then make use of the derivative market for additional gains.

The futures market version of NEIRO also suffered sales from a single whale at the end of September, leading the coin to crash from $0.09 to $0.06.

Meme tokens slide on general market correction

Meme tokens remain cyclical, with rapid rallies and deeper corrections. Most meme assets were in the red at the beginning of the new month. The total market cap of meme tokens slid from a local top of $54B down to $44B.

Traffic shifted to POPCAT, solidifying the asset’s market cap above $1B. At the same time, DogWifHat showed the effects of whale activity, as a large-scale buyer bought up tokens, then locked them into Kamino Reserve 3 as collateral.

As a result of the loan-based buying, the Kamino Reserve 3 wallet now holds 5.27% of all WIF, valued at more than $52M. For now, WIF has enough stability not to liquidate those loans.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva