How a $5.2M Paper Profit Turned into a $355K Loss: The Perils of Meme Coin Speculation

TL;DR

• Meme coin investing has turned sour for one anonymous cryptocurrency investor who stood at a massive unrealized profit just six months ago.
• However, this only goes to show the dangers of investing in the ever-volatile meme coin niche.

From $5.2M Profit to $335K Loss – Diamond Hand Gets Wrecked!

6 months ago, he bought 19.14M $LUCE at $0.0275 and held all the way, with an unrealized profit of over $5.2M at the peak.

Now? $LUCE crashed over 70%, and he suffered a heavy loss of $335K.https://t.co/at6RNbB2VY pic.twitter.com/zPOxVLvILW

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 19, 2025

Meme coins rode the wave after the Trump presidential election victory in early November like no other, posting massive double- and even triple-digit gains within a short period of time. This led to a FOMO effect for the bigger ones but also prompted developers to create millions of new ones in the hope of capturing investors’ attention.

Although the majority turned out to be typical rug pulls, few succeeded (briefly), and some early bird investors cashed in on good profits. However, the case above demonstrated by Lookonchain shows the dark side of failing to get out of these volatile and frankly dangerous, at times, coins.

Inspired by the Vatican’s mascot Luce, the LUCE token, launched on Pump.Fun, is supposed to symbolize ‘hope, light, and a modern connection to youth culture, blending Catholic values with digital trends.’

It certainly symbolized light and hope for the aforementioned investor who stood at an unrealized profit of $5.2 million just six months ago, approximately at the time when the token’s price charted an all-time high of $0.32.

However, it has lost 97% of its value since then, and trades below $0.01 now. Interestingly, LUCE’s price is now even lower than the screenshot from Lookonchain, meaning that the investors’ loss is even greater (if realized).