SafeMoon burns 2.2 trillion tokens amid transition to a memecoin on Solana

Crypto project Safemoon has said it will launch a memecoin on Solana. The team behind the project announced the update on X on Valentine’s Day, noting that it marks the project’s transition.

In its post, the SafeMoon team said the shift to memecoin is part of a decentralization effort that hands over the project to the community. By becoming a memecoin, there will be no expectations or roadmap, and community sentiment will fully drive the token.

The team chose Solana as its new base because the network is synonymous with memecoins and the best place for its planned SafeMoon memecoin.

It said:

“Solana is the home of all memes, the blockchain where culture thrives. If SafeMoon is going to live up to its true potential as a pure community-driven meme, there’s no better place for it.”

Meanwhile, the project noted that choosing the memecoin path means SafeMoon will not have a central team or utility. However, it added that the community can still build on SafeMoon as they wish and integrate the token in all the ways they want.

SafeMoon’s checkered past

The switch from the original SafeMoon path appears to be an attempt by the new team behind the project to save it from oblivion. It was one of the hottest crypto projects of the 2021 bull run when its market cap reached $17 billion.

However, its SFM token has become almost worthless since then, with a market cap of around $20 million. Its crash was due to several exchanges delisting the token after reports emerged that its founders were manipulating its price and siphoning supposedly locked funds.

In 2023, the Department of Justice charged its executive team with fraud, accusing them of withdrawing over $200 million for locked project funds to use for personal gains. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged the team for violating securities law, describing its SFM token as an unregistered security.

The original team behind SafeMoon filed for bankruptcy in late 2023, and VGX  Foundation acquired the project. VGX Foundation claims it is working to revive the project and ensure the community can build something new.

Memecoin launch delayed so SFM v2 holders can swap their tokens

Meanwhile, the SafeMoon memecoin launch has now been delayed due to the team not releasing the contract for the memecoin. According to the team, the contract address has not been made public because it is still working to ensure the SFM v2 swap is fully automated when it goes live.

Part of its plan for the memecoin transition is to allow holders of SFM v2 to swap their tokens 1:1 for the memecoin. However, it acknowledged that the swap tech still needs some work.

The team also explained that it could not airdrop the memecoin to SFM v2 holders because the v2 contract is on the BSC network. As for holders holding SFM v1 tokens, the project noted that it would get to them later.

Since the memecoin contract has not been released, SafeMoon has warned users that any SafeMoon it finds on Solana is fake and likely a scam.

It said:

“And let’s be crystal clear: the contract is NOT public yet. If you’re buying a “SafeMoon” on Solana (or anywhere else) right now, you ARE getting scammed. Wait for us to drop the official contract address. Don’t get rekt. ⚠️”

Meanwhile, the SafeMoon team has burned 2.2 trillion SFM tokens on Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, and Polygon networks.

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