More than 180,000 SOLs were raised in 48 hours. Can the 80-year-old internet celebrity get the Meme Coin PAIN?

Original | Odaily Planet Daily

Author｜Golem

At 12:18 on February 2, a Meme project named PAIN issued a document on X platform to start a 48-hour pre-sale fundraising. Users will obtain the proportion of SOLs they contribute to in total SOLs raised after the pre-sale is over. Token PAIN.

According to official disclosure, as of 12:18 on February 4 (block height 318346069), PAIN has raised a total of 185,976 SOLs, equivalent to approximately US$37 million, and the amount is three times that of the popular pre-sale Meme project SLERF in 2024. Interestingly, although PAIN gives players enough reaction time, it is strange that the Chinese-speaking community rarely advertises and mentions it during the pre-sale period.

At present, PAIN has not distributed tokens yet. If it is really a "Golden Dog", there is still a chance to get on the car in the early stage. In this article, Odaily Planet Daily has compiled the history of PAIN's Meme and related clues for readers to analyze and judge by themselves.

Internet Memes that have been popular for 14 years

PAIN's Meme image is a white-bearded old man with an "embarrassing but polite smile". His various emoticons have actually been popular on the traditional Internet for 14 years.

The old man in the emoticon, named Andras Eastwan Alato, is a retired electrical engineer and model from Hungary. In 2011, Alato posted photos of his travels taken while on vacation to social media. Because of the natural "magic" of his overall facial expression and seemingly false smile, a professional photographer invited him as a model and took more than a hundred photos. These photos became popular on the Internet and were nicknamed "Hide the Pain Harold"

Alato might have lived his life peacefully, but when he was old (he was 66 years old in 2011, now he is 80 years old), God suddenly gave him food. With the popularity of memes, he became the advertising spokesperson for Hungarian Coca-Cola in 2019; he also entered the film and television industry, and in 2020, he participated in the Hungarian version of the masked singer; in January 2025, Alato also served as the Hungarian athlete's party of the year. host.

Entering the currency circle, strides to the stars

According to public Internet information, Alato has a personal Facebook account, which has not yet published or mentioned any content about PAIN.

However, an account on Twitter that uses the "Hidden Pain Harold" IP. The first tweet on the account was a photo of Alato himself with CZ and He Yi at the Dubai Blockchain Week held at Binance in 2024. Although it is not known whether the account has the authorization of the old man himself, at least it can be proved that Alato is already active in the encryption circle, and these celebrities also potentially "endorsed" PAIN.

Even earlier than this, Alato himself contacted Memeland. In August 2019, the old man was invited to participate in an event held by 9GAG, a parent company behind Memeland, in Hong Kong. When the PAIN official pre-sale account posted the pre-sale post, Memeland's official promotion also forwarded it, giving greater traffic and exposure. Therefore, some community members also speculated that the PAIN pre-sale was incubated by Meneland.

80% refund for oversubsidy, well-known market makers are suspected of

intervening

Even though the "Harold's Hides Pain" meme IP has a huge influence on the Internet and is fueled by crypto celebrities and teams, the final fundraising amount of $37 million is still a rise in the secondary market after the token is released. A huge pressure was formed.

On February 5, PAIN official issued a notice announcing that it will refund 80% of the fundraising at the start-up, using only the remaining 20% ​​to support startup, provide liquidity and pay CEX listing fees (if any). But with the exception of using BOT to send and SOL from various CEXs.

As soon as this news came out, ignited the popularity of PAIN in the community. It not only became one of the largest fundraising meme projects in history, but also created a record of refund amount. Through refunds, PAIN's valuation has been reduced to about US$7.4 million, which also leaves enough room for performance for the secondary market. At the same time, 80% of the refund funds are likely to form token buying after the opening, making Users participating in pre-sales are likely to receive more than 3 times the profit. Whether from the perspective of traffic results or potential results, this is a qualified marketing event.

There are also careful community players who are suspected of discovering market makers by analyzing the money-making address on the chain. After receiving funds from market maker Wintermute and its associated wallets, one address transferred 1,700 SOLs to the PAIN fundraising address in 4 transactions.

Wintermute is quite active in Meme currency market making this cycle. Meme coins involved include SLERF, MOODENG and ACT, and its market making method is often summarized as "the early stage of infinite rise and then fall and fluctuate to harvest." But no matter what the style is, for a newly born PAIN, the intervention of market makers is still a good thing.

At the same time, according to the statistics of on-chain data analyst @ai_9684xtpa, after the tokens are distributed in proportion, the distribution of front-row chips is as follows:

• TOP5: 32,747 SOL, with a total holding of 17.6%;
• TOP10: 43242 SOL, with a total holding of 23.2%;
• TOP20: 59299 SOL, with a total holding of 31.87%.

Generally speaking, if the top 10 chips of Meme coins are less than 30%, it is considered healthy, but if there is no team share, it will also form a large selling pressure after the token is launched. Based on the analysis of the previous article, the release of PAIN should be a rigorous plan with multiple parties involved and planned for a long time, rather than a purely community project. The project party's refund of 80% of the funds has won the favor of players participating in the pre-sale, but it is still unknown whether it will be "drinked" after the opening.

NO PAIN, NO GAIN.