A developer raised $10 million for a sloth themed meme coin in March 2024. Then accidentally deleted all of it. What happened next broke every rule crypto has.
> The coin was called SLERF. A sloth meme on Solana.
> It raised $10 million in presale within hours. Thousands of people sending funds to a random wallet they saw on X.
> When launch day came, the developer had one job: burn the LP tokens and airdrop the rest to pressale investors.
> He made one wrong click.
> He burned the LP tokens AND the entire $10 million pressale fund in the same transaction.
> The money went to a dead address, gone permanently on-chain. Irreversible.
> His post on X read: "Guys I fked up. I am so fking sorry."
> He jumped on X Spaces. Said: "I'm sick to my stomach. I'm literally about to throw up."
> Someone in the Space responded: "Losing $10 million on a side quest is crazy."
> The price pumped over 3,000%.
> $2.7 billion in trading volume hit within 24 hours, more than all of Ethereum that day.
> One trader made $3 million in 12 minutes.
> The coin that lost everything its investors paid for was worth over half a billion dollars within 24 hours.
> 19 months later, every presale investor was refunded in full.
> Every cent from trading fees, exchange donations, and community contributions went back to presale investors.
Most founders disappear with the money on purpose. This one lost it by accident and spent 19 months paying it back.
