After $ANSEM, $TJR Explodes 20x
Following the 600x gain of $ANSEM, the Solana meme coin market saw another explosive mover today. $TJR surged from a market cap of ~$1.6 million to $28 million in just a few hours, a gain of over 20x. The token is promoted by a KOL known as TJR (@_TJRTrades), who has 250,000 followers on X but over 1.5 million across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
TJR initially stated he would not engage in token retention, dev minting, or replicating $ANSEM's path. However, at 6 AM today, he tweeted 'Should I get in?' signaling a change of heart. Hours later, he confirmed in a reply that he would airdrop his $TJR holdings, which the market interpreted as an endorsement. FOMO exploded, and the token jumped from a $400,000 market cap the previous day to $28 million.
Notably, the deployer of $TJR is the same address that deployed $ANSEM. This time, he sent 79% of $TJR directly to TJR's wallet. According to GMGN monitoring, this deployer had previously sold $ANSEM for a net profit of only $5,500 before it skyrocketed. Over the past 7 days, he has been batch-creating tokens, often replicating 'celebrity coins' and buying them early. He created 101 different meme coins in 7 days, of which 12 exceeded $1 million in market cap and 3 surpassed $10 million. As of now, his 7-day book profit is 82,000 SOL (approximately $6.08 million), with developer fees from a few high-cap coins contributing $193,000.
Variants: $TESTIBULL and $dog
Beyond $TJR, several other celebrity-themed meme coins also performed well. $TESTIBULL is a derivative of $TESTICLE, a testicle-themed meme coin previously promoted by KOL Dip Wheeler (notorious for making huge profits on Fartcoin). When Wheeler announced he would airdrop $TESTIBULL, the token surged from a low of $40,000 to nearly $5 million today.
$dog had a more dramatic story: Originally intended as a tribute to Ansem's earlier success with $WIF (which reached multi-billion dollar market cap), the dev accidentally sent the token to a burn address. Instead of destroying the project, this accidental burn created a sensation similar to $SLERF, pushing $dog to a peak market cap of $8 million.
Meme Coins Go VC: KOLs Become the New Whales
This sudden wave of celebrity coins came as $ANSEM stalled after its initial surge, leading some to call it a 'MELANIA moment'—a top signal. However, the underlying causes are more nuanced: First, Solana meme coin players have been starving for months, with no billion-dollar memes emerging. The massive $ANSEM run triggered intense FOMO from those who sold early or missed out. Second, the harsh reality is that with exchanges largely closing their listing gates for memes and market makers unwilling to pump, it has become extremely difficult for any meme coin to reach a $10 million market cap organically.
In this environment, the game has shifted from fairness to opportunity. Players no longer care about distribution equity; they just want a chance to buy at a low market cap with high odds. Even if KOLs like Ansem or TJR hold massive token allocations, traders view it as a celebrity endorsement and assume the KOL will be incentivized to pump the token enough to exit profitably. This logic first appeared during the TRUMP memecoin launch: as long as there is a narrative and profit potential, concentration of supply is forgiven or even welcomed because it reduces circulating supply and increases upside. KOLs have effectively become the new VCs, providing liquidity through their influence, recognition, and consensus.
Sustainability Outlook
Currently, the celebrity coin wave has attracted many former 'hunting' players back to Solana. With the success of $ANSEM and $TJR, they are now positioning for potential upcoming endorsements of KOLs like bonkguy and him. However, the sustainability of this trend hinges entirely on whether $ANSEM can break to new highs. If $ANSEM falters, the FOMO could dissipate quickly, leaving many bags behind.