The Solana-based memecoin USOR experienced a dramatic 98% price crash, plummeting from $0.16 to $0.00394, erasing gains from a massive 268% weekly rally. The initial surge, which added another 53% amid U.S.-Venezuela geopolitical tensions, doubled retail interest and saw a whale or insider purchase $370,000 worth of tokens, labeled by social media as 'smart money conviction'.
On-chain analysis reveals significant insider control and manipulation risk. According to Solscan, the holder count exploded from 23,000 to over 58,000 in three days. However, the top 20 wallets control 25% of the total 1 billion token supply, with the top 10 holding 15%. More critically, a Bubblemaps cluster analysis identified a coordinated group of wallets, including the two largest holders (controlling 3% and 2.4% respectively), that collectively control 26.18% of the total supply. This indicates high potential for team or insider coordination to trigger rallies or dumps.
Trading platforms issued warnings as the crash unfolded. Gecko Terminal flagged the pool for "unusual price action and volume" with a caution notice. The analysis concludes that while not an outright scam, USOR is an early project with massive insider control, posing a high risk of manipulation for the over 25,000 retail traders who entered during the rally.
Meanwhile, broader crypto markets turned defensive due to macroeconomic pressures. Bitcoin (BTC) slid below $90,000, trading near $89,100, while Ethereum (ETH) fell under $3,000 with a nearly 5% daily decline. The sell-off was triggered by tariff threats from the Trump administration, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reaffirming tariffs as a core policy tool, including a potential 10% levy by February related to Greenland acquisition attempts. This reignited trade-driven inflation fears.
In other developments, Chainlink (LINK) launched 24/5 U.S. Equities Streams, bringing real-time pricing for the $80 trillion U.S. equities market to over 40 blockchains to support DeFi applications like equity perps and prediction markets. Protocols including BitMEX and ApeX have already integrated the product.
Additionally, Solana Mobile began an airdrop of its native SKR token to over 100,000 Seeker smartphone users and ecosystem developers, and Trump Media announced a non-tradable utility token airdrop for DJT shareholders via Crypto.com, scheduled for February 2nd.
