How fast creators sell, measured across 1,611 recorded dev sells
Our recorder flags when a launch creator's wallet sells, how long after launch it happened, and what fraction of the position went. Across 1,616 recorded creator sells, the timing is faster and the sizing far more absolute than the phrase "taking some profit" suggests.
The timing
Seconds between the launch and the creator's recorded sell, across the 1,616 launches where a creator sell was both detected and timed:
| Percentile | Time from launch to creator sell |
|---|---|
| 10th | 24 seconds |
| 25th | 60 seconds |
| Median | 141 seconds |
| 75th | 324 seconds |
| 90th | 1116 seconds, about 19 minutes |
A quarter of recorded creator sells happened within the first minute. By roughly five and a half minutes, three quarters had happened. If you are buying a launch in its first few minutes, you are often buying into the window where the creator is exiting.
The sizing is the more striking part
For each recorded sell the recorder also stores the fraction of the creator's holding that was sold:
| What the creator did | Launches |
|---|---|
| Sold essentially the entire position | 1,429 |
| Sold part of the position | 72 |
Where a fraction was recorded at all, clearing the whole position outnumbered partial selling by roughly twenty to one. Creator selling in this dataset is overwhelmingly an exit rather than a trim. That matters for how you read a creator who still holds: a partially sold position is unusual enough that it is worth noticing.
Why the rate differs by venue, and why that is mostly about detection
In the 24-hour cohort, 26% of launches had a recorded creator sell. That headline hides a wide spread:
| Venue | Launches | Share with a recorded creator sell |
|---|---|---|
| pools.trade | 825 | 85.6% |
| cashcat | 233 | 51.1% |
| v4-hookless | 795 | 7% |
| doppler | 1,489 | 3.8% |
Do not read this as a venue ranking. Each venue has its own adapter, and how reliably that adapter can attribute a sell to the creator wallet varies. A low recorded rate is at least as likely to mean the detector sees fewer creator wallets as it is to mean creators there sell less. We report the spread because it bounds how far the pooled rate can be trusted, not because it ranks venues.
What to do with this
- Assume the creator may already be out. At the median, the sell happened before most buyers had finished reading the chart.
- Check whether the sell was total. A full exit and a partial trim are different signals, and full exits dominate here.
- A creator sell is not the same as a rug. It is a holder disposing of a position. Contract permissions and liquidity conditions are separate checks.
How we measured it
Timing percentiles use every launch with a creator sell flag and a positive recorded sell age, regardless of cohort age, because the measurement completes within minutes of launch. The venue table uses the 24-hour cohort. Fractions come from the recorder's stored sell fraction; rows flagged as sold without a usable fraction are excluded from the sizing table, which is why the two tables do not sum to the same total. All figures come from the open snapshot on our data page.
Common questions
- How quickly do meme coin developers sell?
- Across 1,616 recorded creator sells, the median was 141 seconds after launch, with a quarter inside the first minute. These are recorded sells on supported venues, not a chain-wide census.
- Do developers usually sell everything at once?
- In this dataset yes. Where a sell fraction was recorded, 1,429 launches showed the creator clearing essentially the whole position against 72 selling only part of it.
- Is a developer selling the same as a rug pull?
- No. A creator selling their own tokens is a holder exiting a position. A rug pull normally involves removing liquidity or using contract permissions to prevent others from selling. Check those separately.
Keep reading
- What a creator's launch history tells you
- Rug pull warning signs
- Honeypot tokens: buy but never sell
Nothing here is financial advice. Meme coins are high risk and most lose value. Read the full risk disclosure before trading.