I Made Millions from $50 at Age 18 by Tracking Wallets

Original Author: Ugo

Original Compilation: Luffy, Foresight News

In February 2024, I entered the world of Meme coin trading with $80 and lost everything. I had two such disastrous experiences.

It was at that moment I realized I hadn't grasped the fundamentals of this market at all; I had been using the wrong approach.

Later, I re-entered the market with $50, this time employing a wallet tracking strategy. In less than a year, by February 2025, that $50 had grown to over $1 million.

Early Pitfalls

My previous logic for buying Meme coins was simple: "This coin has a funny meme, good promotional content, and a clean website. Just buy it."

Admittedly, this method could occasionally make some money, but most of the time, it was no different from pure gambling. You had no solid basis or objective reason to determine a specific price target for the coin.

To achieve consistent profits, you need to find a way to access key information before a move starts, not chase the trend after it has already risen.

I used to be obsessed with various rumors on X and Telegram: "This coin will definitely hit a $100 million market cap this week, just wait and see." I later learned that most of the people posting such messages were either paid shills or had already accumulated 15% of the token supply at low prices. You rush in excitedly, only to end up as the bag holder.

If your profit-taking targets aren't based on real information, your actions are merely reacting to others' interests, not truly following market dynamics.

Turning the Tide with Wallet Tracking

I quickly realized a crucial element was missing from my previous approach. I would watch top traders' moves and wonder, "How can he predict the market, but I can't?" So I had to find a solution.

Wallet tracking completely changed my perception of trading. I stopped trying to guess market tops and bottoms, stopped chasing narratives, and stopped being led by hype on X. Instead, I focused on one thing: where is the smart money flowing?

The origin of any major market move isn't on social media, but within a small set of wallets. These wallets could be the project's initial distribution wallets, large holder wallets, or early institutional wallets. Insiders, KOLs, industry veterans, market makers, newly created anonymous wallets... they're all hidden in these addresses.

My success wasn't based on luck from a single trade, but on repeatedly capturing replicable market patterns.

At that moment, it all clicked: I don't need to be smarter than the entire market, I don't need to add any subjective judgment, and I don't need to pay attention to market hype. I just need to watch the data, analyze fund flows, and decisively execute my trading strategy.

From then on, my goal became crystal clear: build a trading system that reacts solely to the movements of smart money, not to every rumor.

My Practical Wallet Tracking Methods

Monitor KOL Wallets

When I first started in February 2024, the wallet tracking method was actually very simple. Back then, almost no one frequently changed wallet addresses.

All you had to do was find the stealth wallet addresses of KOLs with genuine influence and follow their moves. That was it.

They accumulate at lows → loudly promote → price instantly pumps 10x.

Using this method, I turned $50 into $5,000 in the first month. Immediately in the second month, $5,000 became $30,000.

For example, on February 24th: a project team launched a token specifically for a KOL. This industry veteran quietly built a position using multiple stealth wallets when the token's market cap was only $20,000. I followed his lead and bought in when the market cap reached $30,000. He then aggressively promoted it in Telegram and on X, and the token's market cap instantly surpassed $400,000. I took partial profits at that level.

Later that day, the market cap surged to $1 million, and I cashed out again. In total, my initial capital multiplied by about 30x in just a few hours.

My capital was still very small back then, so I didn't have to worry about liquidity issues and could exit cleanly.

Track Syndicate Wallets

A few months later, I stopped focusing on individual KOLs and shifted to tracking the movements of syndicate (pump group) wallets. By then, people were changing wallet addresses more frequently. Tracking the consensus formed by a group of people was far more reliable than watching a single wallet. For instance, 10 different wallets belonging to the same circle, all executing the same trades simultaneously.

The confidence this signal gave me was incomparable to that from a single wallet.

The operation around the $ROCKY token on July 8, 2024, is a perfect case study. At that time, people like Erik Steavens, POE, DOGEN, and CTM were quietly buying in the $10,000 to $80,000 market cap range.

Seeing this signal, I knew it wasn't a coincidence; they were definitely planning a pump.

I bought 2.8% of the token's circulating supply when the market cap was $40,000.

In the following days, this group of whales coordinated to pump the price, driving the market cap all the way up to $45 million.

I took profits in batches between $2 million and $10 million market cap, exiting at an average level around $6 million.

This trade multiplied my entry capital by 150x. While holding to the peak could have yielded 1100x, I strictly followed my exit plan. I was more than satisfied, as this trade earned me my first six-figure profit.

Track New Wallets, Project Wallets & Large Holder Wallets

By January 2025, the trading atmosphere in the crypto market was unprecedentedly hot, but wallet tracking was becoming increasingly difficult. To consistently get insider information, I had to constantly optimize my methods and adapt.

The key to tracking these insider wallets was finding their new wallets that had just withdrawn funds from centralized exchanges like Binance. This meant precisely tracing fund transfers and timestamps across multiple Binance addresses. This process was time-consuming but absolutely worth it.

For example, I was closely tracking Marcell's wallet movements, so I could see his newly funded wallets daily. On January 31st, he personally launched and took a large position in the $BARRON token.

I built my position across 3 wallets in the $15,000 to $25,000 market cap range. About three minutes later, Marcell started posting to promote and pump the price. I quickly took profits and exited between $1 million and $2.5 million market cap.

This was one of the fastest trades I've ever executed: an initial investment of $1,300 turned into over $110,000. (The trading platform BullX shows my buy amount as $24,000 because I later added to the position on dips within this wallet, maximizing the profit).

Track Market Maker Wallets

Market maker wallets are addresses directly controlled by the token project team, primarily used to manipulate the token price for the benefit of the team or the token itself.

Common manipulation tactics include: triggering stop-loss orders by placing large buy/sell orders, or dumping the price 30% within minutes to induce panic selling, allowing new investors to enter at low prices.

However, market makers often transfer tokens between wallets shortly after a token launch. If these wallets aren't newly created or are easily identifiable, we can directly track the project team's movements and precisely capture every new token launch opportunity.

This is exactly how I executed the $HOOD token trade on January 31, 2025.

This project team launches a new token roughly every month. They completed their large position allocation after pumping the market cap to around $2 million. I bought in decisively at that level, getting in before the top KOLs started promoting. A few hours later, I took profits between $80 million and $120 million market cap, achieving roughly a 50x return on this trade.

Simultaneously, during gaps in taking profits from my initial position, I also re-entered heavily during the market maker's large sell-offs, making 40% to 70% gains in just a few minutes.

The total profit for that day was a staggering $152,000. Until the ASTER token trade in September of the same year, January 31st remained my most profitable trading day.

My Trading Principles

I always strictly adhere to money management rules. For example, the capital allocated to any single trade never exceeds 5% of my total portfolio. I also adjust my risk exposure flexibly based on the quality of the trade opportunity and my confidence level.

When trading with a wallet tracking strategy, you absolutely must not go all-in. Once the target you're tracking discovers your presence, they can easily turn around and liquidate you.

You also need to learn to think from the perspective of those you're tracking. Understand their interests, operational habits, and timing to minimize the risk of being liquidated and achieve consistent, stable profits.

Of course, I strictly follow my own trading plans and never let emotions dictate decisions. I rarely struggle with this aspect, as I started learning forex trading at 14, so discipline is ingrained.

That said, I've experienced several painful lessons of profit drawdowns. But these setbacks didn't break me; instead, they fueled my drive. Driven by that不甘心 (bù gān xīn - unwillingness to accept defeat), I studied even harder, constantly refining my trading edge.

Finally

I'm writing this article not to boast. On one hand, I want to treat it as a diary to look back on my growth in 5 years. On the other hand, I hope to inspire and help more people, making them understand: as long as you are willing to actively seek change and put in the effort, there is always a way to achieve your goals.

I must clarify one point: I never use these tracking techniques against friends or people close to me. Everything I do is purely to understand the underlying logic of market operation and then go with the flow.

I am also very grateful to those I track, and to the project teams who genuinely work hard. I always trade with reverence, without any hostility. I am also sincerely thankful for all the friends I've met on this journey; they have helped me immensely. Thank you all, and thank heavens for the favor.