Solana Faces Scrutiny After Solomon ICO Controversy on MetaDAO

From $12 million to $103 million in minutes

The Solana ecosystem is once again at the center of a deeply troubling controversy. The Solomon ICO on MetaDAO, initially touted as one of the flagship Solana community-led launches, is now being accused of orchestrating a near-risk-free internal profiteering scheme that manipulated both investors and prediction markets.

The Solomon ICO, which had a $2 million target under MetaDAO's arbitrary cap model, remained at $12 million for over 45 hours until a Cloudflare outage halted retail users, giving insiders an opportunity to gain the upper hand.

In the past two hours, pledges have skyrocketed from $46 million to over $103 million — oversubscribed by 5150% — as a handful of wallets process millions of dollars per minute, according to on-chain traces from Bubblemaps and Solscan.

A coordinated "Guaranteed Profit" plan

In the final hours before the ICO ended, an address associated with an insider pumped tens of millions of dollars into the funding pool. According to on-chain analysts, the insiders allegedly used a double-play strategy:

• They participated in the Solomon ICO on MetaDAO, hyping the project excessively to attract individual investors.

• At the same time, they bet big on Polymarket, predicting Solomon's ICO will surpass the fundraising milestones of $50 million, $75 million, and even $100 million.

On the surface, these were high-risk bets—until the final hours of the ICO made their intentions clear. Crucially, this last-minute injection did not reflect genuine demand—it was a strategic move to achieve a predetermined outcome.

Polymarket Perspective — A Structural Failure

The scandal has highlighted flaws in the prediction market.

Polymarket contracts are designed to track real-world results, but insiders took advantage of the fact that they could manipulate the underlying metrics — in this case, the final funding amount of the ICO.

With no circuit breaker, no authentication process, and no mechanism to detect self-referential manipulation, insiders were able to:

• Control fundraising results.

• Predict the outcome.

• Earn money with minimal risk.

Analysts now argue that closed-loop systems — where insiders can directly influence the event being bet on — should not be listed on prediction markets.

Evaluation and Conclusion

The Solomon ICO scandal is one of the most disturbing examples of market manipulation in recent years — one in which insiders allegedly rigged fundraising results, profited from a parallel prediction market, and diluted retail investors in the process.

The incident exposed serious flaws across multiple platforms—Solana, MetaDAO, and Polymarket—and signaled the urgent need for stricter standards to protect market integrity. In a sector struggling to move toward legitimacy and institutional adoption, the incident is a stark reminder.

Disclaimer: The information presented in this article is the author's personal opinion in the cryptocurrency field. It is not intended to be financial or investment advice. Any investment decision should be based on careful consideration of your personal portfolio and risk tolerance. The views expressed in this article do not represent the official position of the platform. We recommend that readers conduct their own research and consult with a professional before making any investment decisions.