Summary

In August 2020, the author and his brother started with $50,000 and began their path to immense wealth by sniping newly listed altcoins on Uniswap. Initial successes with tokens like YMPL and VIDYA yielded profits ranging from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand dollars in short periods. They continuously upgraded their technology: monitoring the Ethereum mempool to catch "add liquidity" transactions for same-block buying, deploying smart contracts to optimize buy strategies (e.g., proportional limit orders, multi-node competition), and using servers in Northern Virginia to reduce latency and increase sniping speed.

Key battles included a single $270,000 profit from CHADS and consecutive gains from FRONTIER and CHARTEX. They also capitalized on the Uniswap airdrop, netting millions extra. In 2021, they expanded to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), optimizing node infrastructure (150-200 nodes) to achieve single-trade profits exceeding $2 million on tokens like KPAD. To counter project-side purchase limits, they developed workarounds like looped buying and sub-contracts. An unexpected $6 million profit came from the sudden de-listing of a blacklisted EVN wallet.

The result: approximately $50 million in cumulative profits over one year, spanning 10+ chains and 200+ tokens, ultimately achieving financial freedom.

---

August 2020. My brother was teaching IT at a university, and I had just finished an 18-month stint as a product manager at an insurance company.

The crypto industry was slowly recovering from the COVID-19 crash, finally emerging from a multi-year bear market. We had made some small gains on Binance Launchpad, but our total portfolio value was barely $50,000.

That's when we started hearing about a new protocol called Uniswap. Friends were trading altcoins on it, often making 3-4x returns within hours. We had no idea how it worked, but our intuition told us this was something different.

A friend told me about "sniping." He mentioned that when the bZx token launched on Uniswap, a single bot made $500,000 just from sniping. It was unbelievable. My brother and I were stunned and desperate to figure out how it was done.

Back then, my brother knew nothing about the Solidity smart contract language, and we didn't even fully understand the underlying logic of blockchain.

The First Snipe Attempt

Late August, we were on vacation with family in Spain. To try sniping on Uniswap, my brother had just started learning Solidity a few days prior.

A token called YMPL was about to launch, and market hype seemed decent. We formed a sniping group and pooled funds with a few friends – we were still newcomers and didn't want to shoulder the risk alone.

We put in 50 ETH (worth about $20,000 at the time). The moment YMPL launched, we successfully sniped 8% of the initial supply. I logged into Uniswap and sold everything in under 30 minutes.

The profit? 60 ETH (about $30,000). Considering our entire portfolio was under $50,000 then, we were ecstatic. It felt incredibly easy to make money.

We wanted more.

Two days later, a new target appeared: VIDYA. This time, bolstered by previous profits, we had more capital and more confidence. We deployed 165 ETH and netted a clean 159 ETH profit in 15 minutes – even higher than last time.

Four days later, another opportunity arose. We deployed 460 ETH and profited 353 ETH, equivalent to $135,000. This was our first six-figure gain in less than an hour, and it felt amazing.

Uniswap mania exploded. Trading volume soared, and crypto degens flooded in. We knew this easy money wouldn't last forever. We had to get more professional, to truly understand the underlying mechanics of sniping.

How Did Sniping Work?

To launch a token on Uniswap, a project first had to add liquidity to a pool. In our initial snipes, we sent our buy transactions after the "Add Liquidity" transaction was confirmed on-chain, always ending up one block late.

Some competitors, however, managed to get their buys into the same block as the liquidity addition.

After research, we discovered that via Ethereum nodes, we could monitor the public mempool to see pending transactions before they were confirmed on-chain.

Starting in September, our sniping process became:

1. Monitor the mempool for pending "Add Liquidity" transactions.

2. Immediately send a buy transaction with the same Gas price.

3. Aim to have the buy transaction included in the same block as the liquidity add, executing right after it.

The New Era of Sniping on Ethereum

Mid-September 2020.

For ten straight days, no new tokens launched. This quiet period was perfect for upgrading our bot.

But new challenges emerged: the summer break was over, and my brother had to return to teaching university classes. Sometimes snipe opportunities coincided with his lectures. Fortunately, it was still during the COVID-19 pandemic, and all classes were held online.

Whenever a token was about to launch, he would tell his students, "Research independently for ten minutes." Seizing this window, he could focus on the sniping operation.

The next target was CHADS. The hype was unprecedented. We prepared to deploy 200 ETH, determined to succeed.

My brother and I were on a voice call, tense, excited, and under immense pressure.

He was the first to see the "Add Liquidity" transaction on his terminal. When the bot detected the signal, he said in a serious tone: "Ça part." (French for "It's starting.")

I will remember that phrase for the rest of my life. Before every subsequent snipe, he would say it in the exact same tone, instantly sending my adrenaline soaring.

Hearing that, I would frantically refresh Etherscan, hoping to see our ETH balance hit zero – a sign we had successfully entered the position.

We got in, a 200 ETH position. The chart instantly pumped. My job was to sell manually on Uniswap.

The profit numbers for CHADS were insane. My hands were shaking, I was sweating, hyper-focused, just selling batch after batch, locking in as much profit as possible.

We ultimately netted 675 ETH (approx. $270,000). It felt unbelievable, but the immense pressure and adrenaline left us completely drained.

There was no time to rest. Three days later, it was FRONTIER – the same process, the same tension, an 800 ETH profit.

Two days after that, CHARTEX, 700 ETH profit.

In six days, we had accumulated 2300 ETH in profit. It was madness. Just a month earlier, after years in crypto, our peak total assets were only $100,000.

On September 18th, a surprise arrived: the Uniswap airdrop. Any address that had interacted with Uniswap was eligible to claim UNI tokens.

Due to our large-scale testing over the previous weeks, we had accumulated numerous eligible addresses, each entitled to about $20,000. I remember my brother scouring every wallet he could find, ultimately claiming millions of dollars from them.

Our final snipe that month was POLS – the native token of Polkastarter, which later that year became a top-tier Launchpad.

Smart Contracts & Infrastructure Upgrades

It was time to upgrade our bot again.

During the first month of sniping, we set buy limits: deploy X ETH, aim to buy at least Y tokens. This mechanism required multiple transactions, especially since we often had no idea how much liquidity the project would add.

For example: if a project only added 20 ETH of liquidity, and we tried to buy with 200 ETH, our preset limit price would become irrelevant.

My brother designed a new system: for every 1 ETH deployed, buy as many tokens as possible, provided the price is at least Y tokens per 1 ETH. We were the first to implement this mechanism.

Another challenge: we never knew if the project would add liquidity using ETH, USDT, or USDC. My brother designed a smart contract that could automatically buy the target token regardless of the trading pair used at launch.

We also worked on increasing the bot's speed. During the CHADS snipe, while profitable, we clearly weren't the first sniper in the block after liquidity was added.

We deployed Ethereum nodes in multiple regions, having them compete against each other for the same snipe. Soon, we found that nodes deployed in Northern Virginia consistently performed the fastest.

This led us to believe Northern Virginia was the optimal location for running our snipe servers.

Further research confirmed our suspicion. At the time, almost all users transacted via MetaMask, which routed all "Add Liquidity" transactions through Infura's public RPC endpoint – and Infura's servers were in Northern Virginia. More broadly, most Ethereum infrastructure was concentrated in that region.

Thus, Amazon Web Services' Northern Virginia node proved to be the most competitive, lowest-latency configuration for sniping.

We also established a very structured process for sniping altcoins:

1. Find Targets: Typically, 10-15 crypto friends helped us dig up new, hyped altcoins. Whoever found the target first could participate in the snipe with 15% of the capital (and shoulder the corresponding risk). Some friends made $300,000 to $700,000 just from finding snipe targets.

2. Confirm the DEX (Uniswap, Sushiswap, etc.).

3. Confirm the Trading Pair (ETH, USDT, USDC, etc.).

4. Find the Launch Wallet Address (on-chain tracking).

5. Deploy the Snipe Smart Contract, setting parameters: capital size and buy limit price.

6. Sell immediately after launch, usually within 30 minutes – because most altcoins were junk.

The Polkastarter Era

From October to early December, the market was relatively calm. New token launches slowed. We even started to think the sniping era might be over. Thankfully, we had accumulated a substantial amount of ETH; just holding it was comfortable, and life was good.

But in December, the altcoin market came roaring back. Token launches on Uniswap regained momentum, and a new Launchpad quietly emerged: Polkastarter.

Its first sale was for the SpiderDAO project, with a limit of 2.5 ETH per wallet. But my brother discovered this limit was only enforced at the UI level; we could still directly interact with the contract to make large purchases. We sent several large transactions, successfully buying 50% of the total sale allocation, and also sniped at launch. This trade earned us $500,000. We were back.

This example perfectly illustrated the state of the crypto ecosystem back then. Most projects were run by complete amateurs who had no idea what they were doing. For us, it was a golden opportunity, and we took full advantage.

Some DeFi projects began launching synthetic assets around that time, and we made $600,000 through arbitrage.

December became a turning point in our journey – my brother decided to quit his job as a university professor.

The following January, we moved to Dubai, both going all-in on sniping full-time.

Our mindset was simple: if an opportunity existed, we took it. Even if the profit potential was "only" $10,000, we would go for it. We knew this window wouldn't last forever and didn't want to miss a single chance.

In January, we scored several more nice profits, like from PHOON, adding another $3 million in cumulative profit.

Most of these profits were held in ETH, and the price of ETH was also skyrocketing – from $200 when we started sniping to $1,400 by the end of January, all within just five months.

Summary

In August 2020, the author and his brother started with $50,000 and began their path to immense wealth by sniping newly listed altcoins on Uniswap. Initial successes with tokens like YMPL and VIDYA yielded profits ranging from tens of thousands to over a hundred thousand dollars in short periods. They continuously upgraded their technology: monitoring the Ethereum mempool to catch "add liquidity" transactions for same-block buying, deploying smart contracts to optimize buy strategies (e.g., proportional limit orders, multi-node competition), and using servers in Northern Virginia to reduce latency and increase sniping speed.

Key battles included a single $270,000 profit from CHADS and consecutive gains from FRONTIER and CHARTEX. They also capitalized on the Uniswap airdrop, netting millions extra. In 2021, they expanded to Binance Smart Chain (BSC), optimizing node infrastructure (150-200 nodes) to achieve single-trade profits exceeding $2 million on tokens like KPAD. To counter project-side purchase limits, they developed workarounds like looped buying and sub-contracts. An unexpected $6 million profit came from the sudden de-listing of a blacklisted EVN wallet.

The result: approximately $50 million in cumulative profits over one year, spanning 10+ chains and 200+ tokens, ultimately achieving financial freedom.

---

August 2020. My brother was teaching IT at a university, and I had just finished an 18-month stint as a product manager at an insurance company.

The crypto industry was slowly recovering from the COVID-19 crash, finally emerging from a multi-year bear market. We had made some small gains on Binance Launchpad, but our total portfolio value was barely $50,000.

That's when we started hearing about a new protocol called Uniswap. Friends were trading altcoins on it, often making 3-4x returns within hours. We had no idea how it worked, but our intuition told us this was something different.

A friend told me about "sniping." He mentioned that when the bZx token launched on Uniswap, a single bot made $500,000 just from sniping. It was unbelievable. My brother and I were stunned and desperate to figure out how it was done.

Back then, my brother knew nothing about the Solidity smart contract language, and we didn't even fully understand the underlying logic of blockchain.

The First Snipe Attempt

Late August, we were on vacation with family in Spain. To try sniping on Uniswap, my brother had just started learning Solidity a few days prior.

A token called YMPL was about to launch, and market hype seemed decent. We formed a sniping group and pooled funds with a few friends – we were still newcomers and didn't want to shoulder the risk alone.

We put in 50 ETH (worth about $20,000 at the time). The moment YMPL launched, we successfully sniped 8% of the initial supply. I logged into Uniswap and sold everything in under 30 minutes.

The profit? 60 ETH (about $30,000). Considering our entire portfolio was under $50,000 then, we were ecstatic. It felt incredibly easy to make money.

We wanted more.

Two days later, a new target appeared: VIDYA. This time, bolstered by previous profits, we had more capital and more confidence. We deployed 165 ETH and netted a clean 159 ETH profit in 15 minutes – even higher than last time.

Four days later, another opportunity arose. We deployed 460 ETH and profited 353 ETH, equivalent to $135,000. This was our first six-figure gain in less than an hour, and it felt amazing.

Uniswap mania exploded. Trading volume soared, and crypto degens flooded in. We knew this easy money wouldn't last forever. We had to get more professional, to truly understand the underlying mechanics of sniping.

How Did Sniping Work?

To launch a token on Uniswap, a project first had to add liquidity to a pool. In our initial snipes, we sent our buy transactions after the "Add Liquidity" transaction was confirmed on-chain, always ending up one block late.

Some competitors, however, managed to get their buys into the same block as the liquidity addition.

After research, we discovered that via Ethereum nodes, we could monitor the public mempool to see pending transactions before they were confirmed on-chain.

Starting in September, our sniping process became:

1. Monitor the mempool for pending "Add Liquidity" transactions.

2. Immediately send a buy transaction with the same Gas price.

3. Aim to have the buy transaction included in the same block as the liquidity add, executing right after it.

The New Era of Sniping on Ethereum

Mid-September 2020.

For ten straight days, no new tokens launched. This quiet period was perfect for upgrading our bot.

But new challenges emerged: the summer break was over, and my brother had to return to teaching university classes. Sometimes snipe opportunities coincided with his lectures. Fortunately, it was still during the COVID-19 pandemic, and all classes were held online.

Whenever a token was about to launch, he would tell his students, "Research independently for ten minutes." Seizing this window, he could focus on the sniping operation.

The next target was CHADS. The hype was unprecedented. We prepared to deploy 200 ETH, determined to succeed.

My brother and I were on a voice call, tense, excited, and under immense pressure.

He was the first to see the "Add Liquidity" transaction on his terminal. When the bot detected the signal, he said in a serious tone: "Ça part." (French for "It's starting.")

I will remember that phrase for the rest of my life. Before every subsequent snipe, he would say it in the exact same tone, instantly sending my adrenaline soaring.

Hearing that, I would frantically refresh Etherscan, hoping to see our ETH balance hit zero – a sign we had successfully entered the position.

We got in, a 200 ETH position. The chart instantly pumped. My job was to sell manually on Uniswap.

The profit numbers for CHADS were insane. My hands were shaking, I was sweating, hyper-focused, just selling batch after batch, locking in as much profit as possible.

We ultimately netted 675 ETH (approx. $270,000). It felt unbelievable, but the immense pressure and adrenaline left us completely drained.

There was no time to rest. Three days later, it was FRONTIER – the same process, the same tension, an 800 ETH profit.

Two days after that, CHARTEX, 700 ETH profit.

In six days, we had accumulated 2300 ETH in profit. It was madness. Just a month earlier, after years in crypto, our peak total assets were only $100,000.

On September 18th, a surprise arrived: the Uniswap airdrop. Any address that had interacted with Uniswap was eligible to claim UNI tokens.

Due to our large-scale testing over the previous weeks, we had accumulated numerous eligible addresses, each entitled to about $20,000. I remember my brother scouring every wallet he could find, ultimately claiming millions of dollars from them.

Our final snipe that month was POLS – the native token of Polkastarter, which later that year became a top-tier Launchpad.

Smart Contracts & Infrastructure Upgrades

It was time to upgrade our bot again.

During the first month of sniping, we set buy limits: deploy X ETH, aim to buy at least Y tokens. This mechanism required multiple transactions, especially since we often had no idea how much liquidity the project would add.

For example: if a project only added 20 ETH of liquidity, and we tried to buy with 200 ETH, our preset limit price would become irrelevant.

My brother designed a new system: for every 1 ETH deployed, buy as many tokens as possible, provided the price is at least Y tokens per 1 ETH. We were the first to implement this mechanism.

Another challenge: we never knew if the project would add liquidity using ETH, USDT, or USDC. My brother designed a smart contract that could automatically buy the target token regardless of the trading pair used at launch.

We also worked on increasing the bot's speed. During the CHADS snipe, while profitable, we clearly weren't the first sniper in the block after liquidity was added.

We deployed Ethereum nodes in multiple regions, having them compete against each other for the same snipe. Soon, we found that nodes deployed in Northern Virginia consistently performed the fastest.

This led us to believe Northern Virginia was the optimal location for running our snipe servers.

Further research confirmed our suspicion. At the time, almost all users transacted via MetaMask, which routed all "Add Liquidity" transactions through Infura's public RPC endpoint – and Infura's servers were in Northern Virginia. More broadly, most Ethereum infrastructure was concentrated in that region.

Thus, Amazon Web Services' Northern Virginia node proved to be the most competitive, lowest-latency configuration for sniping.

We also established a very structured process for sniping altcoins:

1. Find Targets: Typically, 10-15 crypto friends helped us dig up new, hyped altcoins. Whoever found the target first could participate in the snipe with 15% of the capital (and shoulder the corresponding risk). Some friends made $300,000 to $700,000 just from finding snipe targets.

2. Confirm the DEX (Uniswap, Sushiswap, etc.).

3. Confirm the Trading Pair (ETH, USDT, USDC, etc.).

4. Find the Launch Wallet Address (on-chain tracking).

5. Deploy the Snipe Smart Contract, setting parameters: capital size and buy limit price.

6. Sell immediately after launch, usually within 30 minutes – because most altcoins were junk.

The Polkastarter Era

From October to early December, the market was relatively calm. New token launches slowed. We even started to think the sniping era might be over. Thankfully, we had accumulated a substantial amount of ETH; just holding it was comfortable, and life was good.

But in December, the altcoin market came roaring back. Token launches on Uniswap regained momentum, and a new Launchpad quietly emerged: Polkastarter.

Its first sale was for the SpiderDAO project, with a limit of 2.5 ETH per wallet. But my brother discovered this limit was only enforced at the UI level; we could still directly interact with the contract to make large purchases. We sent several large transactions, successfully buying 50% of the total sale allocation, and also sniped at launch. This trade earned us $500,000. We were back.

This example perfectly illustrated the state of the crypto ecosystem back then. Most projects were run by complete amateurs who had no idea what they were doing. For us, it was a golden opportunity, and we took full advantage.

Some DeFi projects began launching synthetic assets around that time, and we made $600,000 through arbitrage.

December became a turning point in our journey – my brother decided to quit his job as a university professor.

The following January, we moved to Dubai, both going all-in on sniping full-time.

Our mindset was simple: if an opportunity existed, we took it. Even if the profit potential was "only" $10,000, we would go for it. We knew this window wouldn't last forever and didn't want to miss a single chance.

In January, we scored several more nice profits, like from PHOON, adding another $3 million in cumulative profit.

Most of these profits were held in ETH, and the price of ETH was also skyrocketing – from $200 when we started sniping to $1,400 by the end of January, all within just five months.