How to Track Smart Money Wallets and Profit From Their Moves

Signals often get lost in the noise. Discord alpha groups, paid newsletters, and influencer tips can feel like shortcuts, but they rarely provide a lasting edge.

Signals often get lost in the noise. Discord alpha groups, paid newsletters, and influencer tips can feel like shortcuts, but they rarely provide a lasting edge. The real edge is public, transparent, and always available: on-chain data.

This guide lays out a proven, step-by-step system to help you track highly profitable smart money wallets, analyze their behavior, and build a watchlist that evolves with the market. You don’t need insider connections. You need better eyes. Let’s get started.

What Is Smart Money?

Smart money refers to individual wallets or entities that demonstrate a consistent track record of outperforming average market returns. These actors often possess superior research capabilities, disciplined risk management strategies, and early access to valuable information. As a result, their on-chain activities frequently precede and predict significant market movements.

One recent example is a smart money wallet 0x3c…757 which has been accumulating large amounts of $PEPE. On May 8th, the most recent transfer involved an additional 500 billion PEPE, approximately $4 millions. Since then, the wallet’s position value has appreciated significantly, with on-chain analysts estimating unrealized gains of over $17 million.

Source: Arkham

By monitoring smart money behavior, investors can gain a more data-driven perspective into where capital is flowing and which assets are gaining traction among sophisticated participants. It allows early identification of trend formation, token rotations, and shifts in risk sentiment, such as transitions from stablecoins into small-cap tokens.

More importantly, tracking smart money helps replace speculative hype with informed conviction. Instead of reacting to social media chatter or price pumps, investors can analyze the wallets that may be responsible for initiating those moves, thus positioning themselves ahead of the broader market.

A Step-by-Step On-Chain Strategy

Step 1: Identify Momentum Tokens

To begin identifying tokens likely to attract or already backed by smart money, navigate to CoinGecko and select the “Gainers & Losers” section.

Apply the 30-day performance filter to isolate assets that have demonstrated consistent upward momentum over a meaningful timeframe.

Prioritize tokens that exhibit substantial price growth over the past month, backed by verifiable decentralized exchange (DEX) volume. You can verify this by clicking the “Markets” tab on CoinGecko to assess the liquidity and trading venues.

Be cautious of assets showing exaggerated green candles on minimal volume, as these are often illiquid and susceptible to manipulation.

The objective at this stage is to identify tokens exhibiting both upward price action and healthy liquidity, signals that often indicate early interest from sophisticated investors rather than short-term speculative hype.

Step 2: Analyze the Token on DexScreener

Once you’ve identified a promising token from CoinGecko, the next step is to analyze its trading activity in real time.

Copy the contract address directly from CoinGecko (never search manually, as many fake tokens are designed to exploit this step).

Paste the address into DexScreener and select the trading pair with the highest volume and liquidity.

Step 3: Discover Top Traders

Navigate to the “Top Traders” tab on DexScreener – a feature many miss.

Sort by PnL (Profit and Loss). Look for:

high-performing wallets with a realized profit of 1000x or more.

wallets that have executed a large number of trades (greater than 1000) over an extended period, indicating persistence and a long-term perspective.

Click into high-performing wallets to inspect them further. DexScreener will redirect you to chain explorers like Etherscan or BaseScan.

Step 4: Investigate Wallet Behavior

To evaluate the strategy and positioning of high-performing traders, use analytics platforms such as DeBank for EVM-compatible chains or Sonarwatch for Solana. These tools offer a comprehensive, real-time overview of individual wallets.

When reviewing a wallet, focus on the following metrics:

• Current balance and primary holdings.

• Recent transactions and the targeted tokens.

• directional bias (e.g., consistently buying or selling, entering trades ahead of price movements).

• risk appetite (e.g., preference for stablecoins or volatile altcoins).

• magnitude of trades and their impact on the overall market (e.g., large buy orders that influence the price).

Understanding a wallet’s strategic posture is more important than simply noting the tokens it holds. By identifying directional bias and recurring allocation themes, you gain insight into intent, not just inventory.

Step 5: Build a Dynamic Watchlist

Select 3 to 5 wallets that demonstrate a high realized profit and loss (PnL) alongside consistent, strategic trading patterns. These are your primary signals for identifying recurring alpha-generating behavior.

Develop a custom tracking system – this can be as simple as a spreadsheet or a dashboard tool, to observe these wallets over time. The key components of your