If you can’t beat them, join them. Thanks to the transparency of the blockchain, you can watch whales and other successful traders onchain and copy their trades. In this post, we will show you how to find these traders and get alerts when they trade.
The idea: watch successful traders and copy
But don’t copy traders from Twitter or Farcaster. They will likely shill their bags after they make trades.
Also, don’t blindly follow public lists of hedge fund addresses or other well-known wallets. Too many people look at those, so there is probably little alpha.
If you don’t source your alpha, you might become someone else’s exit liquidity.
Instead, you can search onchain to find your own source of alpha — this post will show you how.
We’ll use 3 tools:
- DEX Screener (free)
- Basescan or another explorer for other chains (free)
- Zerion web app (free or $99 a year for Zerion Premium)
You’ll find trending tokens, identify top traders, and get alerts when they do new trades.
Step 1: Find trending tokens
Go on DEX Screener and select trending tokens. We will look specifically at Base L2, where much of this activity is happening.
- Click on 'Filters'
- Click 'All Platforms' and select Base — that's the EVM L2 network with the most liquidity and activity
- Click 'Save' and 'Apply' to get the list of tokens
Now, from the list of tokens, select one where there is enough liquidity (>$1m) and some history of trading (launched more than a few days ago).
The coin itself doesn’t really matter — we will use it to find top traders.
Step 2: Find profitable traders
From the coin’s profile, click on ‘top traders’.
Look for traders with a high PNL (i.e., profit) and relatively high ‘BOUGHT’ amount. You want to find traders who can find good entry points, not just those who were insiders or lucky to be early on a coin and got for next to nothing.
Open the address in Basescan by clicking on the icon in the rightmost column.
In Basescan, copy the address — you’ll need it in the next step.
Step 3: Check their trades
Open app.zerion.io and paste the address in the search field.
Zerion will show you all the trader's assets.
Go to the coin you identified and click on it.
Now, you’ll see the full detailed trade history of that address for this specific coin. Buys and sells on the chart. History with all trades. And the full P&L.
Look for a pattern: the address bought the coin fairly late, rode the momentum and sold at the right time (it doesn’t have to be perfect timing, just profitable).
Step 4: Check their other positions
In Zerion's History tab, you can also see the trader’s other latest transactions.
Ideally, the history tab should include other profitable trades.
Verifying profitable trades with Zerion Premium is easier: then you’ll see P&L for any token for any address. It’s just $99 a year and can pay off with a single winning move…
Step 5: Follow them and get notifications when they trade
If the trader’s address is consistently profitable, add them to your watchlist.
With the Zerion mobile app, you can also get instant notifications for trades or any other onchain actions by addresses from your watchlist.
Step 6: Repeat steps 1-5 to build your list of whales
Just one address might not be enough.
The more addresses you watch, the more alpha opportunities you'll get. Repeat the steps 1-5 and find more addresses for your watchlist.
Some traders might also change addresses and create new ones to avoid being watched. So, it makes sense to repeat these steps and keep your watchlist fresh.
You can also sync your watchlist from the Zerion web app and your mobile app.
Step 7: Make your moves
Finally, it’s your turn to make your moves.
You can use your existing wallet, or you can import your private key to Zerion Wallet on mobile and sign any transaction on the go.
