If the rise of DOGE in 2021 is the emergence of MEME, then the explosion of MEME in 2024 indicates a change in the market investment logic. MEME has become an investment category favored by investment institutions and market funds, and has become a mainstream investment product.
Originated from the Internet
MEME existed before blockchain and originated from the Internet. Currently, the successful MEME projects in the market are basically created after the popularity of Internet social networking. For example, Doge, SHIB, PEPE, etc., represent the communication and exchanges generated by the Internet around the world. This is also the root of Internet culture, and more people call it "grassroots culture."
MEME is omnipresent, and there is a story behind every MEME. Every story spreads around the world through the Internet, bringing people a sense of identity, which is also an important reason why MEME can become popular. MEME sprouted through social platforms, chat software, forums, and continues to be known by more and more people. For example, social networking sites such as Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook are the main battlefields for the popularity of MEME, and are also important ways for people to express their opinions and vent their emotions, thereby distinguishing themselves from mainstream stereotyped online information.
MEME expresses people's thoughts in specific scenarios on the Internet in a concise way (short text, innovative words, pictures, emoticons, etc.). Its wide spread makes people who don't understand MEME willing to understand and integrate into it, just like a virus. The sense of identity is the value behind MEME, and it is also the main driving force behind the rise in the price of MEME.
When MEME meets blockchain, redemption from market chaos
Blockchain can give value to many intangible things, and MEME is no exception. Strictly speaking, BTC was also a MEME in its early days. After BTC became popular, a large number of worthless altcoins emerged, causing chaos in the market. DOGE was created to satirize this phenomenon. DOGE first became popular in the market after 2013, which we can regard as the MEME 1.0 era.
The popularity of altcoins in the 2017 bull market and the market chaos (ICO chaos) laid the foundation for DOGE's second rise, which is also an important factor for DOGE to gain market recognition again in 2021. Even without Musk's help, there may be other public figures who stand up for MEME. Dog-themed MEME projects such as SHIB are also beginning to emerge, and MEME has entered the 2.0 era.
Also in this round of rise in 2024, the market chaos turned into high valuation of VC coins and PUA of many "value" projects to users, and MEME began to develop again. The sluggishness of the mainstream market actually represents the resistance of grassroots investors to VC coins and the chaos of cutting leeks to a certain extent, and the fair distribution and price performance of MEME just solved everyone's pain points, and naturally received a lot of attention, and MEME entered the 3.0 era.
From the development history of MEME, we can see that the important reason why MEME can become popular is the inaction and chaos of the mainstream market. As the bottom-level retail investors, they do not have enough strength and funds to resist such behavior, so they can only turn in the opposite direction. What retail investors lack the least is popularity and communication ability, which is also its value, and it is also the basic factor for us to choose MEME.
The clash between price and value, what are the characteristics of potential MEME
Not all MEMEs have investment value. Just like the chaos of mainstream currencies, there are also good and bad people in the MEME track. Cutting leeks exists everywhere, and this phenomenon may become more obvious in the future. For ordinary investors, how to identify potential MEME projects is particularly critical. We can summarize it through the successful MEME projects in the past.
DOGE
DOEG is obtained through mining. In the early days, there were large quantities of Dogecoins and the price was low, which made them suitable for online rewards. They also supported multiple social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, etc. They also sponsored some sports competitions, which was in line with the tipping culture abroad. Later, the community slogan To The Moon was promoted by Musk, and various MEME pictures circulated on Twitter.
SHIB
SHIB is themed on Shiba Inu and is another extension of Dogecoin. It adopts the Fair Launch issuance method and has huge entertainment attributes. At the same time, it continues to build in the direction of development and is committed to becoming a "value coin", such as launching DEX and BONE and other tokens and launching the mainnet in 23 years. These actions support the operation of its token economy and become an exploration of MEME's transformation to a value coin.
BABY
PEPE is a cryptocurrency issued mainly based on the popular online cartoon Pepe the Forg. In addition to cartoons, Pepe also has emoticons and animations. It has a strong user base and is widely used in telegram, twitter, Facebook, reddit and youtube. In addition to being mostly used in liquidity pools, PEPE's tokens also add deflation mechanisms and redistribution mechanisms, which have attracted the attention of many investors and the support of market makers and investment companies.
WIF
WIF is a dog-themed MEME token on Solana and the third most successful dog-themed token to date. WIF has the characteristics of low cost and fast transfer speed. The creator balance is set to 0 to ensure the decentralization of the token. It is endorsed by celebrities such as Hsaka, making it stand out among the Dogecoins. WIF's speculative attributes are relatively stronger, and the skyrocketing price has further increased investors' attention.
PUFF
PUFF (PUFF The Dragon) is a MEME project on the Mantle chain that is mainly aimed at the mETH (Ethereum re-collateralized token) community. It is themed on a black and gold dragon. PUFF has redefined the meme narrative. Users can obtain PUFF by using mETH to cast a mysterious potion, and then establish an AMM pool to achieve free exchange. The well-known trader DCF GOD spent $1.5 million to purchase PUFF, making it the focus of attention.
What the popular memes have in common
From DOGE to PUFF, we can see that MEME's distribution and low threshold are one of the main factors for its success. From computing power mining to fair distribution, community users can participate at low cost. Of course, absolute fairness is impossible, but it also reserves a lot of participation opportunities for users who get on board. The advantage of doing so is that it accumulates a large user base, which is also the mainstay of MEME's dissemination.
In addition, the MEME project has gradually shifted from its early network cultural uses (rewards, etc.) to more value levels, such as SHIB's Swap, PEPE's deflation, WIF's low cost and decentralization, and PUFF's value reproduction with mETH as the core. This shows that pure price speculation may not necessarily make MEME tokens popular, and there must be certain application scenarios. Investors still have certain expectations.
Furthermore, MEME has the support of celebrities/KOLs/public figures and funds behind it. For example, Musk frequently mentioned Doge, WIF was endorsed by community celebrities, PEPE was listed on first-tier exchanges such as Binance and had investment institutions behind it, and PUFF also received a large number of purchases from star traders. The star effect played a key role in the success of the MEME project.
Of course, in addition to this, price is also a key factor in the success of MEME tokens. The price increase allows many retail investors to make profits from it. The increase in the retail base has further enhanced the influence of MEME tokens, thereby attracting the layout of institutions and exchanges.
Its development path is exactly the opposite of the current high-financing VC coins. Letting institutions take over from retail investors is an important sign of MEME's success. VC coins focus on the profits of project teams and investment institutions, and end with retail investors taking over. After retail investors have completed their takeover, no funds will enter, so they act as the last stick. This is why VC is unpopular now and MEME is hot.
Development goals of MEME coin
No high-market-cap MEME coin has gained attention simply through pure hype. For investors, economic models and application scenarios are essential considerations for long-term development.
For example, DOGE's rewards and POW, Swap developed by the SHIB team, etc. Since this year, this trend has been further strengthened. For example, PUFF has further increased the application scenarios and the economic cycle of tokens. The project has a trend of approaching ordinary "value coins" in development direction, and MEME attributes have become the main distinguishing factor.
PUFF's mETH incentive attracted $300 million in funds, making it the first DeFi project in the Mantle ecosystem, which greatly promoted the development of the Mantle ecosystem. In addition, PUFF also added GameFi elements to the project planning, and staking and game play have also become important factors in attracting large investors and institutions. This also shows that the MEME project has begun to focus on the long-term development of the project, rather than a temporary pull and mindless rush.
If investment goes to extremes, it will inevitably backfire. The development path of PUFF tells us that MEME, as an early means of publicity, can quickly gather people and funds, but if you want long-term development, empowerment and planning are factors that cannot be avoided. And for some technical analysis investors, it is easier to accept. Similar projects such as AIDoge's surge have brought huge traffic and transaction data to Arbitrum.
Summarize
Judging from the development paths of the above five MEME tokens, MEME has been recognized by many investors. At the same time, with the help of nonsensical humor and Internet culture as the user base, it is easier to arouse the user's sense of identity. This is a low-cost and fast way to enter the user market and build a project community, and it is expected to become the main cold start strategy for grassroots projects in the future.
However, projects that rely purely on the MEME concept often find it difficult to sustain development. Therefore, mid-term technical follow-up is crucial to attract the attention of "regular forces" such as investment institutions and exchanges. In this process, chips may gradually shift from retail investors to institutions, thereby promoting the transformation and growth of projects. After making profits, retail investors usually have a greater sense of identity with MEME culture, thus forming a positive flywheel effect and helping MEME to become more popular.
