Author: flowie, ChainCatcher
Editor: Nianqing, ChainCatcher
2024 is the first year of the meme explosion, and the meme craze runs through the entire year of 2024. As of press time, Coingecko data shows that meme is a track worth over 100 billion US dollars. Meme is not only a battlefield for retail investors, but also a battleground for major institutions, CEX and public chains to compete for traffic.
Compared to the past, when the focus was mainly on zoo-type memes, in 2024, everything can be a meme, and there are always unexpected angles. This article reviews the main types of meme hype concepts in 2024, as well as the predictions of investment research institutions on the development trend of memes in 2025.
Seven major hot speculation concepts for memes in 2024
Political concept meme
The 2024 U.S. election has spawned and heated many political concept meme coins. On March 5, 2024, CoinGecko added a new PolitiFi token section.
Political memes can be said to have first centered around Trump, with a meme token named TRUMP increasing over a thousand times, astonishing the community. As the key year for the 2024 election approaches, various memes named after political figures like Trump, Biden, Harris, Vance, and others in important positions once again become hot topics for speculation. Representing tokens include TRUMP, BODEN, and KAMA.
In addition to tokens featuring political figures, slogans and famous quotes from political figures' speeches have also spawned a large number of memes. For example, the meme coin MAGA named after Trump's campaign slogan 'Make America Great Again'. The meme coin FIGHT, themed around the attack on Trump, saw a significant price increase after Trump tweeted 'FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!!!'.
Furthermore, memes represented by PNUT have also been given the meaning of expressing political demands. A viral squirrel was captured and euthanized without sufficient communication, leading to a political controversy seeking animal protection and expressing reasonable demands, causing the squirrel-named meme PNUT to explode. Besides PNUT, there have been other similar meme tokens expressing political demands, like the monkey Jorgie taken away by the police.
AI concept meme
In October, an AI Bot named 'Truth Terminal' (@truth_terminal) 'talked to itself' and came up with a meme coin name GOAT. a16z founder Marc Andreessen even invested $50,000 worth of Bitcoin in it. GOAT soared from 0 to $270 million just four days after its creation, with its price skyrocketing 150 times, attracting the community's attention.
After that, various meme coins integrating AI concepts flooded the market, giving rise to multiple sub-tracks. Representative AI Agent memes include GOAT, GNON, VIRTUA, FUN; AI + infrastructure represented by ACT; AI investment DAO memes represented by ai16z; AI + art memes represented by slop; and AI + animal memes represented by Shoggoth.
Hotspot mapping meme
This has been a very interesting phenomenon this year; there is almost always a corresponding meme whenever a hot topic arises. For example, in August 2024, following the explosive release of the Chinese-produced 3A game (Black Myth: Wukong), a large number of meme coins like $WuKong quickly emerged on various chains.
Memes can also easily ride the wave of trending events. In November, after Sun Yuchen announced the purchase of Maurizio Cattelan's iconic work 'Comedian' for $6.2 million, a meme coin named Ban, based on Cattelan's banana, took advantage of the hype around the Sotheby's auction of the banana and the SpaceX starship launch.
In addition, if players do not participate in the hot trading of altcoins in a timely manner, some will choose to wait for meme coins related to hot concepts for trading. On December 2, the price of XRP hit its highest point in seven years, surpassing Solana's market capitalization. Many people who missed XRP's nearly 400% increase turned their attention to memes related to XRP. By around 1 PM that afternoon, the 24-hour trading volume on the chain within that ecosystem exceeded 70M, with the number of transactions reaching 330,000. The $RIPPLE, sharing the same name as Ripple, surged over 400% within 24 hours, while the $589 meme, calling for XRP to rise to 589, increased over 160% in 24 hours.
Desci concept meme
DeSci, or decentralized science, is not a new concept that emerged this year. However, in November, Binance Labs announced an investment in the DeSci concept project BIO Protocol. After CZ and Vitalik discussed insights on DeSci together, multiple DeSci memes surged, making this concept widely discussed, aimed at investing meme liquidity into fields like medicine, physics, and chemistry.
For example, representative projects include the Desci concept meme coins RIF and URO, both from the meme issuing platform Pump.science launched by the Desci project Molecule DAO. RIF and URO represent the compounds Rifampicin (RIF) and Urolithin (URO), aimed at supporting medicine through meme coins.
RIF and URO initially did not receive much attention, but under the influence of Binance and CZ, they continuously broke new highs, with the market capitalization reaching nearly $3 million, and their price had increased by 20 times within two days.
TikTok concept meme
Around November 2024, a meme character named ChillGuy went viral on TikTok. This character is anthropomorphized, wearing a hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, with hands in pockets, projecting a calm demeanor that is very popular among young people. Related videos garnered over 20 million views in just two months.
With the popularity of CHILL GUY, a meme coin named CHILLGUY was also born on the Solana chain. Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele and celebrities like Musk also contributed to the meme coin's explosion by sharing CHILL GUY elements, leading to $CHILLGUY's growth of 7000% in just five days, with a maximum market cap exceeding $500 million.
The user groups of TikTok and those investing in cryptocurrency and meme coins may overlap significantly, as both are primarily Gen Z and millennials, suggesting that TikTok may become a creative generator for meme coins.
In addition to CHILLGUY, other TikTok concept meme coins like MOODENG, APPLE, WAIT, HUZZ, and GRIDDY have also received considerable attention.
Zoo meme
Zoo memes remain one of the most easily disseminated and resilient narratives. Following Doge, this year has also seen the emergence of new stars like Neiro and MOODENG.
Neiro is a meme named after the new pet adopted by the owner of Doge, which surged in popularity on the night of Trump's Bitcoin conference speech, overshadowing the Trump-themed NSYB (never sell your bitcoin) meme, and sparked a debate over upper and lower case memes.
MOODENG's prototype is a viral baby pygmy hippo born in Thailand, and MOODENG's rise to fame has also fueled the crazy animal phenomenon on the Solana chain, with animals like penguin PESTO, little elephant TOTO, monkey GEORGIE, beaver BOBR, and frog omochi all becoming hot topics for speculation.
Under the dominance of Doge, cat culture meme themes have also become a new speculation direction, giving rise to memes like MEW and cat concept memes resisting 'dogs', such as the cat-themed meme MIGGLES promoted by Coinbase.
Additionally, the previously mentioned PNUT and other memes expressing political demands also belong to the animal-themed meme category.
Celebrity meme
Celebrity memes remain an essential direction in trading memes. This year, in addition to the two meme hotspots, Trump and Musk, some artists and entertainment stars issuing coins have also become a trend, receiving significant attention.
Earlier this year, Pepe meme artist Darkfarm's BOOK OF MEME (BOME) went viral across social platforms, increasing 20 times just three hours after its launch and surpassing a market value of $1 billion within three days, while Doge took four years to exceed $1 billion in market value.
Mid-year, several celebrities released tokens. From Kardashian’s transgender father Caitlyn Jenner issuing JENNER to female rapper Iggy Azalea releasing MOTHER, these coins achieved hundreds of times in gains, allowing celebrity memes to once again sweep the crypto community.
However, celebrity memes usually have a very short lifespan, and these meme coins are often criticized for making quick money. Vitalik has expressed dissatisfaction with the experiments of issuing MEME coins by celebrities.
2025 meme trend prediction: larger scale, with AI memes possibly leading the way.
Messari and DWF Labs both believe that the popularity of memes will continue into 2025. Messari points out three aspects that will drive the continued growth of memes.
Infrastructure-wise, some high-throughput chains provide ample block space, allowing meme transactions to avoid incurring high costs.
In terms of user experience optimization, applications like Moonshot and Pump.fun continue to lower the entry threshold and simplify the trading process, promising to attract more retail participants.
Moreover, meme coins, as speculative vehicles, are akin to gambling and may continue to attract users seeking entertainment and profit in the current macro environment.
Bitwise also predicts that a larger meme coin craze will emerge in 2025 than in 2024, stating that tokens issued by AI agents will lead this wave.
In addition to the narratives provided by AI, the Web3 ecosystem incubator Nomos Labs has also mentioned more technologies empowering the development of memes, such as attempts to link with NFTs and integrate with payment scenarios and DeFi. Nomos Labs believes that technological empowerment will be an important focal point for meme coins in the next stage. 'In the long run, only when technological narratives materialize can meme coins perhaps ultimately escape the fate of short-term speculation.'
The practicality of memes may become more prominent in 2025. Venture capital firm MV Global states that decentralized science (DeSci) is expected to achieve significant growth in 2025, driven by practical meme coins.
However, Murad, the meme call king who exploded in popularity in 2024, has a different viewpoint. He believes that in a bull market, practicality may instead become a constraint, and pure speculation may lead to better performance for meme coins. However, he also mentioned that future meme coins may indeed incorporate DeFi functions, evolve into investment DAOs, and even build brands around fashion and lifestyle.
