Compiled by: Vernacular Blockchain
Recently, MemeCoin is entering a "super cycle" narrative. On October 12, 2024, the search volume for "MemeCoin" on Google was 77/100, far exceeding the search volume for "Bitcoin" (BTC) at 33/100. Although the current crypto market has been in a long-term downturn due to the overall environment, the popularity of Meme in the entire market has not diminished and there is no sign of slowing down.
MemeCoin, as the name implies, is a crypto asset built on a meme or a popular joke. While the idea behind these crypto projects may have originated from a joke, the current status of these assets is no joke. According to CoinGecko, the current size of the entire MemeCoin market is $53 billion, accounting for about 2.3% of the entire crypto market cap. Solana launched Pump.fun in January 2024, and has created about 2.3 million MemeCoins so far, and other public chains are also competing to launch MemCoin launchers, making MemeCoin the hottest track in this bull market.
So, what is the current situation of the MemeCoins that were popular before? Is there still a chance for MemeCoin for novices? How can you make money playing Meme? We invited several MemeCoin players from the Vernacular Blockchain community to discuss these issues. The sharing guests include:
Dashuo (@ruyan768, HashGlobal Technical Consultant, CreatorDAO Founder)
daybyday (vernacular community MemeCoin actual player)
Qian Bencong (@faster100x, MemeCoin player in the vernacular community)
uuluckyl (MemeCoin player in the vernacular community)
Note: The ranking is in no particular order, sorted from a to z.
1. On which public chains is MemeCoin popular at present? How is MemeCoin on the leading public chains such as Ethereum, Soalana, Base, etc.?
Dashuo: Ethereum, Solana, and Base are relatively popular. Because of Pump.fun, Solana has the most active meme issuance and trading. But Ethereum still has a strong value siphoning effect. Initially, Neiro was very popular on Solana, but it was more successful on Ethereum in the end. Base cannot be ignored in the middle and late stages of the bull market because of the token support on Coinbase.
daybyday: Currently MemeCoin is mainly focused on Solana and Ethereum.
Memes on the Ethereum chain last much longer than Solana. If the subject matter is good, even if the current price falls back, it will still rise in the future, and most projects will not die out directly.
But Solana, relatively speaking, is a one-wave trend. If it can go up, it will keep going up. As long as there is a downward trend, it is likely to become a Christmas tree. PvP (Player vs Player) is too serious. If you run slowly, you will be trapped. Because of the existence of Pump, Solana is extremely sensitive to market hotspots. The speed and rhythm of new projects are very fast. Most projects cannot last more than three days. Most projects on Solana are bought by smart wallets (influential KOLs), and then other smart wallets follow up. After the price rises, it attracts retail investors FOMO, and then there is nothing else. Solana tends to be animal-type, while Ethereum tends to be political-type.
The meme sentiment of the Base chain is not high at the moment. Let’s see how Degen performs after it is launched on Coinbase. If it performs well, it may bring up the meme sentiment of the Base chain. Currently, the hype is mainly centered around the orders of Jesse, the person in charge of Base.
TRON was popular for a few weeks due to the emergence of Pump some time ago, but then there was no news.
The BSC chain is not gaining popularity due to the severe constraints and the lack of official support.
There has been a meme hype about Sui chain recently, but I haven’t paid much attention to it and don’t know much about it.
Satoshi Qian: Currently, the MemeCoin market continues to be hot on Solana and Ethereum, and the market is much better than in September. Other public chains such as Sui and TRON (TRX) also occasionally have short-term wealth opportunities, and high-quality projects emerge from time to time on the Base chain. There are significant differences in the development styles of MemeCoin on Solana and Ethereum:
Solana: MemeCoin on Solana is particularly biased towards animal IP projects. For example, hippos were the first to become popular on Solana. The pace of projects on Solana is very fast. It is common for prices to quickly rise to high market values and then fall sharply. The PVP phenomenon in the market is relatively intense, making it easy to get stuck if you are not careful. From my observations and experience with smart money, it is significantly more difficult to make money on Solana than on Ethereum, and wallets with stable profits are relatively rare.
Ethereum: It is easier for some political or celebrity IP projects to stand out on the Ethereum chain, and animal projects are still strong. For example, Musk's TERMINUS and Neiro are both representative projects that have caused a craze on Ethereum.
Overall, MemeCoin on the Ethereum chain is more stable, while Solana is more short-term explosive, but the risks and speculation are also higher.
uuluckyl: Currently, the main competition is between Solana and Ethereum for traffic. The second is the copying of Meme gameplay by Base, Sui and other chains. BSC has disappeared, and the pump model pioneered by Solana has brought new popularity and income to the public chain, coupled with the resistance of retail investors to VC Tokens.
2. How is MemeCoin, the one that sparked the Solana craze, doing now?
Dashuo: New and old memes on Solana are still performing strongly, such as WIF, GIGA, POPCAT, etc.
daybyday: The chain is in a state of speculation on new things but not on old things. Being listed on BN is like having an extra life-saving card. Most of those that cannot be listed are short-lived, and very few survive.
Qian Bencong: The MemeCoin that led the Solana craze before has seen a significant decline in market sentiment. The MemeCoin market is more like a "scumbag market". Many projects that were once popular, such as BOME, are now rarely in demand or have completely degenerated into secondary market gambling. Currently, the new craze is being led by projects such as Neiro and MOODENG, and the market trend is gradually shifting.
uuluckyl: Solana’s first batch of MemeCoins are naturally not very popular now. They are in the stage of distributing chips one after another. For example, BOME, W, WTF, ANALOS, BONK, to put it bluntly, some of them are empty projects of professional market making teams.
3. What are the characteristics of the recent MemeCoin market? What do you think about its future development prospects?
Dashuo: The current meme market is dominated by Internet celebrity cute pets and Internet celebrity vocabulary. Memes with strong community support have the greatest potential in the future due to their cultural identity and sense of belonging.
daybyday: Recently, due to the popularity of Neiro and MOODENG, various animal IPs on the chain have gone crazy. Many people have become experts and dug out all the information about the pets raised by Neiro's owner and MOODENG's various relatives for hype. Currently, as long as a meme becomes popular on the chain, uppercase and lowercase will appear immediately, and there will be multiple, and each chain will appear, but everyone does not accept each other, resulting in serious PvP. Even if a hot spot appears, it is difficult to grasp which one will really come out. There are too many uncertain factors, just like Neiro, BN first launched uppercase contracts and then lowercase spot, MOODENG, Solana chain was originally in an absolute advantage, and recently due to Vitalik's selling of tokens, the Ethereum chain was about to die, but it started again. Overall, MemeCoin is quite difficult to play.
Because most of BN's new products are institutional tokens, they reach their peak as soon as they are launched and have no money-making effect, which leads to a shift to MemeCoin. However, MemeCoin is now also beginning to be fueled by "institutions", and the efforts in this regard should be increased in the future. I personally think that as long as the wealth effect exists, it will always exist. After all, in this industry, everything can be speculated as long as it is related to the Meme theme.
Qian Bencong: Recent MemeCoin market characteristics and future expectations:
High volatility and explosiveness: The MemeCoin market is still highly dependent on the behavior of the crypto community, KOLs and bigwigs, and often experiences sharp rises and falls in the short term. For example, Vitalik recently sold MOODENG for charity, which directly triggered a several-fold increase. Such events show the market's sensitivity to the movements of bigwigs.
The information-driven effect is significant: In the MemeCoin market, information advantage is crucial. Whether you can seize the opportunities brought by high volatility often depends on timely follow-up of on-chain transactions, banker behavior, KOL (especially cabal groups), and the dynamics of big players in the circle. This determines whether you can eat meat and drink soup, or whether you can passively take over. How to establish and maintain one's information advantage will become the core competitiveness of future participants.
Higher requirements for retail investors: The complexity of the current MemeCoin market increases the difficulty for retail investors. A hot spot often appears on Solana and Ethereum at the same time, and there may even be multiple related coins with different uppercase and lowercase combinations. Usually, a hot spot will derive more than 4 coins. How to accurately select Memecoin has become another difficult problem for retail investors after capturing the hot spot.
Future expectations: As market competition intensifies, the importance of information capture and data analysis capabilities will continue to increase. Traders who can quickly obtain, analyze and interpret market information will have a significant advantage, while retail investors may face greater operational challenges if they are unable to effectively screen information and projects.
uuluckyl: The characteristics of Meme are as follows: emotion + subject matter IP + market funds, and celebrity effect.
MemeCoin has no value, only short-term benefits, and is a game in the niche financial market of the new era with no physical support. Of course, it also highlights the fairness mechanism of blockchain and the more transparent rules on the chain.
In the future, MemeCoin will develop more complete mechanisms and gameplay, and will be more inclined to cooperate with trendy IPs in real life, as well as some Internet celebrity animals and pets, celebrity promotions, etc.
4. What experience do you have in playing MemeCoin?
Dashuo: Most players are not suitable for PvP new products, but should buy memes that have been recognized by the market.
daybyday: The essence of price fluctuations is buying and selling. The Meme track is very dependent on traffic. Only with continuous exposure and orders from influential KOLs can buying be brought in and prices can prices rise. If there is no traffic, it is easy to die. After all, new projects are generated every day, and who will pay attention to the old ones.
The entire track requires high sensitivity to information. It is best to join some communities to obtain timely hot information, because if you are a few minutes late, your cost will be completely different from others. Also, pay attention to KOLs with "traffic" on X (formerly Twitter). Sometimes a KOL's holdings can reverse the trend of a Meme. Observe more, accumulate more, slowly understand the characteristics of each person, and track their wallet dynamics. After making money, you must stop profit in batches. No one can sell at a high price. Only with funds in hand, you will not fall into a passive position. There are many opportunities in this industry. Never stick to one project.
Qian Bencong: In light of the market characteristics, we need to establish a set of operating strategies that suit us. The path I chose was to invest in new stocks based on hot spots, and I established a sufficient leading position in the market through information advantages. Here are some of my experiences:
Smart money monitoring: It is crucial to build your own smart money monitoring database. There are many types of smart money, which are good at sniping, long-term holding, new listings, hot chasing, and even diamond hands (firm holders). Find smart money that suits your style and let them help you find opportunities. Digging out and tracking the trading behavior of these accounts can greatly improve your advantage in the market.
Twitter monitoring: Keep a close eye on famous people, especially big names like Vitalik, Musk, Trump, BillyM2k (co-founder of Dogecoin), CZ (Changpeng Zhao), etc. Their tweets can often drive the hot market of the Meme market. It is recommended that you at least turn on the small bell on Twitter to get the dynamics of these important people in the first time.
Conspiracy monitoring: Compared with the retail-dominated MemeCoin, tokens promoted by the so-called "conspiracy group" are more likely to have explosive gains and high market capitalizations. Knowing who are the members of these groups and establishing a monitoring system for the tokens they are paying attention to can help you discover potential opportunities faster. Keeping a close eye on their dynamics is usually an effective way to capture market hotspots.
KOL monitoring: The role of KOLs in the early stages of the MemeCoin project cannot be ignored. A few influential KOLs are enough to quickly push up the market value of a MemeCoin. It is recommended that you establish a monitoring list of high-value KOLs so that you can quickly participate in the early stages of the call.
Finally, based on these monitoring, you can develop your own strategy. For example, when multiple smart money accounts buy at the same time, or when more than a certain number of KOLs start to promote a project, you can pay attention or participate. In addition, there are some related tools on the market that you can explore and use to improve trading efficiency.
uuluckyl: The core of MemeCoin at this stage is traffic. Compared with ordinary PvP, paying attention to celebrity comments is outdated. Spend time to capture hot IP cute pets and real-world hot spots. Choose targets with stable trading volume, a market value of about 1 million, and short-term sustainable hype, and it will be easier to make money. After all, buying various memes is too distracting and takes up rest time. It will be much easier to choose only the hottest IP at each stage, and the income will be more considerable.
But be sure to pay attention to the MemeCoin scam of the same name and various risky coins with no lock-up and unclean contracts. Try to invest only a small amount of money, treat it as a lottery, relax your mind, and never gamble.
5. What are the money-making opportunities or effects in the current MemeCoin market? Do ordinary people still have opportunities in the Meme field?
Dashuo: This round of bull market is the supercycle of Meme, and opportunities are everywhere. Meme is originally a bull market for ordinary people.
daybyday: There are always opportunities to make money, but they are unpredictable and mostly random. For most people, it is still difficult to make money in the Meme track. The bigger direction is to pay attention to the movements of people like Musk, Trump, and Vitalik. Topics with great significance are easy to hype.
The entire industry is becoming more and more elitist. The hype of memes on the chain requires staying up late to watch the market, the data on the chain, and the trends of KOLs on Twitter. It usually takes a lot of time and energy, and even requires the cooperation of multiple people. When you receive a meme message, you need to be able to get the hype point in a short time. For ordinary people, it is not suitable. It is better to combine your own expertise and find the direction you are interested in. Some people are interested in playing with fur, and some people are suitable for buying and holding. Interest is the best teacher. People who are really interested will dig deep by themselves.
Qian Bencong: I think MemeCoin is one of the areas where ordinary people can easily seize the opportunity to make money. The key is to pay more attention to the Ethereum ecosystem and establish your own information advantage. For the Meme community you are interested in, keep paying attention and following up, which can greatly increase your profit opportunities.
At the same time, the market is full of hot spots, and it is impossible to seize every token and every opportunity. The key is to be targeted and choose those hot spots that are large enough to bet on, rather than excessively participating in PvP in small-scale hot spots. By choosing hot spots, ordinary people still have a great chance to realize benefits in the MemeCoin field.
uuluckyl: Combining the above viewpoints, at this stage MemeCoin is still centered around hot IP topics spread in real life and the Web2 Internet. The core is traffic, and where there is traffic there is popularity.
Ordinary people should try not to participate in MemeCoin. The market fluctuates very quickly. It may plummet within a few hours before you have time to sell. You need to keep an eye on the market if you really want to participate. Make sure you have enough time to observe the market every day. Try to invest only three coins per month, reducing the frequency and amount. Only invest in the hottest IPs, including Solana and Ethereum and other popular chains. Choose one Meme for each chain, which will be much simpler. As the old saying goes, the market is risky, investment should be cautious, do not be impulsive, and do not let emotions affect decision-making.
