Author: Nancy, PANews
"Which CA should I apply for today?"
With the endless emergence of MEME coins, players are happy to dig out potential "golden dogs". In some MEME groups, players share with each other the CA (contract address) of the MEME coins they just bought. The innovative MEME launch platform has reduced the difficulty of issuing coins. KOLs continue to drive various MEME projects to dominate the screen. PANews also wrote an article analyzing the reasons why MEME is currently "crushing" the popularity of mainstream coins.
Although the MEMEs that can successfully run are the few survivors among the thousands of newly launched MEMEs every day, how to grasp the potential stocks among the MEMEs that have successfully landed? Is the rise of the leading MEME accidental, and what characteristics are worth noting? To this end, this article PANews sorted out the 12 popular MEME coins with high market capitalization on Ethereum and Solana recently and their market performance (the target is the project with the highest market capitalization in each chain, as of October 18).
More than 70% of MEMEs became popular this year, and most of them need to be held for at least five months to achieve amazing returns
According to CoinGecko data, as of October 18, the market value of the MEME sector has exceeded the $61 billion mark, setting a record high. Among them, 10 MEME coins have squeezed into the top 100 of the crypto market, including old players such as Doge, SHIB and PEPE, as well as newcomers such as WIF, BONK and POPCAT.
The 12 popular MEME coins selected by PANews all appeared after 2023, and most of them are popular projects this year, accounting for more than 70%. In terms of market size, the cumulative market value of these projects has exceeded US$5.54 billion, accounting for nearly 9.1% of the overall market value of MEME, among which POPCAT, Neiro, MOG, SPX and SPX have the largest market size. This is enough to show the market participation of MEME.
From the perspective of the time it takes for the tokens of various MEME projects to reach new highs, it takes an average of 162.7 days, including BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu), MOG, SPX and GIGA, which all take a long time, almost at least a year or even more, which shows that MEME that has been verified for a certain period of time is more likely to be recognized by the community. MOODENG, GOAT and Daram all rose strongly to their highs in one month, and the shortest was only a few days. Of course, this is directly related to the current community enthusiasm.
From the change of the number of addresses holding coins after the coin price hit a new high, the average increase was 39.3%. Among these MEME coins, the number of addresses of APU and MOODENG were far ahead with a growth rate of 135.7% and 119.9% respectively. In contrast, the growth rates of projects such as BITCOIN, POPCAT and Neiro were not obvious, only 5.3%, 3.2% and 1.5% respectively. This may be closely related to the listing on mainstream exchanges, the accumulation of sufficient user base in the early stage, and the timing of price increases.
Not only that, these MEMEs have basically brought amazing returns. According to statistics, the average maximum return rate of 12 MEMEs exceeded 37,000 times. After excluding the extreme value of GIGA, which was as high as 245,000 times, the average maximum increase of other MEME coins was 18,000 times, among which BITCOIN, SPX, MOODENG and GOAT were more eye-catching, while Daram and POPCAT performed relatively poorly. Of course, these returns are only based on the backtest of market value data, and there are basically no players who can get all the gains, but some players still get thousands or even tens of thousands of times of floating profits. PANews previously published an article analyzing the profitable smart money on-chain paths on GOAT and MOODENG.
Most of them experienced a sharp retracement, with the average holding value reaching tens of thousands of dollars
When measuring the risk control ability of the currency price, the maximum retracement rate is undoubtedly one of the commonly used indicators, and it is also a psychological test for the holders. From the data, excluding GOAT and Daram, which have just become popular and are still in the rising channel, other MEME coins have experienced different degrees of retracement from their historical highs, with an average maximum retracement rate of about 49.1%. Among them, MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG have the largest declines, which are 87.7%, 87.5%, 71.1% and 65.4% respectively, which also means that their holders will face the risk of substantial losses if they buy at high points. In contrast, the maximum retracement rates of GIGA, FWOG, POPCAT and Neiro are all far below the average.
Moreover, from the perspective of the number of days for retracement repair, these projects need an average of about 23.9 days. Among them, MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG, which have the highest retracement rates mentioned above, also need more repair cycles, and some even take hundreds of days, while GIGA, BITCOIN, FWOG, POPCAT, SPX and Neiro only need single-digit repair time. The length of the coin price adjustment cycle will also affect the confidence of holders, and the longer the cycle, the more likely it is to be repaired.
In addition, judging from the holding value of these 12 projects, after excluding the top 10 coin holding addresses, the current average holding value is nearly $9,837.6 (calculated based on the coin price on October 18). Among them, SPX, MOG, POPCAT, Neiro and BITCOIN have the highest holding values, which are $26,560, $17,504, $16,337, $15,120 and $11,297 respectively, while Daram, GIGA, GOAT and MOODENG are lower than the average, all below $5,000. In terms of the proportion of holding value and the highest increase multiple, POPCAT, Daram, FWOG and Neiro holders have higher input costs, while GOAT, MOODENG and GIGA have less.
Analyzing the multiple logics behind the rise of MEME
From simple Internet memes to cultural narratives worth tens of billions of dollars, the success of the above MEME projects may bring the following insights:
Stand the test of time and build strong community consensus
HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu
Time is always one of the important tools to test value. Projects that go through longer cycles are often more likely to gain market recognition. Take BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu) as an example. This is an abstract MEME that combines various elements such as Harry Potter, Obama and Sony. It attracted attention in 2023 due to its surge. Since then, its price has experienced ups and downs for a year until it began to rise continuously in September this year. During this period, the number of BITCOIN holders has also continued to rise, achieving a nearly 88.2% increase in one year. SPX (SPX6900) is also an abstract MEME launched in 2023. The story is that anime girls surpass the market value of the S&P 500. Judging from the price trend, SPX has also experienced a long period of downturn until September this year. According to the analysis of Aunt Ai, an on-chain analyst, the Dev of the MEME and its associated addresses have not interacted with the project for a long time, and SPX has been completely handed over to the community.
Take POPCAT as an example. The market value of this MEME has exceeded 1.3 billion US dollars without being listed on the top exchanges. It has a strong community behind it. Although POPCAT's growth is not as high as other MEMEs, it already has more than 77,000 coin holding addresses, which is the largest number of holders among the above projects.
Using the wealth effect to increase attractiveness
For many MEME players, the continuous decline of value coins has made them no longer "paid for", and the MEME field has become one of the means for the community to resist VCs. The higher wealth effect is undoubtedly the simplest and crudest way for MEME to attract funds and new users, especially for users with small capital, who can leverage the returns with great imagination at a lower cost.
GigaChad
For example, GIGA (GigaChad) is used to commemorate the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov. Since its creation and launch, it has risen by as much as 245,000 times, far exceeding other MEME projects mentioned above; MOG (Mog Coin) is the first emoji cultural coin. Since its launch, it has risen by more than 16,000 times, and has nearly recovered all its losses after a sharp correction. MOG has also gained more and more supporters as its price has risen, and the number of addresses holding the coin has shown a steady growth trend.
The celebrity effect with its own communication power
MEME can also be understood as the realization of the attention economy. As a scarce economic resource, the stronger the ability of a project to gain attention, the more consensus it will have, and the greater the potential for growth. Among them, the celebrity effect often has attractiveness and communication power, and is also an important factor in the success of MEME in the past.
Assistant
For example, APU (Apustaja) is one of the most widely used frog emoticons on the Internet. It is similar to PEPE and has a strong cultural foundation. MOODENG is backed by the Internet celebrity animal Moo Deng, which has great influence and traffic support. According to the crypto KOLRasmr survey, MOODENG is currently the most popular MEME coin among ordinary people in street surveys. However, this type of MEME is often affected by changes in the value of the support behind it. For example, the market value of MOODENG fell sharply after the enthusiasm for Moo Deng cooled down.
Seize the user's mind with the first-launch effect
"Being first is a shortcut to the mind." Among the many MEME narratives, novel narratives are often more likely to attract players. For example, GOAT (Goatseus Maximus) is the first MEME coin represented and promoted by AI, and with the fame of a16z, the MEME became an instant hit, achieving a market value of over $300 million in just over a week, with a maximum increase of over 24,000 times; Daram combines the properties of BRC20 and MEME, and opens the channel for the issuance of MEME assets, making its market size exceed $50 million in just one week after its launch.
