Original author: A Ray's New World
Reposted by: Luke, Mars Finance
In this meme cycle, countless people have gone crazy for memecoins. Yesterday (November 11), Binance listed spot $PNUT and $ACT, both of which surged 330% and 1440% intraday, respectively. $ACT, being the first AI meme spot, did not receive such treatment even compared to its elder brother $GOAT, which was only launched as a contract. $PNUT, as a squirrel-type meme, seems no different from other 'cat and dog' type meme coins, and its market value of $500 million is even slightly higher than the simultaneously launched $ACT. In the eyes of most people, it seems that the cost-effectiveness of $ACT is higher than that of this ordinary little squirrel $PNUT. However, the reality is otherwise.
Origin: The beginning of the story
The squirrel image of PNUT comes from a squirrel named 'Peanut' adopted by an engineer named Mark seven years ago. Mark often shares interaction videos with Peanut on Instagram, gradually gaining hundreds of thousands of followers.
However, nearby residents complained to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) about Peanut, claiming it carried infectious diseases. Strangely, the DEC entered Mark Longo's home without a search warrant and took Peanut away. Consequently, Mark Longo launched a petition on social media, which garnered tens of thousands of signatures. Unfortunately, Peanut was ultimately euthanized by the DEC.
After Peanut was euthanized, Dogecoin condemned the Democrats, and Musk mourned Pnut in a post, claiming that Trump's presidency would save Peanut.
This Peanut incident is gradually evolving into a campaign against the Democrats. Meanwhile, a large number of Peanut fan creations have emerged online, such as 'Squirrel wearing a MAGA hat to revolt'. Since then, the animal image represented by Peanut is no longer just a popular meme but begins to accumulate a 'Trump'-colored political buff.
Perfect political distance
As the saying goes, 'Distance creates beauty,' and the same applies to memecoins. On the day of the U.S. election, Trump was the first to secure 270 votes to win the election. However, on election day, many Trump-related coins not only did not rise but instead plummeted. Coins with concepts like 'Trump' and 'MAGA' are too close to Trump, lacking native narrative support; interest groups would take advantage of the election to offload, which is what is meant by the saying that good news landing becomes bad news. The 'Trump' and 'MAGA' coins that directly call out his name became the TOP Losers of the day.
Not only does PNUT have stronger narrative continuity, but it is also the best choice in terms of listing. Due to Binance's unparalleled listing effect, the market is on the lookout for the next potential stock to be listed on Binance. In the political series of conceptual coins, centralized exchanges cannot directly list tokens with strong political connotations like 'Trump' or 'MAGA', which undoubtedly increases operational political risks. No one wants to increase the risk of U.S. judicial sanctions because of a token. PNUT inherently carries political series traffic and is sufficiently obscure, with a layer of 'window paper' based on the squirrel meme that undoubtedly reduces many uncertainties after listing.
Peanut's political distance is just right, containing both the top-tier influencer meme attributes characteristic of ordinary zoo meme coins (like MOODENG) and the political concepts endorsed by Musk and Trump, possessing a broad mass base and political buffs. PNUT cleverly stands at the balance point of traffic and political narrative. It is both timely and favorable.
Musk's promotional list: a spiritual symbol representing democracy
PNUT's buffs are not limited to this; more importantly, PNUT stands at the traffic center of this round's biggest promoter, Musk. Smart readers may have noticed that all targets related to Musk have far outperformed the overall performance of the crypto market, including the similarly named token MUSK, which has also seen an increase. 'MUSK Trade' has become the unspoken alpha of this cycle.
DOGE
As the largest meme coin by market capitalization, DOGE is viewed by many investors as having too large a market value and being less cost-effective than other 'small cap' meme coins. However, over the past 14 days, DOGE has achieved a 120% increase, with a 96% increase over 7 days. DOGE's outstanding performance is partly due to Musk's generous support for Trump during the election, and the market generally believes that Trump's victory would be a huge boon for Musk-related concepts. Additionally, it is worth noting that on November 3, Robinhood Crypto began supporting DOGE token transfers and withdrawals.
D.O.G.E
D.O.G.E is a meme coin on Ethereum named after the Department of Government Efficiency where Musk works, which surged after Trump announced Musk's appointment. Countless other DOGE meme coins with the same ticker also experienced a bull market.
BAN
In 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the work (Comedian), which features a banana taped to a wall and was sold at Sotheby's for $120,000, earning the title of 'the most expensive fruit in history.'
After experiencing wild fluctuations, on November 18, Musk retweeted a photo of a huge banana sculpture alongside SpaceX's Starship posted by Polaris's content director, while Binance listed the BAN contract, pushing BAN's market value over $300 million.
PNUT
PNUT has inherited the legitimate bloodline of MUSK Trade. There are often voices in the market saying, 'The squirrel is just a tool used by the red party to hit the blue party; once the election is over, PNUT will come to an end.' However, the reality is otherwise. Not only does Musk often mourn the deceased squirrel Peanut on Twitter, but other celebrities outside the circle also frequently mention the squirrel. For example, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch cited the case of 'Peanut the Squirrel' as a typical example of government overreach, and UFC fighter Jim Miller expressed justice for little squirrel Peanut after winning a match.
PNUT has long since departed from being merely a 'tool against the Democrats' and has instead upgraded to a spiritual totem of 'supporting democracy and opposing dictatorship'. More importantly, with the sacrifice of squirrel Peanut, people can concoct stories about Peanut and assign more spiritual significance, even continuously 'deifying' it.
Comparison with other memecoins
Zoo series
We take the recently popular zoo series dog type representative NEIRO and the hippo series representative MOODENG as examples.
NEIRO is the new Shiba Inu announced by the owner of Dogecoin, which experienced a battle over capitalization and CTO at its launch, and after surviving numerous challenges, it successfully resurrected. MOODENG, a bouncing pig, is a popular hippo from a Thai zoo, enjoying unique traffic advantages in Web2. Compared to the community, PNUT lacks the strong consensus support that Neiro has; in terms of traffic, Moodeng far surpasses the squirrel in web2 popularity. Yet, even as strong as Moodeng is, it has still not broken $600 million, and Neiro hovers around an $800 million market cap.
Furthermore, PNUT possesses the dissemination power similar to other animal images in the million-level range, along with unique political buffs and strong explosive potential. PNUT rapidly rose 500% just one day after listing, quickly crossing $2 billion in one day, a feat that other memecoins cannot compare to in terms of rapidly attracting capital and creating market FOMO.
In conclusion, PNUT not only possesses the communicability of other animal images but also has a unique political buff. While PNUT may not be a top-tier IP, it is undoubtedly a versatile warrior.
Political icon
In the political arena, PNUT's direct competitor is the 'Eagle'. Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan was arrested for involvement in 'manipulating the election results', and Free Shayne Coplan quickly took off, forming the 'Eagle' icon meme coin. Free Shayne Coplan is seen as a tool to combat judicial injustice against the Democrats. Furthermore, since the ticker does not have a name but uniquely represents an American eagle, it was highly favored by the market on the day of its launch.
To a large extent, the emergence of the 'Eagle' narrative reflects dissatisfaction with political retaliation from the Democrats. If no subsequent events occur on this line of Shayne Coplan, the 'Eagle' would gradually be forgotten by the market, which is also why there is a strange phenomenon of 'many speculators hope it will be euthanized'. In contrast, PNUT possesses stronger moldability and leading effects in its political attributes than the Eagle.
AI memecoin
ACT, Aii6z, and GOAT are the AI meme focus of market attention. However, the overall logic of AI memecoins differs from PNUT. For this type of memecoin, the essence is that it steals traffic from AI project parties that have already been listed, such as WLD, LPT, etc. Although macro-wise, PNUT and AI memes are in a zero-sum game, at a granular level within the specific meme track, they are in a parallel competitive relationship.
Summary
PNUT's core competitive advantages lie in (1) perfect animal IP, being a unique and popular squirrel image; (2) an excellent traffic center, having both internal and web2 traffic; (3) subtle political distance, with political attributes that give exchanges confidence to list; (4) Musk's core promotional list, becoming a central figure in this round of Musk's 'promotion'; (5) verified explosive potential, rising fivefold in one day, breaking the $2 billion mark; (6) most importantly, Peanut's sacrifice allows the market to assign more meaning and make it easier to 'deify'.
PNUT has become the culmination of this meme cycle. If you find a target with a ceiling higher than a squirrel and more buffs than a squirrel, first, congratulations! Secondly, please quietly tell me~
