Original title: 5 real use cases for useless memecoins
Original author: Max Parasol
Original source: https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/5-real-use-cases-for-useless-memecoins/
Compiled by: Tom, Mars Finance
Memecoins are not useless: they bypass securities laws, don’t profit venture capitalists, and are also extremely fun.
Memes are the essence of cryptocurrency: social trends, sarcastic humor, and the lure of absurd profits, all wrapped up in a nonfunctional token. They’re not for Warren Buffett, but they are for legions of regular people looking for fun, community, and a break from their fringe environments.
'Memes are leading indicators,' said Danny Yang, founder of OnChainMonkey, referring to crazy returns relative to other metrics. Meme coins gamify the investment process, drawing investors to follow intangible trends from election results or jumping into the latest issued coin within ten minutes of the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting suspect being arrested. This is very similar to the style of 4Chan.
Building community, social bonds, and having fun are all part of the allure of meme coins. 'Humans are social creatures, and memes are about finding entertainment in the same things,' Yang said.
The meme itself is irrelevant. It is a social game that requires many players, judging the meme by how many people might want to participate in this game.
But aside from the silly fun and money-making opportunities, what is the real use case of useless meme coins?
PNUT has been suppressed, but it is becoming stronger as a meme coin. (Elon Musk, X)
Use Case 1: Bypassing U.S. Securities Laws
First, let's clarify one thing— the uselessness of meme coins is itself a special use case. They circumvent U.S. securities regulations that suppress the ICO craze. Additionally, meme coins are particularly not covered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's proposed extended cryptocurrency powers. Why is that? Because they do nothing.
'In fact, issuing a meme coin with no use case today is safer than issuing a useful token,' wrote Chris Dixon, managing partner at a16z Crypto.
U.S. securities law focuses on the Howey Test to determine what constitutes an investment contract. Meme coins represent only a concept and do not promise any returns from the efforts of others, thus they are not bound by that test. This regulatory friendliness has allowed meme coins to spread like wildfire during the crypto warfare period (2022-2024).
Meme coins are the biggest cryptocurrency narrative of 2024, accounting for 14.3% of CoinGecko's second-quarter market share. Now, with Donald Trump as the sitting president, it is expected that the new head of the SEC, Paul Atkins, may allow 'real' projects to raise funds again through a 2020 'safe harbor' proposal similar to Hester Peirce's. Will they gradually disappear?
Use Case 2: Political Speculation
In a world where people use technology to create social bonds from their past experiences, meme coins allow holders to participate and capture the political zeitgeist. Meme coins have been created to support and oppose candidates in the U.S. presidential election.
Meme coins are for everyone, even Gary Gensler. (X)
Argentina's liberal president Javier Milei also has a dedicated meme coin for his reforms. The social utility of allowing people to express political views financially can be seen as parallel to the text donation efforts running in major campaigns.
However, social engagement or utility should be better understood as capturing the 'zeitgeist,' believes Daniel Drescher, VP of business development at Sal'Ad Labs, who stated in an interview with (Magazine) that Trump's new friend and future head of government efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, is a typical example.
'How did Dogecoin become the gold standard in this uncertain Web3 space? They have perhaps the most powerful influencer or key opinion leader of all time—the richest and undefeated person in the world, Elon Musk. He is the inspiration for Iron Man. To fans of Ayn Rand, he is the god-like John Galt who created an engine bright enough to illuminate the entire world.'
Drescher tends to view meme coins as 'brand coins.' They often require a key opinion leader or a figurehead to drive the coin. Successful meme coins have 'fanatical followers who live and die for them. This gets them out of bed every morning.'
The analogy of the zeitgeist resonates. For example, when then-presidential candidate Joe Biden tripped on the stairs, memes of Kamala Harris surged, only to be removed as a nominee by the Democrats.
Political meme coins are popular. (CoinMarketCap)
Use Case 3: Charitable Trojan Horse
Meme coins can serve as Trojan horses for financing more meaningful projects, such as fundraising for charity, launching casinos like Iggy Azalea's Motherland, or starting exchanges like ShibaSwap.
As Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin—known for donating meme coins to charity—wrote:
'Among the coins I've seen, those where a significant portion of the token supply (or some ongoing fee mechanism) is dedicated to some form of charity are more interesting.'
'It feels like there is an unoccupied opportunity to try to create something more positive and lasting.'
The meme coin NEIRO from the Neiro Foundation is trying to become the next Dogecoin by merging practicality and speculative growth.
The question is, who is the Trojan horse? Is it for charitable purposes or speculative growth?
This meme coin is named Neiro, after a rescued Shiba Inu adopted by Atsuko Sato—the original 'Doge' Kabosu's owner.
Doge compared to Neiro. (X)
The Neiro Foundation is a collective effort aimed at providing funding for the rescue and welfare of Shiba Inu dogs worldwide, offering necessary resources and financial support to dog shelters and charities that improve the lives of Shiba Inu. This breed is prone to several common health issues, including hip dysplasia, glaucoma, cataracts, and progressive retinal atrophy.
SlumDOGE Millionaire gained public recognition after turning $180,000 into over 3 million DOGE, a process documented in the film (This Not Financial Advice). He is now a spokesperson for the coin and stated: 'Despite the growing popularity of meme coins attracting a lot of skepticism, many critics overlook that some meme coins have clear, positive missions.'
In addition to viral humor, certain meme coins support charitable initiatives, thus gaining enthusiastic community support. The best meme coins have strong narrative foundations that resonate with an increasing number of socially conscious Web3 users while showcasing the immense potential of DeFi to drive charitable efforts.
Use Case 4: Funding the launch of AI agents
AI agents have tremendous practical potential. Imagine an AI agent capable of automatically rebalancing your crypto portfolio so that profits are automatically shifted to quality coins like Bitcoin, Ethereum, and SOL, avoiding you holding 90% garbage coins.
Sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish between bots and humans. (X)
It seems that one day, AI agents may actually guide autonomous DAOs. But for now, they are highly concentrated at the endpoints of meme coin bot trading. Bots like Truth Terminal interact with users on the X platform, creating artificial hype, driving community engagement and purchases of meme coins.
Look at Fartcoin, this AI-inspired meme coin skyrocketed to a market cap of $900 million through the 'immutable law of comedy: hot air rises.' It is quickly catching up to another meme coin, GOAT, promoted by Truth Terminal.
The whole concept of autonomous AI agents launching meme coins is itself a meme, as many 'AI agents' are merely disguised humans, and GOAT is human-made. However, the actual growth in the number of agents highlights their potential.
Masa co-founder Calanthia Mei stated, 'There is a huge difference between smart AI agent meme coins and stupid meme coins.' Mei, a founding member of PayPal's venture capital division, spoke about 'the perceptibility of meme coins'—referring to the intersection of AI and meme coins where AI agents perform tasks such as making trades.
'In addition to making money, the side effect of meme coins is making technology cool. They shine a spotlight on technologies that only a small group of people care about.'
Meme coins are helping to fund and launch agents on the Virtuals Protocol, where AI agents can be programmed to interact with tokenomics design. It also allows no-code AI agents to build, tokenize, and deploy, as well as more complex designs.
Mei's company Masa is a 'decentralized data miner network' providing real-time data to support retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and relies on context-aware AI agents based on pre-planned prompts that exhibit 'emotional intelligence.' These agents can learn new things and gain new memories in real time, she told (Magazine).
Thus, in this context, these RAG-based AI agents are equipped with dynamic data retrieval, emotional intelligence, and memory capabilities, providing them with contextual awareness and adaptability in real-time.
Mei believes that AI agents are an unstoppable use case for trading.
Mei believes that memes will accelerate the experimental connection between AI and cryptocurrency. Since the GOAT story emerged, she has received 'three times as many inquiries about AI agent development in the past few weeks than before.'
Think about it—creating a smart AI agent meme coin that wanders around Crypto Twitter, the home of crypto market sentiment. This is almost an unstoppable investment argument.
Use Case 5: Fairly launching tokens, avoiding retail investors being harmed by venture capitalists.
For years, retail crypto investors have been harmed by venture capitalists. These investors entered early, purchasing large amounts of token supplies at prices far below the eventual market price. This led to absurdly high fully diluted valuations, with retail investors losing opportunities when venture capitalists sold their tokens. It’s no wonder that users burned by unfair token economics are turning to meme coins, which can—though often do not—launch fairly.
'Mei of Masa said, 'For some projects, meme coins provide the much-needed funding required to develop their technology, escaping the cold venture capital market and Web3 echo chamber.''
In Murad Mahmudov's viral Supercycle speech at Token2049, he argued that fully unlocked meme coins mean that tokenized memes are actual products. No venture capitalists, no lock-up periods. The fact that assets cannot be priced because they have no revenue becomes an advantage.
Ultimately, meme coins are useful for a new type of financing tool, said Zhen Yu Yong, CEO of Web3Auth, a white-label wallet company that builds wallets for Trust Wallet and numerous Fortune 500 companies, with 20 million monthly users.
Of course, most meme coins will fail. But now, you can launch a tokenized project with a chance of success without market makers, without the interference of venture capitalists and backdoor equity trading.
The lack of venture capital support for most meme coins is clearly part of their retail appeal. Those who missed Bitcoin in 2010, or veterans of Ethereum or any other major coin, can instantly become wealthy without venture capitalists messing it up in the pre-seed round. This is an ideological investment argument—the dream of veterans.
In summary, meme coins are like cartoon versions of ICOs without preset notions of what someone might be trying to build and launch.
The most accurate meme of the ICO era. (LinkedIn)
