‘If you can engage in a dialogue with culture, you can change the world.’ Musk said in a July 2021 interview (The New York Times). In this interview, Musk spoke about how he uses social media to engage in dialogues with global culture, particularly how he uses Twitter to promote certain cultural phenomena, including the rise of cryptocurrencies. To this day, Musk's status as a barometer in the crypto market is self-evident, driving the network spread of technological culture, political culture, and popular meme culture. This article will review and explore representative Musk concept coins.
1. The King of Memes, DOGE and Musk’s Mutual Success
DOGE originated in 2013, with the Shiba Inu Kabosu as its prototype. It is the first cryptocurrency based on internet memes and has become the oldest, highest market cap, and most representative king of memes in the crypto space. Along its development path, Musk has played a significant role, mutually enhancing each other.
On April 1, 2019, April Fool's Day, Musk was elected CEO by Dogecoin fans, and he subsequently changed his Twitter bio to 'former CEO of Dogecoin', marking the beginning of fate's wheel turning. Since then, Musk has repeatedly mentioned, commented on, and supported Dogecoin on Twitter, calling it 'the people's cryptocurrency' and 'the most interesting cryptocurrency'.
Starting in 2022, Musk, as the founder of payment giant PayPal, began to gradually hint at Dogecoin's payment plans. On the variety show (Saturday Night Live), Musk once stated, 'DOGE is the future of currency, an unstoppable financial tool that will take over the world.'
Subsequently, Tesla announced that it would accept Dogecoin as a payment method for certain products. It also indicated that its subsidiary SpaceX plans to accept Dogecoin payments.
After acquiring Twitter, Musk has mentioned multiple times that the platform will support cryptocurrency payments. He hinted that Dogecoin might become part of the X platform payment system. Since then, DOGE has gradually introduced payment expectations under Musk's influence.
After Trump takes office in 2024, a wave of political and regulatory benefits for cryptocurrencies is expected. DOGE, with the support of the 'Dogecoin Father', has tremendous bullish expectations. Nate Geraci, president of The ETF Store, tweeted in November on X, stating: 'The spot DOGE ETF application seems inevitable... 2025 will be a crazy year.'
DOGE has now grown into the most important meme in cryptocurrency and a barometer for the entire industry. In this process, Musk's every interaction broadens public attention to Dogecoin and the crypto market. On the other hand, the ever-expanding global crypto investor crowd reinforces his position and influence as an opinion leader in the entire industry. The two mutually enhance each other, guiding the cultural dissemination and funding trends in the crypto industry.
2. A Squirrel That Saves America - PNUT
More than seven years ago, mechanical engineer Mark Longo brought home a little squirrel that had lost its mother and gave it a warm name, 'Peanut.' During its growth, Mark Longo shared countless interesting interaction videos with Peanut on his social media, quickly attracting hundreds of thousands of followers, and Peanut became an internet star. However, on October 30, during the 2024 U.S. presidential election, officials from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) entered Mark Longo's home without a search warrant and arrested Peanut, subsequently euthanizing it for illegal possession of a wild animal. This news triggered an uproar online, with countless netizens expressing strong dissatisfaction and anger, and the DEC fell into a whirlpool of public opinion.
On October 31, the first tweet was sent from the Twitter account @pnutsolana, launching the PNUT token on the chain and calling for a petition for everyone to stand together for Peanut. At this moment, PNUT became a meme symbol of the event and began to ferment across the internet. As the event spread, Musk and Trump, as the Republican campaign team, quickly promoted PNUT, leveraging memes to enhance political influence. On November 3, Musk tweeted, hinting that 'X is for Peanut,' while the official Dogecoin account posted 'RIP Peanut' with an image of a dog and pnut, and Musk directly replied: 'Peanut.' Trump and more internet celebrities continued to follow up and spread interaction.
After Trump won the election, PNUT has become a cultural symbol of American liberal democracy and equality, winning a victory in meme culture. After the election, Musk tweeted that 'America was saved by a squirrel and meme coins.'
3. Politics: The Manhattan Project and the Meme Double Entendre - D.O.G.E.
On November 12, 2024, Donald Trump announced the establishment of the 'Department of Government Efficiency', abbreviated as D.O.G.E., and appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to jointly lead the department. Trump has high expectations for it, stating: it could become the 'Manhattan Project' of our time, paving the way for his government to dismantle bureaucratic structures, reduce excessive regulations, cut wasteful spending, and reorganize federal agencies—this is crucial for the 'Save America' movement.
The concept of D.O.G.E. was first mentioned by Musk in a tweet last August. Although the project initially seemed like a joke, Trump supported the DOGE initiative to cut government spending, suggesting that this once fictional department would actually become a real-life government agency in the US. As Trump is re-elected as President, past jokes become reality.
The highly similar name to DOGE is no coincidence but an intentional design. In August this year, during a Twitter interaction, Musk called this name perfect. Musk also released an image logo of the Department of Government Efficiency featuring a puppy, creating a double entendre with Dogecoin DOGE, reinforcing DOGE's benchmark status.
Since the establishment of D.O.G.E., several meme coins have been issued based on this concept across various chains, but most quickly rug in the short term. Ultimately, the D.O.G.E. on the ETH chain emerged and took a dominant position, and the future progress and benefits of the D.O.G.E. department may significantly impact the price performance of that token.
4. The Meme Integrating Technology and Culture - BANANAS31
Musk's SpaceX is becoming one of humanity's greatest enterprises, possessing limitless imagination in corporate valuation and technological advancement. From global internet connectivity to Mars colonization plans, SpaceX's technological achievements not only bring economic benefits but also open the next door to the universe for humanity.
The meme about SpaceX has become a hot topic in the cryptocurrency industry for capturing and hyping up, but the lifespan of most concepts is relatively short. Until the recent emergence of BANANAS31, which may have the potential to become the first evergreen meme that integrates technology and cultural concepts. On November 20, 2024, at 6 AM, SpaceX successfully conducted the sixth integrated test flight of Starship S31 at its launch site in Boca Chica, Texas. S31 is the last flight test of the first generation of the Starship series, marking SpaceX's full shift to the development of the second generation of Starship (Starship V2). This makes S31 a key milestone in the entire history of Starship development. The successful final flight restored confidence in SpaceX after previous failures, showcasing the gradual maturity of the Starship system and laying the groundwork for future manned missions. S31 is the 'final mission' of Musk and SpaceX's first generation of Starship and the beginning of the next space exploration plan.
Interestingly, this time the S31 Starship has a layer of banana stickers on its exterior, as SpaceX pays tribute to popular culture. The 'Banana for Scale' meme indicates using a banana as a standard unit of measurement to showcase the size of the starship. The SpaceX team also sends a relaxed signal to the world in this way: despite the challenges of space missions, the team is confident in the success of S31. Musk also loves the idea of measuring the starship with bananas and commented on related tweets.
The technological milestone of Starship S31 and humorous internet memes have given many meme coins a speculative angle. In mid-November, there were a large number of tokens related to bananas and starships launched on various chains, but this time the final token that emerged was not from traditional meme hotspot chains like SOL and ETH, but from the long-dormant BSC chain. The tokens on the ETH chain did not perform well in price, and the BANANA on the SOL chain had a week-long hype moment, peaking at around 65 million in market cap, but it is now close to rug pull. Surprisingly, the lifecycle of BSC's BANANAS31 has now approached a month, peaking at 80 million in market cap and currently stabilizing around 50 million. In the past, SpaceX-related tokens generally had a lifespan of just a few days. BANANAS31 also has a strong community that is still active in promoting the integration of technology and cultural memes, recently holding the 'Banana for Scale' TikTok challenge, even spreading into web2. Perhaps this token has the potential to become the first evergreen meme that integrates technology and cultural concepts under the Musk and SpaceX concepts.
5. Data Comparison of Musk Concept Coins
From the horizontal comparison of market cap data, BANANAS31 has the smallest market cap, PNUT's market cap is 22 times that of BANANAS31, and D.O.G.E is 3.5 times its size. In terms of the ratio of trading volume to market cap, BANANAS31 ranks just behind PNUT and is 2.5 times that of D.O.G.E. Social media data is not much different from PNUT and D.O.G.E. (given that Twitter data may have some inflation, values between 50k-1m are considered converging); the number of holding addresses is better than D.O.G.E.
In summary, BANANAS31 has a social influence that is not much different from the already listed PNUT, with a trading volume/market cap ratio of 1/2, but higher than the average, recently being 3 times that of DOGE, performing relatively well without being listed on large exchanges. Compared to D.O.G.E., which is also not listed on large exchanges, BANANAS31 has more trading volume and holders, but its market cap is only 1/3 of D.O.G.E., leaving room for growth. It is difficult to find a top narrative among the meme coins at the 50M level, while the price is stable and the odds are relatively high, and the community continues to interpret meme culture, building on the token.
6. Conclusion
One of the consensuses in this cycle is that meme coins are symbolic cultures and powerful weapons for the large-scale breakout of cryptocurrencies, which should be valued and investment opportunities explored. The core of meme investment has three points: excellent narratives; a strong community; a good chip structure and market cap 'strike point' for buying. Recently, BANANAS31 on the BSC chain fully meets these three investment cores and may become one of the most promising targets under the Musk concept, worthy of attention.
This article is from a submission and does not represent the views of BlockBeats.
