I don't think memecoins should be the center of so much debate.
Their appeal is simple: they are fun, and they lack pretentious technical intricacies.
In the past, we had to wait for a listing on a CEX for something to truly gain trust and become attractive for trading, but now there are tons of ways to trade completely new things.
Altcoins have always been associated with flow, liquidity, and momentum (and their derivatives, such as volume, influence on consciousness, etc.). This may seem like a reductionist view, but it stems from the following facts:
1. If cryptocurrencies cyclically become bearish, historically there have been no "safe havens" or intra-crypto hedges against the drop. When something dies, correlations converge closer to 1, and everything dies together, regardless of the "good technology."
2. Even gems (SOL/AVAX, FOAN, DeFi 1.0, etc.) struggle to regain relevance once they've been in the spotlight, and generally lose value compared to BTC/ETH, and even more so compared to newer gems.
As a result, trading altcoins has always been more like robbing a bank: get in, take as much money as you can while conditions are good, get out, don’t return to the scene of the crime, and don’t hit the same spot twice.
From this, it logically follows that the time horizon for "investments" should be short, and loyalty (in terms of a multi-cycle perspective) should be close to 0.
So far, memecoins are coming out on top.
Perhaps this will continue, and the strong will remain strong throughout the cycle. Maybe memecoins as a category will persist, but the old guard will be pushed out. Who knows.
The point is, it doesn't matter.
Altcoins have always been a short-term (or, at best, single-cycle) grab for attention until everything dies. Memecoins are not a radical departure from this, just the latest version.
Your task is to turn this attention into money while it lasts.