Author: Nancy, PANews
With most crypto narratives weak, MEME is undoubtedly the largest traffic position in this bull market. Major exchanges have used this sector as a means to leverage traffic and win community reputation. Recently, the leading exchange Binance has been questioned and criticized by the community after launching multiple MEME coins in succession. The biggest controversy is whether to follow the hot traffic or stick to the narrative value.
Exchanges take sides, exacerbating the dispute over capitalization of MEME
The crypto market is in a liquidity crisis, and MEME has become a rescue white horse to recreate the "gold rush" and show strong market performance. According to crypto analyst arndxt, only 42 projects have outperformed Bitcoin this year, of which 11 of the top 15 are MEME coins.
This round of MEME explosion stems from the community's dissatisfaction and resistance to the VC coin model, which satisfies the general public's imagination of fair issuance and grassroots atmosphere. This also forced exchanges such as Binance to change their coin listing logic.
Take Binance as an example. In just one month, Binance has launched spot and contracts of multiple MEME projects such as BRETT, DOGS, POPCAT, NEIRO, HMSTR and Neiro, and even launched 3 MEME projects at the same time in one day, covering Base, TON and Ethereum. Of course, this also indirectly confirms that Solana is losing its dominant position in the MEME field.
Affected by the listing on the exchange, these MEME coins have seen a sharp rise in prices. For example, after Neiro was announced to be listed on Binance, its market value rose from tens of millions of US dollars to over 300 million US dollars today.
However, while the huge wealth effect was achieved, the collective listing of MEME coins by exchanges also caused huge controversy. On the one hand, there was a dispute over the uppercase and lowercase MEME coins. For example, Binance, OKX, etc. launched the uppercase NEIRO contract, which caused the project to surge in a few days. Due to the problem of insider trading, this caused dissatisfaction in the lowercase Neiro community and also made the community question the value of the exchange's listing.
In this regard, Binance co-founder He Yi recently responded, "In the dispute between big and small neiro, it is also because of the criticism from the community that we are more reflecting on what is a good MEME. If the essence of the MEME community is another "GameStop", then the tokens are highly concentrated, and the price has been pumped up. Is MEME, whose bubble is not known when it will burst, still MEME? Or is it a Ponzi scheme dressed in MEME clothes? Therefore, we listed several MEME projects with relatively dispersed tokens and low market capitalization. Among the more than ten projects screened in the early stage, many failed due to compliance review and token concentration."
Crypto KOL @neso explained this capitalization phenomenon, saying that in fact, the various capitalization and punctuation coins that have appeared recently, in terms of market value and holder size, are only a small part of meme coins, and are also some characteristics of periodic hot coins. They do not represent the mainstream, let alone all. There are still many high-quality MEME projects with strong community consensus in the market, but Binance and OKX have not paid attention to them. Maybe it is because of interests or audit standards, or maybe they are trapped in some kind of information cocoon. In the long run, MEME coins that focus on MEME cultural dissemination, MEME brand building, and community culture cultivation will eventually succeed and have the opportunity to cross the cycle.
Frequent listing of MEME leads the market trend? The logic of listing coins on exchanges is questioned
On the other hand, the high frequency of listing of MEME coins by exchanges including Binance has also been questioned by the outside world as influencing the market direction.
"MemeCoin is more like a gambling product to a large extent. Although one of the natural properties of encryption is to stimulate the secretion of dopamine, and MEME can do this better. But if most of the industry builders create this kind of thing, and even the leading exchanges tend to provide more stimulus space for Memecoin, then the encryption industry will gradually become a gambling den. Of course, there are also problems with a large number of projects other than MEME. The overvaluation and the accumulation of stories that cannot create value have led to the market looking lively, but there are not many good targets to choose from." Crypto KOL broLeon said frankly in an article.
@neso believes that MEME coin has changed a lot from the last cycle and is entering a 2.0 phase. He hopes that CEXs can deeply observe and understand the changes and continue to promote the development of the track, rather than really seeing it as a tool for attracting traffic and creating hot spots. Otherwise, their influence on MEME coin may continue to be weakened.
In fact, OKX CEO Star also wrote an article about the exchange listing, questioning what is the original intention of the cryptocurrency exchange to list tokens? After some token project parties list to the exchange, the only thing they do is to release, reduce holdings and harvest users. The exchange should not become an accomplice of such project parties. Since there is no supervision on listing and reducing holdings for the time being, how to protect this market? This is something that the entire industry deserves to reflect on.
In response to Binance's basic framework and process for listing coins, He Yi said that Binance's online projects are mainly divided into three categories: projects that users need: as a trading platform, we cannot think it is good, but users must think it is good; projects that last long: it is not Binance that determines the price of tokens, but the token model, circulation, buying and selling orders. These high-valuation projects of top teams have a large number of MMs willing to give them advice to maintain a high market value, and a large number of exchanges are flocking to them, especially AMM has brought about the rise of DEX. It is not impossible without a trading platform. But it is undeniable that when other projects rise and fall, they live longer and have more opportunities; projects with business logic: whether it is Web2 or Web3, the essence of entrepreneurship is to create what the world needs. We like projects with solid business models and income. We hope that this team is reliable, they have entrepreneurial potential, and can take responsibility. We also hope that your valuation is not too high and that you can take care of the community to grow together. We hope that you can empower tokens, because if you stand with your users, your users will stand with you.
"The dilemma reflected by Binance's listing may also be the huge bottleneck and confusion faced by the current market. Now it seems that no one knows where the next innovation will come from." Qinbafrank, a crypto KOL, believes that the current currency market may have gone from being "anchored" to being "anchorless". The past history is no longer meaningful to be referenced, and the future direction is in great confusion. What we should discuss more is: how to "re-anchor" the industry from "anchoring" to "anchorless", and which are more valuable and meaningful attempts. The re-anchoring of the currency market is more difficult and bumpy than that of the US stock market. The worthless re-invention of the wheel, the inflated valuation pushed up by the primary market, the unreasonable issuance structure with low circulation and high FDV, and the unrestrained and bottomless dumping of the project party have all led to the bleakness of the current market and are also the crux of the problem. Starting from these aspects, guiding and protecting step by step, the results may not all be as expected, but it is also the only way for us to re-anchor and set things right in the right direction.
