Editor's note: This article only reflects on the Meme craze and does not serve as any investment advice or endorsement of any project.
V C and retail investors do not accept each other's orders, conflicts between project developers and community users have intensified over airdrops and anti-sybil, and liquidity in the circle is not ideal. Meme has become a way to solve the problem. The token type with the largest trading volume on Binance is still MEMECOINS. The top ten trading volume rankings are BTC, ETH, PEPE, SOL, FLOKI, WIF, DOGE, BNB, BOME and SHIB, six of which are MEMECOINS.
In the past two days, I have been thinking about those Memes with a higher market value, such as the originator DOGE and this round of PEPE. The reasons for their popularity are inseparable from but not limited to these five elements: cultural foundation, simplicity and recognition. , entertainment and humor, low threshold for second creation, and promotion by super influencers and soul figures.
cultural basis
The images of Pepe and Doge have long been popular in Internet culture and have accumulated a huge fan base on various social platforms. The crypto community is often made up of young and active Internet users who have grown up with the development of the Internet. They are familiar with these memes and are happy to incorporate them into new trends.
For example, the origin of Doge's popularity in the Internet circle can be traced back to a photo of the Shiba Inu Kabosu in February 2010; in December 2010, the Doge Meme became popular on Reddit and was combined with broken English phrases; in 2013 Various Doge emoticons appear frequently, and the influence of Doge Meme has become very large at this time. In December 2013, Dogecoin (DOGE) was born based on a tongue-in-cheek idea.
Pepe is earlier and more complex. It can be traced back to Matt Furie's comic "Boys Club" in 2005. The most classic line is "feels good man"; later, more things were given to this line, such as the sad frog "feels bad man". In 2008, Pepe became popular on the 4chan forum and was made into various emoticons. Around 2014, Pepe basically covered all mainstream social media. However, Pepe was later given some political metaphors and received a lot of attention. The controversy has also made Pepe's image very complicated; from 2017 to 2019, Matt Furie and the Pepe community worked hard to clear up the source and try to bring Pepe back to its origins and original development intentions.
In April 2023, Memecoin PEPE was launched, with early push from the NFT community such as Milady NFT holders and Dubai Chinese. Later, there were also some accusations against the PEPE team by Not Larva Labs co-founder Pauly, as well as the civil strife in the PEPE team and the chaos of the treasury being embezzled and sold. Although PEPE is much later than DOGE in the history of tokens, and there are some debates, PEPE eventually became the third largest Memecoin after DOGE and SHIB.
Simple yet recognizable
This should go without saying. When talking about Doge and Pepe, those emoticons will come to mind and you will understand them instantly. These emoticons themselves have high recognition and memory points, are easy to spread, and can be visually distinguished from others immediately.
Entertainment and Humor
Meme itself should be humorous and entertaining, and Memecoin should also inherit this characteristic, not only for investment income, but also for the fun of it. This relaxed atmosphere can more easily attract outsiders, novices and young investors. Therefore, in the first two rounds of the bull market, it may not be value coins or applications that attract a large number of users into the industry, but DOGE and SHIB. Memecoins like this.
On the basis of assuming that there is no Pixiu plate on the market, the choice of Meme should be based on eye contact - that is, the most intuitive impression, whether you can be attracted by the fun and community spirit and feel it without having to think carefully. hapiness.
Low threshold for second creation
The distinctive feature of Meme is that the threshold for creating emoticons or secondary creations is very low, allowing users to spread it quickly and attract a large number of participants to join in the creation, and then continue to radiate and spread. Most Memes have a fixed image or template, and users only need to change part of the content; there are many free online tools and applications dedicated to making and sharing Memes, and these tools simplify the Meme creation process; Second-generation memes are not only a form of entertainment, but can also convey personal opinions and emotions, as well as reflect the living conditions of people in different generations.
Every second innovation is giving Meme a new core, and the reason why Meme has become a Memecoin is also a manifestation of Meme's continuous absorption of new culture in the process of development - incorporating elements of Crypto and blockchain, Let culture become a cultural asset and be transmitted at the financial level.
However, due to the easy spread of Meme, some people with ulterior motives will also label the second-generation Meme as political or extremist, which will bring certain social harm. These corrections require the joint efforts of super influencers, soul figures and communities.
Promoted by super influencers and soul figures
Social influencers play an important role in promoting and spreading Meme. As long as Memecoins are related to it, Memecoins will be driven accordingly, especially celebrities and Internet figures as well as public figures in various traditional industries mentioned or promoted on social media. These memes will quickly arouse market attention and hype.
For example, Musk mentioned Dogecoin many times on Twitter, which directly affected its market price and popularity. Some people even called Musk a market manipulator; Musk released a photo of a dog wearing a hat on Twitter. , causing WIF to skyrocket.
In addition, the spread and success of Meme will in some cases be driven by individual key figures or so-called soul figures. Such soul figures are similar to the role of the leader of a certain sect, such as Roaring Kitty, the soul figure of "Retail Investors vs. Wall Street". The sudden activity on social media in the past three years has caused GameStop to skyrocket, triggering six circuit breakers at one time; Pepe creator Matt Furie may not have intended to promote Pepe to become the main promoter of Meme, but between 2017 and 2019, "Save "Pepe" movement, Matt Furie played an indelible role in maintaining and reshaping Pepe's image; Ansem continued to market and export WIF.
The combination of Internet pop culture and Crypto has given Meme a significant impact on the financial level. Meme culture brings entertainment into investment behavior, allowing more users who resonate with Meme culture to do so at a lower cost Local way to enter Crypto. However, it still needs to be reminded that Memecoin is a highly risky and volatile target. A sense of recognition may be a prerequisite for investment, but it is not a guarantee of investment. We hope that all investors will treat it rationally when participating in Memecoin.
