Recently, the MemeCoin narrative is entering a "super cycle". On October 12, 2024, the Google search volume for "MemeCoin" was 77/100, far exceeding the search volume for "Bitcoin" (BTC) at 33/100, although the current crypto market has been in a prolonged downturn due to macroeconomic factors, the hype around MEME in the entire market has not diminished, and there are no signs of slowing down.
MemeCoin, as the name suggests, is a crypto asset built on a meme or a popular joke. Although the ideas behind these crypto projects may originate from a joke, the current status of these assets is no laughing matter. According to CoinGecko's data, the current market size of the entire MemeCoin market is $53 billion, accounting for about 2.3% of the entire crypto market cap. Solana launched Pump.fun in January 2024, which has currently created about 2.3 million MemeCOINs, and other public chains are also rushing to launch MemeCoin launchers, making MemeCoin the hottest track in this bull market.
So, how are the previously popular MemeCOINs doing now? Do newcomers still have a chance with MemeCOINs? How can one make money from MEME? We invited several MemeCoin practitioners from the White Talk Blockchain community to discuss these issues. The guest speakers include:
CZ (@ruyan768, HashGlobal technical advisor, CreatorDAO founder)
daybyday (White Talk community MemeCoin practitioner)
faster100x (@faster100x, White Talk community MemeCoin practitioner)
uuluckyl (White Talk community MemeCoin practitioner)
Note: The order is alphabetical, not in order of priority.
1. On which public chains are MemeCOINs currently the hottest? How are the top public chains like Ethereum, Solana, and Base performing in terms of MemeCOINs?
CZ: The hottest ones are on Ethereum, Solana, and Base. Because of Pump.fun, MEME issuance and trading on Solana are the most active. But Ethereum still has a strong value suction effect, initially Neiro was very popular on Solana, but ultimately more successful on Ethereum. Base should not be overlooked in the later stage of the bull market due to Token support on Coinbase.
daybyday: Currently, MEME is mainly concentrated on Solana and Ethereum.
MEME on the Ethereum chain has much longer sustainability compared to Solana. If the topic is good, even if the current price pulls back, it can still rise later, and most projects will not directly cool down.
But Solana is more of a one-off, if it can go up, it will keep pulling, as long as there is a downward trend, it is most likely to turn into a Christmas tree directly, the PvP (Player vs Player, player-to-player competition) is too severe, if you are slow to run, you will be directly trapped. Due to the existence of Pump, Solana is extremely sensitive to market hotspots, new projects launch at an extremely fast speed, and the rhythm is also very fast, most projects can't last more than three days. Most projects on Solana are bought by smart wallets (influential shill KOLs), and then other smart wallets follow up, and the price rises, attracting retail FOMO, and then there's no more. Solana is more inclined towards animal-themed, while Ethereum is more inclined towards political-themed.
The MEME sentiment on the Base chain is not high at the moment, let's see how it performs after Degen is listed on Coinbase, if the performance is good, it may bring up the MEME sentiment on the Base chain, currently it is mainly around the shill of Base's leader Jesse.
TRON had a few weeks of hype due to the pump, but then it went silent.
The BSC chain has not been able to gain much traction due to the severe sandwich trading and lack of official support.
Recently, the Sui chain has also seen some MEME being hyped, but I haven't paid much attention to it and don't know much about it.
faster100x: Currently, the MemeCoin market remains hot on Solana and Ethereum, much better than in September. Other chains like Sui and TRON (TRX) also occasionally see short-term wealth opportunities, and there are also quality projects emerging on the Base chain. There are significant differences in the development styles of MemeCOINs on Solana and Ethereum:
Solana: MemeCOINs on Solana are particularly inclined towards animal IP projects, such as Rhino being one of the earliest to become popular on Solana. The pace of projects on Solana is very fast, and it is common to see prices quickly surge to high market caps and then plummet significantly, with PVP phenomena in the market being quite intense, causing the landscape to easily trap people if they are not careful. From my observation and experience of smart money, the difficulty of making money on Solana is significantly higher than on Ethereum, and there are relatively few stable profit-making wallets.
Ethereum: The Ethereum chain is more conducive to the emergence of some political or celebrity IP projects, while animal-themed projects also continue to perform strongly. For example, TERMINUS and Neiro, both with Musk concepts, have been representative projects that have sparked hype on Ethereum.
In summary, MemeCOINs on the Ethereum chain are more stable in style, while Solana is more explosive in the short term, but the risks and competition are correspondingly higher.
uuluckyl: Currently, it is still the fight for traffic between Solana and Ethereum. Secondly, there are MEME gameplay copies on chains like Base and Sui. BSC has already disappeared, and Solana's pioneering pump model has brought new hype and revenue to the public chain, plus the retail's resistance to VC Tokens.
2. How are the MemeCOINs that previously fueled the Solana hype doing now?
CZ: The new and old MEME on Solana are still performing strongly, such as WIF, GIGA, POPCAT, etc.
daybyday: The chain is in a state of chasing new and not old, getting listed on BN is like getting an extra life card, and those that don't get listed are mostly ephemeral, with very few survivors.
faster100x: The MemeCOINs that previously led the Solana hype have seen a clear decline in market sentiment now. The MemeCoin market is more like a "fuckboy market", many projects that were once hugely popular, such as BOME, are now hardly noticed, or have completely degenerated into secondary market gaming. Currently, new hype is being led by projects like Neiro and MOODENG, and the market sentiment is gradually shifting.
uuluckyl: The first batch of MemeCOINs on Solana naturally have no more hype now. They are in the stage of gradually distributing their holdings. For example, BOME, W, WTF, ANALOS, BONK, to put it bluntly, some are air projects of professional market-making teams.
3. What are the recent characteristics of the MemeCoin market? How do you see the future development?
CZ: The current MEME market is dominated by internet celebrity pets and internet celebrity catchphrases. MEME with strong community support have the greatest potential in the long run due to their cultural identity and sense of belonging.
daybyday: Recently, due to the hype around Neiro and MOODENG, all kinds of animal IPs on the chain have gone crazy, and many people have become "experts", digging out all the pet information of Neiro's owner and the various family relationships of MOODENG to hype them up. Currently, as long as a MEME heats up on the chain, there will immediately be a bunch of big and small ones, and they will appear on every chain, but everyone won't take each other's bags, leading to severe PvP, even if a hotspot emerges, it's very difficult to grasp which one can really break out, there are too many uncertain factors, just like Neiro, where the big contract was listed first and then the small spot contract, MOODENG, which was originally in an absolute advantage on the Solana chain, has recently resurfaced on the Ethereum chain due to Vitalik's Token selling behavior, which was originally going to die. Overall, it's quite difficult to play the MEME game.
Because most of BN's new listings are institutional Tokens, they reach their peak immediately after listing, without any money-making effect, which has led to a shift towards MemeCoin. But currently, "institutions" are also starting to drive the MemeCoin market, and this force is likely to increase in the future. In my opinion, as long as there is a wealth effect, it will always exist, after all, in this industry, anything can be hyped as long as it has a Meme element.
Qian Bencong: Recent characteristics and future expectations of the MemeCoin market:
High volatility and explosiveness: The MemeCoin market still highly depends on the behavioral guidance of the crypto community, KOLs, and big shots. Violent surges and plunges often occur in the short term. For example, Vitalik's recent sale of MOODENG for charity directly triggered a multiple-fold increase. Such events show the market's sensitivity to the moves of big figures.
Information-driven effect is significant: In the MemeCoin market, information advantage is crucial. Whether you can seize the opportunities brought by high volatility often depends on timely tracking of on-chain transactions, market maker behavior, KOLs (especially conspiracy groups), and the dynamics of big shots in the circle. This determines whether you can profit or become a passive bag holder. How to establish and maintain your own information advantage will be the core competitiveness for future participants.
Higher requirements for retail investors: The increasing complexity of the current MemeCoin market has raised the operational difficulty for retail investors. A hot spot often appears simultaneously on Solana and Ethereum, and there may even be multiple related Coins with different capitalizations. Usually, a hot spot will spawn more than 4 Coins, and how to accurately select Memecoins has become another challenge for retail investors to capture the hot spot.
Future expectations: As market competition intensifies, the importance of information capture and data analysis capabilities will continue to rise. Traders who can quickly obtain, analyze, and interpret market information will have a significant advantage, while retail investors who cannot effectively filter information and projects may face greater operational challenges.
uuluckyl: The characteristics of Meme are: emotion + topic IP + market capital, as well as celebrity effect.
MemeCoin has no value, only short-term benefits, a game in the new niche financial market, and even less physical support, but it also highlights the fairness mechanism of the blockchain, with more transparent rules on-chain.
In the future, MemeCoin will evolve into more sophisticated mechanisms and gameplay, and will tend to cooperate with trendy IPs in real life, as well as some internet celebrity animals and pets, celebrity promotion, etc.
4. What experiences can you share about playing MemeCoin?
Dashuo: Most players are not suitable for PvP new listings, but should buy Memes that have already gained market recognition.
daybyday: The essence of price fluctuations is buying and selling. The Meme track is very dependent on traffic, continuous exposure, and the shill of influential KOLs, which will bring buying power and price increases. If there is no traffic, it is easy to die, after all, new projects are generated every day, and who will care about the old ones.
The whole track requires a high sensitivity to information, it's best to join some communities to get timely hot spot information, because a few minutes late, your cost will be completely different from others. And on X (original Twitter), pay attention to KOLs with "traffic", as sometimes the holding of a KOL can reverse the trend of a Meme. Observe more, accumulate more, and gradually understand the characteristics of each person, and track the dynamics of their wallets. After making money, be sure to take profits in batches, no one can sell at the top, only with capital in hand can you avoid being passive. There are so many opportunities in this industry, never be obsessed with one project.
Qian Bencong: Combining the market characteristics, we need to establish a set of operation strategies suitable for ourselves. The path I have chosen is to hunt for hot spots, and to establish a leading position in the market through information advantages. Here are some of my experience sharing:
Smart money monitoring: Establishing your own smart money monitoring library is crucial. Smart money has many categories, excelling at sniping, long-term holding, new listings, chasing hot spots, and even diamond hands (steadfast holders). Find the smart money that suits your style and let them help you discover opportunities. Digging and tracking the trading behavior of these accounts can greatly improve your advantage in the market.
Twitter monitoring: Maintain close attention to well-known figures, especially big shots like Vitalik, Musk, Trump, BillyM2k (Dogecoin co-founder), CZ, etc. Their tweets often drive the hot spot trends in the Meme market. It is recommended that everyone at least turn on the little bell on Twitter to get the dynamics of these important figures in a timely manner.
Conspiracy group monitoring: Compared to retail-driven MemeCoin, the Tokens promoted by the so-called "conspiracy groups" are more likely to see explosive growth and high market capitalization. Understanding who the members of these groups are and establishing a monitoring system for the Tokens they focus on can help you discover potential opportunities faster. Keep a close eye on their dynamics, which is usually an effective way to capture market hot spots.
KOL monitoring: KOLs play an indispensable role in the early stage of MemeCoin projects. A few influential KOLs can quickly drive up the market cap of a MemeCoin. It is recommended that everyone establish a monitoring list of high-value KOLs, so that you can quickly participate in the early stage of their shill.
Finally, based on these monitoring, you can formulate your own strategy. For example, when multiple smart money accounts buy at the same time, or when more than a certain number of KOLs start to promote a project, you can pay attention or participate. In addition, there are also some related tools in the market, and everyone can explore and utilize these tools to improve trading efficiency.
uuluckyl: The core of MemeCoin at this stage is traffic. Compared to ordinary topic PvP, focusing on celebrity comments is already outdated, and it takes time to capture the hottest IP pets and real-world hot spots.Choose targets with stable trading volume, around 100 million market cap, and sustainable short-term hype, which is easier to make money. After all, buying various Memes is too distracting and takes up rest time. Just choose the hottest IP at each stage, it will be much easier, and the returns will also be relatively good.
But you must pay attention to the MemeCoin scams with the same name and various risky coins without lock-up and clean contracts.Try to only invest a small amount of money, treat it as a lottery, be relaxed in mindset, and never gamble.
5. What are the current money-making opportunities or effects in the MemeCoin market? Do ordinary people still have a chance in the Meme field?
Big Degree: This round of bull market is the supercycle of Meme, with opportunities everywhere. Meme has always been the bull market of ordinary people.
daybyday: There are always opportunities to make money, but they cannot be predicted, and most of them are random. For the vast majority of people, it is still quite difficult to make money in the Meme track, and the bigger direction is to focus on the dynamics of figures like Musk, Trump, and Vitalik, as topics of major significance are easy to hype up.
The entire industry is becoming more and more elitist, and the on-chain Meme hype requires staying up late to watch the market, watch the on-chain data, and watch the dynamics of KOLs on Twitter, which usually requires a lot of time and energy, and even requires collaboration. When you receive a Meme information, you need to be able to get the point of its hype in a short period of time, which is already somewhat unsuitable for ordinary people. It is still necessary to combine your own strengths and find directions that you are interested in. Some people are interested in pulling hair, and some people are just suitable for buying and holding. Interest is the best teacher, and people who are truly interested will dig deeper on their own.
Qian Bencong: I believe that MemeCoin is one of the areas where ordinary people can most easily grasp the opportunity to make money. The key is to pay more attention to the Ethereum ecosystem and establish your own information advantage. For the Meme community you are interested in, maintaining continuous attention and follow-up can greatly improve the profit opportunity.
At the same time, the market is full of various hot spots, and it is impossible to grasp every Token and every opportunity. The most critical thing is to do things with a clear focus, and choose those hot spots that are large enough to bet on, rather than over-participating in small-scale hot spots. Through the selection of hot spots, ordinary people still have great opportunities to achieve returns in the MemeCoin field.
uuluckyl: Based on the above views, the current stage of MemeCoin is still around the hot IP topics that are spreading in real life and the Web2 Internet, and the core is traffic. Where there is traffic, there is heat.
Ordinary people should try not to participate in MemeCoin, as the market fluctuates very quickly, and it may plummet before you have time to sell. If you really want to participate, you need to ensure that you have enough time to observe the market every day. Try to invest in only three Coins per month, reduce the frequency and amount. Only invest in the hottest IPs, including Solana and other Ethereum chains with heat, and choose one Meme for each chain. This will be much simpler. Still the old saying, the market has risks, investment needs to be cautious, do not be impulsive, and do not let emotions affect decision-making.
