As of November 10, the data statistics of BTC, ETH, and TON on the TrendX platform are as follows:
The discussion volume of BTC last week was 20.53K, up 21.23% from the previous week; the price on the last Sunday was $81,357, up 19.2% from the previous Sunday.
The discussion volume of ETH last week was 5.75K, up 50.03% from the previous week; the price on the last Sunday was $3,203, up 27.1% from the previous Sunday.
The discussion volume of TON last week was 786, down 2.48% from the previous week; the price on the last Sunday was $5.42, up 0.83% from the previous Sunday.
Just today, Binance has launched the AI Meme project ACT and PNUT, and as soon as the news came out, the ACT token immediately soared about 10 times, setting a new record for the increase in Meme tokens listed on the exchange, also bringing a bit of Meme shock to the industry. The exchange seems to be turning its attention to Meme.
This month, the Binance Research Institute released a report titled "Understanding the Rise of Meme Coins", which shows that since 2022, the total market cap of Meme coins has increased from 4% to 11% by 2024, nearly tripling in just two years. According to a report released by Bybit Exchange in June this year, institutional investors' holdings of spot Meme coins increased from $62.5 million in February to March this year to $204.8 million, reaching a peak of $293.7 million in April, an increase of nearly 500%. The wind of Meme coins is blowing stronger and stronger, with DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, GOAT... the suddenly popular Meme coins making many people rich while also leaving people puzzled. This article will help you understand why Meme coins are so hot and analyze the current state of the track.
The Rise of Meme Coins
Meme coins - a type of cryptocurrency based on Internet memes. They are usually created by developers or enthusiasts, inspired by popular memes or Internet culture, and widely disseminated through social media and online forums.
From the definition of Meme coins, we can see that unlike other crypto assets, Meme coins may be created for the purpose of humor and entertainment, and these Meme coins do not have specific uses and actual application scenarios, but only accidentally provide investment opportunities about consensus when evoking people's sense of humor. This basic concept has also laid the foundation for the continued heat of Meme coins this year, and the following are the reasons for the continued high heat of Meme coins this year:
1. Financialization of Internet culture
The viral spread and community-driven appeal of Meme coins have been extended to the financial field through cryptocurrency technology, realizing the financialization of Meme coins. It has evolved from a form of Internet culture to a financial instrument that can be bought and sold and assigned value.
As one of the basic conditions for financialization, these Meme cultures have gained the consensus of the Internet "market", which is also one of the biggest features of Meme coins - no practicality, but attractive: Meme coins are based on Internet culture, memes or trends, usually without clear practicality or intrinsic value, they represent a newer, fairer and more accessible wealth creation opportunity, without pre-mining, team allocation or venture capital allocation, all tokens are equally available to all participants at issuance.
2. Impact of global macroeconomic conditions
This is a layer of the butterfly effect caused by the US dollar, during the COVID-19 crisis, global central banks have carried out unprecedented liquidity injections, causing the global money supply to increase from $81 trillion to $102 trillion, an increase of more than 25%. This "massive liquidity injection" phenomenon has made high-risk investments more attractive, and capital has begun to flow into high-risk, high-return investment tools including Meme coins.
This rapid expansion of global money supply has also triggered global inflation and rising commodity prices. The US inflation rate reached 7% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022. Faced with currency depreciation, rational actors will invest their funds in assets that are believed to have long-term value, and Meme coins, as a new asset class, have attracted some of the surplus capital.
3. The "traffic dissemination and rapid rise strategy" of Meme coins on major public chains
Meme coins are seen as the "bridgehead" for ecosystem development and are considered the vanguard of the development of major blockchain ecosystems, attracting market attention and capital to promote subsequent ecosystem development. And its dissemination has a cyclical high heat feature, the Meme coins in 2024 show a cyclical high heat, its dissemination is similar to the crazy spread of an epidemic, relying on social media and community dissemination, often accompanied by exponential growth.
The combined effect of these factors has driven the explosive rise of Meme coins in 2024, which has not only reflected the changes in the financial market, but also the result of the younger generation's dissatisfaction with the traditional financial system and their search for new investment opportunities. At the same time, the dissemination model and value proposition of Meme coins have also attracted the attention and participation of a large number of investment institutions.
Mainstream Institutions' Views on the Meme Coin Track
It can be said that since this year, Meme coins have increasingly become an important focus of attention for institutional investors. Since the second half of 2024, some VCs have also announced that they will invest in Meme coin infrastructure, marking a shift from previous VC opposition to Meme coins to gradual acceptance.
1. Binance
As early as 2023, Binance Labs has invested in multiple Meme coins, and in 2024 it continues to maintain an enthusiastic participation in the Meme coin track. In January, it invested in the native ecosystem Token MEME of the Memeland project, which was included in the Binance Launchpool in October 2023. Subsequently, Binance Labs supported and promoted the development of the Whyanelephant project under its umbrella.
2. Coinbase
Coinbase Ventures also started supporting DOGE as early as 2018, although the specific investment amount was not disclosed, but the project has accumulated a large amount of support in the community. In 2021, Coinbase Ventures invested in SHIBA, and the parent company Coinbase announced at the end of 2023 that it would add Bonk to its tradable asset list. And after the GOAT craze, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proposed setting up a crypto wallet for Truth Terminal, which is enough to show their continued attention to the Meme track.
3. a16z
As a renowned mainstream venture capital firm, a16z was not initially friendly to the Meme coins that had captured the market. Several of a16z's top leaders have tweeted harsh criticism of Meme coins, calling them a disruption to the long-term vision of cryptocurrencies, bluntly stating that this is the casino of the crypto world.
However, recently a16z has changed its critical attitude of the first half of the year and frequently participated in Meme events. First, a16z co-founder Andreessen Horowitz tipped $50,000 in BTC to the bot account Truth Terminal on X, which gave birth to the recent hot GOAT coin, pushing GOAT from an obscure project to a shocking $850 million all-time high market cap, and Truth Terminal became the first AI millionaire, also driving the development of the AI+Meme trend.
Meme Coin Projects with Strong Performance This Year
Meme coins are the "get-rich-quick concept" that we hear about every day, and compared to other sectors in the crypto market, the Meme coin sector clearly has an extremely strong wealth effect, such as SHIB which surged 50,000 times and DOGE which surged 400 times in the past, these wealth creation myths have attracted countless traffic and capital to enter the crypto currency industry, but the Meme coin track is not just a flash in the pan, the wealth creation myth of this wave of big army is still continuing.
1. DOGE (Dogecoin)
As one of the pioneers of Meme coins, DOGE has been known for its community support and market performance. In 2021, DOGE gained mainstream popularity, growing from a market cap of $700 million on January 1 to $88 billion in early May, an increase of more than 100 times in 4 months.
Currently, the market capitalization of DOGE is around $36 billion. Of course, when it comes to the DOGE token, we cannot ignore the huge traffic and influence brought by Musk. He has mentioned his fondness for DOGE multiple times on Twitter, and recently, due to his support for Trump's victory in the US election, the price of the DOGE token has increased by 140% in three months and 70% in seven days. The push from such an influential world-renowned tech celebrity has a great relationship with the development of DOGE.
2.PEPE
The PEPE token was launched in April this year, and in less than a month, the number of token holders' addresses reached 100,000, which was absolutely unprecedented at the time in terms of such rapid growth. Just looking at the token price, the increase on the 22nd was 12,000 times, with the price rising from 10 zeros before the decimal point to 5 zeros, which not only attracted great market attention, but was simply boiling hot.
The success of PEPE is naturally a combination of multiple factors. After witnessing the crazy and rapid rise of Doge and SHIB that brought huge wealth effects, people have been looking for the next Meme token. The emergence of PEPE and its rapid growth have triggered people's FOMO emotions, afraid of missing out on the opportunity of 100x or 1000x Meme tokens again. So the faster the early growth, the more people will buy in, and this is a self-reinforcing process.
In addition, the exchanges have also played a considerable role in the development of PEPE. For example, the PEPE token was listed on the MEXC exchange in just 6 days, and on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange Binance in 22 days, which is a treatment that many other mainstream tokens have not received.
3.Degen
Degen is a representative Meme project on the Base chain, and was very popular before the PEPE incident in February-March this year. The early development of Degen was originally a community Meme project, with 100% Meme attributes. As the gentleman's hat attribute of Degen became more prominent, the official APP later endowed Degen with utility, as a tip token for the Farcaster social platform, but it still did not change its Meme attribute, which is about 80% Meme attribute + 20% utility attribute. The subsequent support from Farcaster and the Base ecosystem for Degen has enabled it to ride the wind, and has also played a driving role in the development of the Meme market, which has also paved the way for PEPE.
4.GOAT
AI Meme coin, its birth is even more creative. The fundamental reason for the rise of GOAT coin is the combination of AI and Meme coin, which created a novel concept of AI autonomous issuance, something no one has tried before, making GOAT coin coherent and native under the backdrop of tens of millions in market value. Of course, without a certain amount of traffic support, it would be difficult to be noticed by the public. GOAT's initial entry into the public eye was also thanks to the influence of a16z, whose founding partner Marc Andreessen bought $50,000 worth of Bitcoin for it, and this celebrity effect brought GOAT coin initial attention and trust. The listing of GOAT on Moonshot also brought the convenience of fiat currency purchase, and its price soared, completely entering the FOMO rhythm, and then GOAT's market value rose all the way, reaching a high of $600 million on October 20th, with crypto big V like Arthur Hayes even calling for GOAT to reach a market value of $1 billion.
5.ACT
ACT Meme is a cryptocurrency that combines AI technology and blockchain, aiming to create an "AI and Meme" themed ecosystem. The project is called "Act I: The AI Prophecy" and is built on the Solana blockchain, providing users with an equal and collaborative digital interactive experience through its innovative AI-driven mechanism.
Conclusion
The booming phenomenon of Meme tokens not only demonstrates the integration of Internet culture and the financial sector, but also marks a new trend of the combination of Meme and AI. As an indispensable part of the cryptocurrency sector, Meme tokens continue to attract the attention of global investors with their unique community-driven and cultural symbolic attributes. With the introduction of AI technology, the innovative potential and market influence of Meme tokens will be further expanded, bringing new vitality and possibilities to the cryptocurrency market. In the future, Meme tokens will continue to play an important role in the cryptocurrency field, driving the development and transformation of the industry.
Research Report
