Author: @CumberlandLabs
Translation: Plain Language Blockchain
After several weeks of lurking on Discord, observing Telegram groups, and browsing Twitter, as well as discussing with various research analysts and traders, I have gained a comprehensive understanding of the perspectives of different groups - from professional algorithmic traders to my wife's brother - on memecoin. In this process, my research has covered everything from how to improve the UI/UX for limit orders and complex order execution, to asking my friends if they think "Moo Deng" is really cute, or if they've heard of "Peanut the Squirrel".
In-depth research from Discord
What you are about to see is the result of on-the-ground research, which consolidates the existing public data around this space and includes anonymous feedback on the narrative. We at Cumberland Labs believe that this narrative is both compelling and will continue for years to come. On the surface, this may appear to be a shallow, oversimplified narrative, but in reality, it represents a shift in user behavior - a shift that, whether these Token traders realize it or not, will drive billions of dollars in idle capital into the on-chain ecosystem.
In-depth research from my wife
1. What is a Memecoin?
The story of Memecoin is an ever-evolving one. From the birth of DOGE as a parody of Bitcoin that caught the attention of Elon Musk, to SHIB and PEPE igniting the imagination of retail investors, and now the phenomenon of fair launches on Solana - we have witnessed this market continuously reinvent itself.
@elonmusk's first tweet related to Doge
Today, Solana dominates this space, supporting 89% of new Token launches. Just last week, 181,000 new Tokens were launched on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). This is not just a growth in quantity, but also an increase in accessibility. Platforms like pump.fun have made Token launches accessible to all, but the success rates reveal an important fact: less than 2% of Tokens make it to Raydium, and only 0.0045% of Token market caps manage to stay above $1 million.
Source: @TheBlock__
So, what's the difference between memecoin and "shit coin"? The key lies in the hallmarks of success:
The most successful Tokens - from DOGE to Moo Deng - share common elements: strong meme propagation potential, attention-grabbing catalysts, and high community engagement. DOGE stood out with Elon Musk's attention and first-mover advantage, while Moo Deng ignited people's imagination through viral social media influence. But most importantly, they built communities, converting casual onlookers into passionate supporters.
2. The Data Doesn't Lie
The recent growth of memecoin is far from a fleeting phenomenon. According to data from BN Research, the market cap of memecoin as a percentage of non-BTC/ETH/stablecoin assets has skyrocketed from 4% to 11% in just two years, nearly tripling its market share and achieving significant growth in a highly competitive market.
Millennials and Gen Z now account for 94% of digital asset buyers. This is not just a demographic coincidence, but a response of an entire generation to their environment. What they are buying is not just Tokens, but a rejection of the traditional path to financial security pursued by their parents' generation. On the surface, memecoin may seem like a joke, but for these traders, they represent a real opportunity to escape the traditional system and achieve returns, a system that has consistently let them down.
As Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson put it best: "When people lose faith in getting slowly rich, it's hard to blame them for wanting to get rich quick." This faith has been eroding for years. In 1963, it took an average of 4.4 years' wages to buy a house, whereas now it takes 8.1 years. Add to that the recent surge in inflation, reaching 7% in 2021, and it's clear the younger generation is seeking other financial opportunities.
This trend is not just about the chance to strike it rich quickly (although that element is certainly present). More importantly, it is an expression of protest against a system they have lost trust in, using their own capital. The memecoin phenomenon is a high-risk, high-reward game, and it is precisely this characteristic that strongly appeals to today's traders. It is not just a game, but a vote of no confidence in the old ways of wealth accumulation.
3. Decoding the Memecoin Phenomenon
The pace of evolution in this market is astounding. Our research shows that $BOME reached a $1 billion market cap in 2 days, $PNUT in 14 days, $WIF in 104 days, SHIB in 279 days, and DOGE took a full 8 years. Capturing and maintaining the attention of traders is key to success.
Screenshots of Phantom wallets on the X platform show returns of 633x and +10,520%, highlighting a broader theme: Accessibility and fairness have become core. Reflecting on the 2017 ICO craze, one of its defining features was widespread participation - no fundraising rounds, no VC allocations, and no complex unlock schedules.
@0xRamonos
Today's memecoin traders are fighting back against what a Discord user called the "VC exit liquidity simulator" of modern Token launches. A new memecoin with no team allocation, market-driven pricing, brings back the fair competition environment of the early crypto days, where community and network effects are key.
@paulemmanuelng
When viewed as an opportunity for fair competition without worrying about VC unlocks and Token unlocks, the memecoin craze makes more sense. People are tired of being used as exit liquidity tools, and fair launch platforms like pump.fun make it easy for anyone to launch a Token, giving everyone a chance to participate.
4. Achieving Escape Velocity - The 100x Anatomy
What separates the successful from the thousands upon thousands of failed launches? The numbers are quite clear - less than 2% of Tokens make it from pump.fun to Raydium, and only a minuscule 0.0045% maintain a market cap above $1 million. But indeed, some Tokens have achieved what we call "escape velocity", breaking free from the anonymous gravitational pull.
Successful stories follow observable patterns. The most powerful Tokens excel in at least one of the following seven key areas: meme potential, attention catalysts, innovation, humor, community, distribution, and development. Look at any successful memecoin, and you will find these elements at play, with attention catalysts, meme potential, community, and distribution becoming the most critical factors.
Source: https://dune.com/queries/4048901/6817482/
Take Moo Deng as an example - its success is no accident. The project has garnered significant attention through its social media presence on Twitter, Telegram, and TikTok. Its cute and easily memeable characters have been constantly featured in the information flow, creating a viral cycle of cognition and sharing. While it is not particularly humorous, its powerful attention catalysts and distribution strategy have created sustained momentum.
@himgajria
Solana's role in this evolution cannot be overlooked. The network now supports 89% of new Token issuances and processes around 41 million non-voting transactions. This dominance is no accident - Solana's low fees and fast transaction times have created an environment conducive to rapid experimentation, even if most experiments fail.
5, Current Market Landscape: Insights through Data
Data provides valuable insights, revealing how traders interact with different memecoin platforms and highlighting key gaps in the market.
First, it is noteworthy that around 60% of users, even after using their preferred trading terminal, still visit DexScreener. They use DexScreener for its insights, advanced filters, and analytical tools, indicating that the existing platforms have not fully met their needs. However, even though these terminals have better customization and parameterization capabilities than DexScreener's interface, only 10-12% of DexScreener users ultimately use the trading and execution terminals. This points to a gap in user satisfaction - these trading terminals may have better features, but they are not being fully utilized.
Source: SimilarWeb
When comparing mobile and desktop usage, Photon stands out. Among the three major trading terminals - gmgn.ai, BullX, and Photon - Photon has the highest mobile usage, while BullX has the most desktop users. Although BullX has a large desktop user base, a considerable portion of its traffic comes from Telegram links. This suggests that even on the mobile-centric platform Telegram, users ultimately interact with BullX on the desktop. This hints at the complexity of these terminals and indicates that users prefer to operate them in an environment that can more comfortably manage all their features.
Source: SimilarWeb
This trend points to a broader issue: the complexity of existing trading terminals. Their dominance on the desktop suggests that these terminals are too cumbersome for the mobile environment, and the market lacks a seamless cross-device trading terminal. Traders want powerful tools that can be accessed on mobile and can flexibly switch to a simplified interface when needed. The market needs an integrated solution - an intuitive platform that combines advanced functionality with ease of use, whether the user is on desktop or mobile.
The current experience is fragmented, inefficient, and inconvenient. Traders have to switch between multiple platforms to obtain the necessary insights and effectively execute trades. A unified solution that provides depth and functionality, while being accessible on mobile and with an adaptive UI, would significantly improve the trading experience.
@TaikiMaeda2 @MustStopMurad
6, Deeper Dive: The Trader's Perspective
Conversations with traders reveal a consistent theme - they want powerful functionality without the complexity. "When the network is congested, I still need to set priority fees and bribes," explained one trader. "I wish there were smart default settings I could just use, but with the ability to adjust when needed."
This balance between simplicity and control repeatedly emerges. Existing platforms either oversimplify everything or throw all the complexity at the user. There is no middle ground that allows functionality to be out-of-the-box, yet customizable when required.
"Having an interface that integrates swapping, charts, and recent trades list in one view would be better. Fewer clicks, all key information in one place," a high-frequency trader told me. Another trader mentioned spending several hours explaining basic concepts like gas fee optimization to their team - time that could have been spent actually trading.
@blankspac_e
A recurring complaint centered around limit orders. "I got filled, but all the slippage was eaten by the platform," pointed out one trader. Another mentioned that limit orders on a certain platform seem to consistently execute before other platforms, creating an unfair situation that no one understands.
7, Market Structure: The Real Issue
The current platforms are designed for crypto-native users and on-chain traders who are already familiar with terms like "slippage tolerance," "priority fees," and "bribes." But most traders just want to know how much they will be charged in fees and whether their trade will execute. A trader managing over 100 wallets told me they can't even keep track of their own positions anymore.
The mobile experience is even worse. While Telegram bots have filled some gaps, they are not a true solution. They are just temporary patches to a system that needs to be rethought from the ground up.
This fragmentation comes at a real cost. Traders jump between interfaces, miss opportunities due to failed trades, and lose funds due to poor execution. The current ecosystem forces users to choose between expensive tools and poor performance - there is no middle ground.
8, Building the Solution: Beyond Temporary Fixes
The current memecoin trading environment feels like a patchwork of temporary fixes, barely adequate but with room for significant improvement. When a trader tells me, "It would be great if someone could develop a tool to customize LP strategies," or complains, "I have to set priority and bribes when fees are high," or "I wish there were better execution on stop-loss and take-profit order strategies," they are actually pointing to a fundamental problem: the existing solutions are not true solutions at all.
Most platforms feel like they are designed for those already familiar with on-chain trading,bridgingandDeFi, with the resulting complexity. But after talking to different traders, it seems that traders want to access complex functionality through a non-complex interface. The existing "advanced" interfaces still do not provide the parameterization of complex functionality that sophisticated traders need, while the default interfaces are too simple, hiding features that could have a huge impact on profits and losses. For example, as one trader said, even something as simple as "automatically telling me how much this trade (including gas and fees) will cost, to ensure the trade can go through smoothly" could allow professional users to say "hmm, that fee looks pretty high, I might not want to pay that much" while also allowing regular users to understand roughly how much they are about to pay.
The solution is not just simplifying the interface - it's rethinking how traders interact with these markets from the ground up. When people liken memecoin trading to "playing a game", they're not actually oversimplifying anything. They're actually looking for the elements associated with a gamified experience. They want analytical tools that can show them their odds of winning, reasonable performance tracking systems, and tools to help them understand their trading patterns.
The Way Forward: The Cumberland Labs Vision
We're not here to build another trading terminal, or to launch anotherTelegrambot. The opportunity we see is bigger: creating an interface that bridges the gap between the simplicity of Moonshot and the powerful functionality of advanced trading terminals. A platform that evolves with user needs, providing an easy entry point while satisfying the depth and complexity demands of experienced traders. More retail traders means more trading volume, deeper liquidity, and better opportunities - from seasoned on-chain traders to newcomers just entering the space.
This means:
Abstracting complexity without stripping functionality - smart defaults, full customization when needed
A unified trading experience, integrating charts, execution, and analytics into a single window
Practical cross-chain portfolio management
Real-time performance tracking to help traders understand their strategies
Protection against obvious risks, without limiting opportunities
Current platforms have laid a solid foundation for today's crypto-native on-chain traders. But the next wave of retail traders will need something different - a platform that starts simple and grows with them. They need intuitive interfaces, education alongside trading, gradually introducing more complex functionality until they're ready. The existing "advanced" and "default" UI settings can be improved to better serve both of these goals. It's not just a simplification problem - it's creating multiple layers of complexity that users can explore at their own pace.
The memecoin market is evolving faster than ever before. While 75% of memecoins have been created in the past year, we see an opportunity to build tools that welcome newcomers while empowering experienced traders.
@Dynamo_Patrick
9. Beyond Trading: Building Community
Trading is just one piece of the puzzle. Community, education, and shared experiences drive the growth of the memecoin ecosystem. While there is some integration through existing platforms (like Discord andTelegram), bringing the community into the platform for execution is a novel concept. One reason Telegram bots are so active on mobile is the ability to copy contract addresses from TG groups to the bot, and complete purchases faster than on a trading interface.
@blknoiz06 Telegram group
We envision a more integrated approach. Imagine being able to track progress alongside other traders, share strategies when needed, and build reputation based on actual performance. Not arbitrary metrics, but real insights into what works and what doesn't.
This social layer isn't about creating another crypto echo chamber, but providing context and understanding to help traders make better decisions. Whether it's seeing how different entry points impact returns, understanding migration patterns before and after, or learning successful strategies, every feature is tightly coupled with improving trading outcomes.
Link to the article: https://www.hellobtc.com/kp/du/11/5544.html
Source: https://x.com/CumberlandLabs/status/1858891997609632245
