The next big thing in the crypto may start with popular meme coins.
An emerging marketing strategy (GTM) is to leverage the popularity of meme coins. While traditional go-to-market strategies involve first building a product and then building a community around it through marketing and memes, this new approach involves identifying a vibrant user community around a meme and then building a community that encompasses that. Token products.
By launching a project with native integration with popular meme coins, the new application/infrastructure can mobilize the enthusiasm of meme holders, who can get more utility from their tokens.
Here are some examples:
BONKbot is a Telegram trading bot on Solana that originated from the $BONK token, a Solana meme coin that was airdropped to users in late 2022. An independent team then launched a trading bot that used a portion of trading fees to purchase and destroy BONK tokens, thereby financially aligning them with token holders. The trading bot's daily trading volume recently topped $200 million (compared to Base's daily trading volume of only about $200 million).
This strategy also works for infrastructure projects. Taking $SHIB as an example, it launched Ethereum Layer 2 Shibarium, which serves as a token pool for SHIB by using transaction fees to burn SHIB tokens. By incorporating tokens into L2, this strategy activates the existing holder community to overcome the cold start problem of new L2.
Berachain , a bear-themed EVM-compatible blockchain that launched its testnet in 2021, also has its origins in NFT-type memes. SmokeyTheBera initially launched an NFT project called Bong Bears in 2021, and over time it built a community and attracted an active developer and user base.
Given the high level of engagement and tribalism among the top meme communities, I think leveraging memes for marketing strategies will become increasingly popular across the market, allowing projects to gain traction. For example, for those who are developing cryptocurrency consumption applications, adding utility to meme coins can activate token holders, who will naturally be more inclined to find new ways to utilize their tokens. Drakula is a short video app and Perl is a prediction market game, both of which accept $DEGEN as payment in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of the holder community (which numbered over 44,000 wallets as of March). Increased usage of the token, and possibly increased value, may drive a virtuous cycle in which user interest in both the token and the applications that integrate the token may increase.
We've also seen some projects take the opposite approach, starting with a product first and then launching (or closely related to) a meme to bring more attention to the project. For example, contributors associated with Jupiter, the decentralized exchange aggregator on Solana, launched the $WEN meme in January 2024, airdropping it to the 1 million wallets that exchanged more than $5 on Jupiter. As the first token launched through Jupiter’s LFG Launchpad, it has also generated interest in the platform.
For projects that are exploring this go-to-market strategy, some considerations include: the issuance potential of different meme coin communities; complementarity between meme coin holders and the project’s target audience; and existing integration and saturation in the ecosystem degree (once a meme is accepted in 100 apps, will the 101st app get the same amount of attention?).
It’s worth mentioning that all of the above has clear benefits for the meme coin itself, and the meme coin team has reason to encourage and work with projects to integrate their tokens into it.
Using meme coins as a marketing strategy is similar to other web3 growth strategies involving tokens, including airdropping tokens to members of a specific community or to users of competing products. These strategies are possible because blockchain’s open data can be used for granular targeting. This strategy can also be compared to those in the web2 world, from community-driven growth, where a brand cultivates its customer base to increase the brand's reputation, to cross-brand collaboration, cross-spreading complementary user groups, such as Lyft's partnership with Delta. But unlike offline collaboration, which is difficult to execute due to the isolation of data and systems, cryptography enables permissionless integration that any developer can build around meme coins. Additionally, the community of token holders would also like to see their tokens grow in value and thus benefit more financially, which could lead to more partner projects.
While many consider meme currency trading to be gambling or a strange form of financial entertainment, their growing popularity and fierce community could mean they become a viable part of a marketing strategy. A new development for users is meme coins as assets, allowing anyone to invest in and own part of marketing strategies, grassroots communities, internet culture and community currencies.
