Author: XiYou, ChainCatcher
Editor: NianQing, ChainCatcher
On October 9th, on-chain detective ZachXBT revealed the on-chain address holdings of MEME token analyst representative Murad, quickly attracting the attention of the crypto community and triggering a narrative of the revival of the old MEME tokens, with the layout of low-cap MEME tokens becoming a tacit secret in the crypto community.
In fact, since Binance listed 3 MEME tokens (Neiro, Turbo and BabyDoge) in a single day on September 15th, triggering a dispute over the capitalization of Neiro and NEIRO tokens, the MEME token market has already set off a new round of speculative frenzy. During the National Day holiday, MEME project-related reports were all over the place, with the community flooded with stories of overnight wealth, Vitalik Buterin selling the gifted MEME tokens twice on-chain and publicly expressing gratitude to the MEME projects, and the nearly 100-fold surge of the hippopotamus MEME token MOODENG in a short period of time, attracting a flood of investors hoping to catch the next 100x MEME token.
However, unlike the previous MEME token speculation frenzy without any pattern, this round of MEME token speculation is mainly centered around: the dispute over the capitalization of the token names, the donation to Vitalik and Vitalik's selling of tokens to prop up the price, and the revival of Cult (satirical culture) MEME tokens.
MEME token speculation evolves from public chain diversion to a dispute over the capitalization of token names
In this round of MEME token market, the difference in capitalization has become a unique factor in the speculation, and the main reason for this is that Binance simultaneously listed the Neiro spot and NEIRO contract.
The token name NEIRO originally originated from the prototype of Dogecoin, on May 24th this year, the prototype Shiba Inu Kabosu passed away, which triggered mourning in the crypto community, and in addition to mourning, Kabosu's owner announced on the X platform that she had adopted a new Shiba Inu, which was translated into English as 'NEIRO', then multiple MEME projects with the same name emerged, covering Solana, Ethereum and other public chains, and there were even different MEME projects with capitalization differences on the same chain. However, with the cooling of the MEME market, many NEIRO projects on various public chains have disappeared in the historical tide, and only the top two in market cap are the two capitalized NEIRO and Neiro on the Ethereum chain.
On September 6th, Binance announced the launch of the NEIRO contract trading pair, and on September 15th, it announced the listing of the NEIRO token, as the token ID in the official announcement was also in uppercase NEIRO, many people mistakenly thought it was the NEIRO project that had already completed the contract listing, and after the announcement, the NEIRO token surged by more than 20%, however, just as the community was going crazy and a large number of people were buying tokens on the chain, sharp-eyed users found that the contract address of the NEIRO token listed by Binance was not the uppercase NEIRO but the lowercase Neiro token, and the uppercase NEIRO token was then massively sold by community users, with a drop of more than 50% on the same day, while the Neiro token started to surge, from a market cap of about $15 million at the time of the announcement to the current $720 million, an increase of nearly 50 times.
The naming strategy of Neiro and NEIRO was originally to distinguish different projects, hoping to use the capitalization difference to trigger user attention, but Binance's simultaneous listing of the NEIRO contract and Neiro spot has made the capitalization dispute of MEME tokens a new speculative frenzy.
The drama of capitalization has been played out on various public chains, and recently the MEME token MOODENG based on the hippopotamus image of the Pattaya Zoo in Thailand also has a capitalization dispute: Moo Deng and MOODENG. Unlike NEIRO and Neiro, Moo Deng and MOODENG are established on different public chains, with the lowercase Moo Deng initially established on Solana on September 10th, and the uppercase MOODENG issued on Ethereum on September 15th, which is actually a latecomer.
The capitalization difference in the naming of these tokens was originally to distinguish different projects, but has now become a highlight of MEME token speculation, and has even been endowed with different meanings and values in the speculation process, with the uppercase NEIRO being seen as a strong whale token and the lowercase Neiro representing a community project; the Moo Deng on Solana is considered the first dragon due to its earlier launch, while the MOODENG on Ethereum is seen as the second dragon due to its later issuance.
For the capitalization dispute of MEME tokens, the crypto community is more confused, with many users lost in the dilemma of which one to choose, sometimes big, sometimes small, unable to tell the difference, and investors have to carefully discern when choosing to avoid missing opportunities due to capitalization confusion, this differentiation strategy has brought freshness to the market, but also increased the complexity of speculation.
On this, a crypto user sighed that previously it was the rise of MEME tokens on different public chains that caused capital diversion, and now it is the capital diversion caused by the difference in capitalization of MEME projects on the same chain and the same name, which is making the already weak consensus precarious and leading to further market fragmentation and contraction.
Currently, MEME projects are not only the main stronghold on Solana, with the rise of projects like Neiro and MOODENG, Ethereum is still the most anticipated place, and MEME projects on newcomers like Sui are also attracting user attention, such as the recently emerged MEME project HIPPO, which is also inspired by the hippopotamus Moo Deng from the Thai zoo, and its token market cap once exceeded that of the Moo Deng on Solana.
Donating to Vitalik to grab attention, using celebrity effect to drive token price
In addition to the capitalization of token names, donating to Vitalik Buterin has become another hot spot in MEME token speculation. As the spiritual leader of Ethereum and the crypto world, Vitalik also often plays an important role in MEME token projects, with some MEME token projects donating the funds they have raised to Vitalik or his related foundations, hoping to enhance the credibility and influence of the project, such as the creator of ShibaInu (SHIB) in 2021 airdropping 50% of the total supply of SHIB to Vitalik's wallet address, quickly attracting the attention of the crypto community and triggering a frenzy of animal MEME token speculation; Neiro has also donated to Vitalik.
In fact, many MEME projects mainly hope to grab attention by donating to the Ethereum founder, using the celebrity effect to drive the token price, trying to gain the attention and trust of the community through this connection with industry leaders, and this connection with the big shots is a big selling point for MEME tokens to attract investors, which can effectively attract a large number of investors' attention in the short term and become a highlight of speculation.
The Ethereum-based MEME project hippopotamus MOODENG, which attracted a lot of attention during the National Day holiday, also broke out by leveraging the donation to Vitalik, as the hippopotamus originally originated on Solana and its market cap quickly exceeded $100 million, becoming well known in the community, while the uppercase hippopotamus MOODENG on Ethereum is a latecomer, and its market cap has not broken through tens of millions of dollars for a long time and has not attracted much user attention.
On October 5th, Vitalik sold MEME tokens on-chain, including MOODENG, and the news was exposed, causing the MOODENG token market cap to surge to $10 million within minutes and enter a steady upward trend, and the MEME projects ITO and KABOSU sold in the same batch also experienced a significant increase after the sale, with ITO surging over 222% and KABOSU over 70% in a short period of time.
On October 7th, Vitalik sold MOODENG again, and then donated 260 Ether (about $642,000) from it to the Kanro charity, and publicly posted a thank you to MOODENG, bringing positive results to the real world.
Some community users believe that this is a rare positive comment from Vitalik on MEME tokens, through donation and charity, the worthless tokens in the crypto world are sold, and the value is transferred to solve some real problems, which is also a step towards the real world for Crypto.
Vitalik's token selling and public thank-you content have generated extremely high interest and attention in the market for the Ethereum hippopotamus MOODENG, and have driven the price of MOODENG to soar, with its market cap quickly breaking through $100 million from the million-dollar level, and its heat has also surpassed the Solana hippopotamus.
With the narrative of Vitalik's association with Ethereum Neiro and Moodeng breaking out, direct donation to Vitalik's wallet address has become a new trend in MEME token speculation, and Vitalik's token selling will attract the attention and follow-up of investors, thereby driving the price of the token up, and currently there are MEME tokens being transferred to Vitalik's wallet address every hour.
Even some encrypted users have designed a set of SOP for the success of the MEME project: MEME project donates to Vitalik - Vitalik sells coins (attracts attention) - Vitalik tweets to thank (drives up the price) - listed on the exchange.
CultSatirical Culture MEME Coin Revival
Cult Memecoin is a token that combines Internet popular culture and cryptocurrency. These coins are often created around a specific community or popular cultural phenomenon, and often have a strong community-driven character. They are often presented in a humorous or satirical way, such as Dogecoin, which was originally created as a joke, and Shiba Inu (SHIB), which calls itself the "Dogecoin killer", and the once-popular PepeCoin, which was born based on the popular Pepe frog.
At Token2049, MEME analyst Murad's "MEME Coin Super Cycle" article sparked widespread discussion in the crypto community. The list of MEME tokens he compiled and filtered has been widely circulated in the crypto community and has become a bible for MEME coin trading.
Murad's MEME coin screening criteria are to select tokens that have been online for at least six months and have experienced a crash, with a market value between $5 million and $200 million, mostly built on Solana and Ethereum.
Yesterday, on-chain detective ZachXBT revealed Murad's on-chain address holdings of MEME coins, which are worth about $24 million, with the top four being SPX, GIGA, RETARDIO, and POPCAT, and the recent trend has been very good.
Among them, the abstract index token SPX, which ranks first in holdings, has risen about 20 times in the past half month. The project is a derivative of the reverse S&P 500 index story, with the narrative of a cute girl saving the crypto world; GIGA is a MEME token on Solana, with a 7-day increase of over 200%, the project was originally a tribute to the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov's original Gigachad, and also a satire of social expectations, triggering discussions about toxic masculinity and the like; the MEME project POPCAT is derived from the popular mischievous cat expression on the Internet, with a 7-day increase of about 90%; while RETARDIO positions itself as a symbol of courage, rebellion and community cohesion.
And these MEME coins have a common feature, that is, they all have a certain Cult quality, that is, they are wrapped in a layer of absurd, non-mainstream, abstract elements, usually related to popular Internet culture, memes or specific subcultures, known as Cult Memecoin.
It is precisely because of the cultural identity or user group foundation that Cult Memecoin is usually driven by the community, and is spread through social media and viral marketing.
Some crypto users have pointed out that most of the Cult Memecoins currently on the market are old projects that have experienced a round of rise and washing, and users should look for the bottom rather than the top when choosing, the community that continuously promotes the token, and the increasing new holders, with similar Cult cultural elements.
Good MEME needs "Special Narrative and Tone + Strong Spontaneous Community + Strong Backing"
According to data from the Coingecko platform, the total market value of the MEME coin sector has already exceeded $50 billion, with more than 2,000 types of assets recorded, making it the sector with the largest number of cryptocurrencies in the crypto market.
Crypto KOL@ririfish once expressed that the MemeCoin market is growing stronger, and they are no longer just tools for short-term speculation, but represent a new trend of decentralized culture and consensus. The reason why these projects have long-term market resilience is that the community is not just passive investors, but the core force driving the development of the project. The community endows these tokens with lasting vitality through meme dissemination, social interaction and participation in project development.
Crypto asset player Vincent@thecryptoskanda has repeatedly emphasized that MemeCoin is no longer just a crypto track, it has become a "attribute", which is reflected in the fact that MemeCoin is no longer just about price fluctuations, but is gradually integrated into decentralized culture, representing an identity and market consensus, reflecting the unique power of the decentralized community, and going beyond the traditional IP-driven model.
Crypto KOL@CXOegg wrote in his latest tweet that a good MEME needs "special narrative + meme's own tone + strong spontaneous community + strong backing", none of which can be missing.
Ririfish also pointed out that the success of MemeCoin does not depend solely on IP support, but on the community creating unique narratives. Even projects without strong brand support, such as Shiba Inu and Pepe Coin, have managed to establish a foothold in the crypto market through the power of the community. The growth of these MemeCoin shows that they have built unique cultural symbols through community interaction, meme dissemination and collective creation.
In general, for a MEME coin to be successful, it first needs an engaging story, the token design and community culture must be unique and attractive in order to resonate and ignite the interest of investors, and stand out among the many projects; at the same time, it needs a strong spontaneous community, an active community is the key to the success of MEME coins, the power of the community can influence market sentiment and investment decisions; in addition, it also needs to have strong supporters and manipulators behind it, who can drive the coin price at critical moments.
For example, Neiro had already leaked multiple photos of community grassroots marketing in Northwest China before listing on Binance, with community members marketing in overseas regions such as Turkey and Vietnam, and the CTO team donating to charitable organizations; the Ethereum MOODENG project community revealed that they had donated three times to a zoo in Thailand, and conducted offline marketing in North America, attracting the attention of Neiro's top whale and Pepe developers and Vitalik through airdrop donations.
Regarding how to participate in MEME coins, @CXOegg said that there are tens of thousands of new projects appearing on the market every day, and the same narrative may have different tickers, the same ticker may be competing on different chains, and now even the same ticker on the same chain may have different cases due to different capitalizations, which makes it difficult for users to hit a promising project early on.
Currently, there are three strategies to choose from: one is to directly choose mature and market-tested high-cap old MEME coins, such as PEPE, WIF, etc.; the second is to buy mid-cap MEME coins worth a few million to tens of millions, but it requires very strong individual project identification and screening capabilities; the third is to watch for new projects on the primary market chain, but the failure rate is very high.
