This article was written on November 12, but due to the author's procrastination, it was finally published with revisions today.
In this round of the Meme cycle, countless people have gone crazy for memecoin. Yesterday (November 11), Binance listed the spot $PNUT and $ACT, which surged 330% and 1440% intraday, respectively. $ACT is the first AI meme spot, and its big brother $GOAT didn't get such treatment, only having contracts listed. $PNUT, as a squirrel-type meme, looks no different from other "cat and dog" types of meme coins, and its $500 million market cap is even slightly higher than the simultaneously listed $ACT. In the eyes of most people, $ACT's cost performance seems to be higher than the ordinary little squirrel $PNUT. However, this is not the case.
Origin: The Beginning of the Story
The squirrel image of PNUT comes from the squirrel "Peanut" adopted by an engineer named Mark seven years ago. Mark often shared interactive videos with Peanut on ins and gradually gained hundreds of thousands of followers.
However, nearby residents complained to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that Peanut carried infectious diseases. Surprisingly, the DEC raided Mark Longo's home without a search warrant and took away Peanut. Mark Longo then launched a petition on social media, with tens of thousands of fans signing it. Unfortunately, Peanut was eventually euthanized by the DEC.
After Peanut's euthanasia, Dogecoin condemned the Democratic Party, and Musk also posted a tribute to Pnut and claimed that Trump's election would save Peanut.
This Peanut incident gradually evolved into a campaign against the Democratic Party. Meanwhile, a large number of Peanut derivative works appeared online, such as "the squirrel wearing a MAGA hat leading a rebellion." Since then, the animal image represented by Peanut has not only been a popular meme, but has also accumulated a "Trump" political color.
The Perfect Political Distance
As the saying goes, "distance creates beauty," and memecoin is no exception. On Election Day, Trump was the first to win 270 electoral votes and win the U.S. presidential election. However, many Trump-themed coins not only did not rise, but actually plummeted. Coins with concepts like "Trump" and "MAGA" were too closely tied to Trump, lacking inherent narrative support, and vested interest groups took the opportunity to cash out on the good news, which is the so-called "good news is bad news." Coins directly named "Trump" and "MAGA" became the TOP Losers that day.
Not only does PNUT have stronger sustainability in its narrative, but it is also the best choice for listing. Due to Binance's unparalleled listing effect, the market is constantly looking for the next potential stock to be listed on Binance. Among the politically themed coins, centralized exchanges cannot directly list tokens with heavy political overtones like "Trump" and "MAGA," which undoubtedly increases the political risk of operations, and no one wants to increase the risk of U.S. judicial sanctions because of a token. PNUT, on the other hand, comes with the traffic of the political series and is subtle enough, with the "window paper" of the squirrel meme background, which undoubtedly reduces a lot of the uncertainty factors after listing.
And Peanut's political distance is just right, containing both the top-stream internet celebrity meme attributes of ordinary animal park meme coins (like MOODENG) and the political concepts of Musk and Trump, with a broad mass base and political buff. PNUT has cleverly stood at the balance point of traffic and political narrative. It's the right time and the right situation.
Musk's Merchandise List: A Spiritual Symbol Representing Democracy
PNUT's buff does not stop there, more importantly, PNUT stands in the traffic center of Musk, the biggest merchandiser this round. Savvy readers may have already noticed that all Musk-related targets have far outperformed the overall crypto market performance, and even the eponymous token MUSK has seen a rise. "MUSK Trade" has become the α that needs no further explanation in this cycle.
DOGE
As the largest meme coin by market cap, DOGE is considered by most investors to be overvalued and less cost-effective than other "small-cap" meme coins. However, over the past 14 days, DOGE has achieved a 120% increase, with a 7-day increase of as much as 96%. DOGE's outstanding performance is partly due to Musk's support for Trump in the election, with the market generally believing that Trump's victory is a huge boon for Musk-related concepts. On the other hand, it is due to the potential benefits of Musk applying Dogecoin to the payment system. It is also worth noting that on November 3, Robinhood Crypto has supported the transfer and withdrawal of DOGE tokens.
D.O.G.E
D.O.G.E is an Ethereum-based meme coin named after the Department of Government Efficiency that Musk is employed in, and it surged after Trump announced Musk's appointment. There are also countless other DOGE meme coins with the same ticker that have also seen a general rise. For more on DOGE, please refer to the author's previous article "How did the $50 billion Dogecoin get Musk into a new government department in the U.S.?"
BAN
In 2019, Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the work "The Comedian," with a banana taped to the wall as the main theme, which sold for $120,000 at Sotheby's, earning the title of "the most expensive fruit in history."
After experiencing a surge and then a plunge, on November 18, Musk retweeted a photo of a giant Banana prop alongside the SpaceX Starship, and due to Binance's listing of the BAN contract, BAN's market cap has already exceeded $300 million.
PNUT
PNUT still inherits the orthodox bloodline of the MUSK Trade. There is often a voice in the market that "the squirrel is just a tool used by the red party to attack the blue party, and it will be the end of PNUT after the election," but this is not the case. Not only does Musk himself often tweet tributes to the late squirrel Peanut, but other outsiders also frequently mention the squirrel. For example, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch cited the "Peanut Squirrel" case as a typical example of government overreach, and UFC fighter Jim Miller won a match and stood up for the little squirrel Peanut.
PNUT has long since transcended the level of "a tool to fight the Democratic Party," and has instead been upgraded to a "spiritual totem supporting democracy and opposing dictatorship." More importantly, the squirrel Peanut has already sacrificed, and people can fabricate more spiritual meaning for Peanut and even constantly "deify" it.
Comparison with Other Memecoin
Zoo Series
We will take the recently popular zoo series dog-type representative NEIRO and the hippopotamus series representative MOODENG as examples.
NEIRO is the new Shiba Inu announced by the Dogecoin owner, and after experiencing the dispute over capitalization and the CTO, it has successfully been reborn after going through life and death. MOODENG, the bouncing pig, is the internet celebrity hippopotamus of the Thai zoo, with unparalleled traffic support in Web2.
Compared to the community, PNUT does not have the strong consensus community support like Neiro; in terms of traffic, Moodeng far exceeds the fan base of the squirrel in web2. However, as powerful as Moodeng, it has not yet broken through $600 million, and Neiro is also hovering around an $800 million market cap.
In short, PNUT not only has the propagation power of other animal images, but also has a unique political buff. Although PNUT is not a top IP, it is a bona fide hexagonal warrior.
Political icon
In the political track, PNUT's direct competitor is the "Eagle". Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan was arrested for "manipulating the election results", and the "Free Shayne Coplan" quickly fermented, forming the meme coin icon of the "Eagle". Free Shayne Coplan is considered a tool to strike at the judicial injustice of the Democratic Party. At the same time, since the ticker has no name but a unique representation of the American image of the eagle ticker, it was warmly welcomed by the market on the day of its launch.
To a large extent, the emergence of the "Eagle" narrative reflects the dissatisfaction with the political retaliation of the Democratic Party. If there are no subsequent events on the Shayne Coplan line, the "Eagle" will also be gradually forgotten by the market, which is why the phenomenon of "many speculators hope it will be euthanized" appears. In contrast, PNUT has stronger shaping and leading effects in political attributes than the Eagle.
AI memecoin
ACT, Aii6z and GOAT are the market's focus on AI meme. But the overall logic of AI memecoin is different from PNUT. For this type of memecoin, the essence is to grab the traffic of the already listed AI projects, such as WLD, LPT, etc. Although from a macro perspective, PNUT and AI meme are in a zero-sum game, but in the specific meme track, the two are in a parallel competitive relationship.
Summary
PNUT's core competitive advantages are (1) the perfect animal IP. It is an internet celebrity animal and a unique squirrel image; (2) excellent traffic center. It has not only traffic within the circle, but also web2 traffic; (3) subtle political distance. It has the support of political attributes, but can also be listed on exchanges with confidence; (4) Musk's merchandising list; (5) the verified super explosive power; (6) the most important point is that Peanut has sacrificed, and the market can endow it with more meaning and "deify" it more easily.
PNUT has become the culmination of this round of meme cycle. If you find a target with a ceiling higher than the squirrel and more buffs than the squirrel, first of all, congratulations! Secondly, please tell me quietly~
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