Author: Vince Quill, CoinTelegraph; Compiled by Tong Deng, Jinse Finance

Ki Young Ju, CEO and analyst at CryptoQuant, recently stated that "Meme coins are the archetypes of the collective unconscious"—a concept created by 20th-century psychologist Carl Jung to describe the shared memories and symbols passed down through generations that underpin common human culture.

In two X posts on February 23, Ki Young Ju wrote that animal and celebrity Meme coins are products of the collective unconscious, while Altcoins are expressions of the collective consciousness. Ju elaborated:

"Animal Meme coins reflect the shamanism of animal worship, while celebrity coins embody the higher religious veneration of humans. Human evolution is driven by shared beliefs—worship, group formation, and cooperation."

He pointed out: "If you can create something that people believe in, you can thrive as an entrepreneur in the crypto industry."

Comparison of Meme coins and Altcoins in terms of human consciousness. Source: Ki Young Ju

The quantitative analyst's comments came in the wake of the Libra token scandal, which caused investors losses of around $107 million, threatened the impeachment of Argentine President Javier Milei, and led to the resignation of Meteora co-founder Ben Chow.

The collapse of Libra has put "fair launch" tokens and memecoins under close scrutiny, with many describing the event as the final nail in the coffin for memecoins and calling for reasonable regulation of the industry.

Argentine President Javier Milei discussing the Libra scandal in an interview. Source: El Mundo

Does Libra herald the end of the memecoin craze?

Following the Libra collapse, venture capitalist Nic Carter stated that this event signaled the end of memecoins and their appeal to retail investors.

The venture capitalist believes that the core value proposition of memecoins is that they are allegedly launched fairly in the market without an internal team or early investors.

This makes memecoins attractive to retail investors as an alternative to the low-liquidity, high fully diluted value Altcoins peddled by venture capital firms, who use retail as exit liquidity.

Hayden Davis is one of the key figures behind the Libra token launch. Source: Kelsier

"Memecoins are done. There will still be new tokens launched, and there may be winners, but the memecoin era is over," Carter wrote, stating that investor attention will shift to utility-based projects.

According to GeckoTerminal, over 600,000 tokens were launched in January 2025, the vast majority of which were memecoins, raising concerns about the dilution effect from too many cryptocurrencies competing for market share and investor attention.