Against the backdrop of a somewhat sluggish market, Memecoin, though no longer frenzied, remains a battleground in the attention economy.
Memecoin hasn't reached its end, it's just changed direction.
Compared to the scene in 2024 when Memecoin stood out, this year's Memecoin has indeed become much quieter after $TRUMP, but this is not the end, but rather the market has evolved to the next stage.
• From Solana to Base and BNB Chain: In its early days, Solana monopolized 90% of new coin issuance with its low fees and high speed, especially after the launch of Pump.fun, which significantly decentralized token issuance rights, fueling the meme craze throughout 2024. However, with multi-chain expansion and the continued efforts of other public chains, Solana's share has now dropped to 57%, while BNB Chain, Base Chain, and others are constantly vying for on-chain market share.
• Small and medium-sized memes become mainstream: The memecoin market has shifted from being dominated by Ethereum chain coins like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE with market capitalizations of tens of billions, to the emergence of large memecoins with market capitalizations of billions such as BONK, WIF, FARTCOIN, and TRUMP on the Solana chain, and now to small and medium-sized memecoins with market capitalizations of tens of millions on various chains, such as BRETT and TOSHI on the Base chain, and Binance Life and BROCCOLI on the BNB chain. This indicates that the market capitalization ceiling of memecoins is constantly moving downwards, and the market is becoming more mature.
• Accelerated Rotation Pace: With limited liquidity growth and a rapid increase in the number of Memecoins, the market rotation pace has shifted from "weeks" to "hours." Especially thanks to the widespread adoption of AI tools and upgrades to social media algorithms, the speed of viral spread and decay has significantly increased. As a result, many new coins reach their peak in just 24-48 hours after listing, a lifespan far faster than the previous weekly cycles.
Recently popular Memecoin: Social media buzz + small to medium market capitalization
Browsing recent popular Memecoin listings undoubtedly confirms the aforementioned changes.
$Franklin: Franklin the Turtle was originally a classic children's character from a series of books and television programs in Canada during the 1980s and 90s. Recently, the current US Secretary of Defense posted a politically satirical image on X, expressing the US's tough stance on cross-border military anti-drug operations. Subsequently, the memecoin of the same name portrayed Franklin the Turtle as a satirical, militarized anti-drug warrior. Since its launch on December 1st, the coin reached a high FDV of $24.36M on the 10th, and has currently fallen back to $5.4M.
$DOYR: The incident started when DYOR was misspelled as DOYR. Following the thread "DOYR = DO Your meme?", the BNB Chain community quickly launched a coin with the same name, Memecoin. Launched on December 6th, it reached a peak FDV of $31.34M the following day, before falling back to $3.4M.
Horse Success: Originating from the Chinese blessing "马到成功" (ma dao cheng gong) , this is a popular Chinese memecoin following in the footsteps of "Binance Life" and "Evil Penguin." Launched on November 15th, it reached a peak FDV of $5.03M on December 2nd, and has since fallen back to $2.6M.
$jesse: A personal Memecoin launched in November by Jesse, co-founder of Base. The coin launched on November 21st, reaching a peak FDV of $28.08M on that day, and has since fallen back to $10M.
Opportunities for structural change in Memecoin
Starting with DOGE's dog emojis, Memecoin has evolved into a complex ecosystem where any topic can be turned into a coin. It is no longer just an internet joke, but a perfect blend of community narrative, attention spread, and speculative frenzy.
This year's Memecoin market has been like a rollercoaster ride: accelerated turnover, shrinking scale, and multi-chain expansion all signify a transition from frenzy to maturity.
It is foreseeable that the Memecoin market will not be quiet in the future, regardless of whether it is a bull or bear market, because as long as there is attention, someone will All In a dog picture to spread emotions.
However, in the flash era, memecoin has begun to transform from a "joke" into a "cultural index." For example, established tokens such as DOGE, SHIB, and BONK are breaking free from religious constraints and continuously upgrading their technology and applications to empower memes. Meanwhile, more newly produced small and medium-sized memecoins are turning to "social media popularity + data-driven" models, which are riskier but offer more refined opportunities. The rise and fall of these memecoins also represent the changing popularity of certain social topics.
In any case, this structural change will reshape investment logic, bringing more opportunities to participants while also putting DYOR to greater test.
