Original article | Odaily Odaily( @OdailyChina )
Author｜Golem ( @web3_golem )
"The two-day on-chain bull market is over," is the general sentiment in the Meme community today.
Following the surge in popularity of Chinese meme tokens on BSC in October of last year, many highly sought-after tokens emerged in January of this year (related reading: From "Life K-line" to "Laozi", a review of the 5 hottest Chinese memes on BSC ) . However, according to GMGN data today, recently popular Chinese memes have generally experienced a pullback. Within 24 hours, "I'm Here" fell by 30%, "Laozi" fell by 25%, "Life K-line" fell by over 20%, and "Manager Xiaoni" fell by over 40%.
Every grand event eventually comes to an end, and the meme craze cools down particularly quickly. Last October, the Chinese meme craze lasted for a whole month, starting from the National Day holiday, but this time it ended so rapidly. What went wrong?
The rejection of "Shandong Studies" affects community unity.
This wave of Chinese meme fever started with a tweet from He Yi. On January 1st, He Yi posted "2026, here I come!" on the X platform to celebrate the New Year. A week later, the meme coin of the same name began to gain traction and was eventually listed on Binance Alpha, igniting the Chinese meme community.
However, this has also sparked widespread discussion within the community about "the Shandong model in the crypto: who's the fish head facing?", directly pointing to BSC's entire meme launch method centered around CZ and He Yi. CZ and He Yi don't need to personally direct or even know about these targets; from the developers to the community and the Binance Alpha team, everyone automatically "gets enlightened," and the life or death of a meme is decided with a single tweet.
In February 2025, CZ interacted with a worthless BSC on-chain test token, TST, marking the beginning of the prototype for this BSC meme launch model. Later, after smaller iterations of BSC on-chain memes, such as CZ's dog controversy and the Dubai narrative, the community figured out the necessary "human relationships" required for a BSC meme craze to go from a cold start to its peak.
In such an ecological culture, to make money, to put it politely, you have to learn from the top and outstanding people; to put it bluntly, you "can never stand up straight."
" Is this time really different? " As the Chinese meme reached another climax, countless bloggers asked this question on social media. This is not just a simple joke; it also reflects the psychological shadow left on the community by this "Shandong Studies of the Crypto" that started in 2025.
When enough shadows accumulate, they create repulsion. Some have criticized the BSC ecosystem for resorting to He Yi's tweets, and even creating tokens with terms like "Mom," "Dad," and "Father," making Chinese memes increasingly outdated.
Previously, Odaily Odaily also analyzed the community debate sparked by "I'm Here" being listed on Binance Alpha, stating that it "seriously damages the genuine Chinese meme culture." (Related reading: How to evaluate "I'm Here" being listed on Binance? ).
When there's enough rejection of the "Shandong crypto learning" approach, the search for community-supported meme coins without any endorsement from CZ or He Yi angle has itself become a community force. Crypto blogger "Honest Boss Mai" (X: @Michael_Liu93 ) bluntly stated, "People really don't want to suck up anymore." (This blogger owns 1% of Life K-line tokens.)
However, this diversion of resources will inevitably damage the unity of the BSC Meme community, preventing funds from forming a cohesive force. When a leading force representing community consensus fails to emerge quickly, the meme's momentum will dissipate rapidly.
Lack of external liquidity
For a meme cycle to continue, there needs to be an upward trend, and to sustain that upward trend, there must be new buying pressure exceeding the selling pressure. One possible reason for the lack of momentum in this round of Chinese memes is the lack of external liquidity injection. The market capitalization was mainly driven up by the Chinese community on BSC, without attracting overseas communities or the Solana meme community to take over.
The Chinese meme craze of October last year was unprecedented in its reach. Many overseas meme KOL sought help on the X platform to join the Chinese meme community. The "Dog-Beating WeChat Group" suddenly saw a surge of English-speaking users. This wave of enthusiasm also prompted other blockchains to court the Chinese meme community. Jesse, head of the Base blockchain, invited the Chinese community to build on the Base chain, and Solana founder Toly and Solana Foundation chairwoman Lily Liu, among others, promoted the Solana Chinese meme coin "Solala".
The spillover effect of these Chinese memes on wealth will also translate into substantial on-chain purchasing power , extending the duration of the Chinese meme craze in October.
However, the Chinese meme craze in January of this year did not have such externalities and still revolved around CZ He Yi tweet. The only Chinese meme with a little externality, Life K Line (reported by CCTV on January 3), was quickly overshadowed after "I'm coming" was released on Alpha.
One piece of evidence for the lack of external liquidity in this wave of Chinese meme craze is that when searching for recent popular Chinese meme coins (such as "我踏马来了", "老子", "小股份", etc.) on the X platform using a language filter, it is found that apart from the exchange listing announcements which have a large number of views, there is a significant lack of discussion about these memes in the English section.
The most popular posts in the English section of Platform X are all exchange listing announcements.
Chinese memes are not surprising in themselves.
When a ping-pong ball is dropped from a high point, its rebound always decreases.
Chinese memes are no longer compelling narratives.
Odaily Odaily predicted at the end of October last year that although the Chinese meme craze of October had ended, Chinese memes themselves would not disappear, but would exist as a fixed meme category, with periodic peaks expected in the future. (Related reading: After Binance Life, Chinese Memes Move from Viral Hits to Segmentation )
This also means that if a Meme coin only has a Chinese ticker and some "self-serving" logic for its price increase, then it is destined to be short-lived.
Since October of last year, only Binance Life and Hakimi remain active Chinese meme coins; others like Customer Service Xiao He, Cultivating Immortals, and Milk Dragon have disappeared into the annals of history. These representative Chinese meme tokens are all tied to CZ (He Yi) and associated with "Shandong Studies," failing to break free from the "two saints'" aura to form an independent culture. Therefore, like any similar token in the past, they are destined to lack the vitality to transcend the meme cycle (theoretically, Life K-line doesn't belong to this category; its explosive popularity was essentially driven by a CCTV article) .
When Chinese meme narratives first emerged, a Chinese meme coin could be driven up in price simply because of its novelty. Now, Chinese memes have become a common, unremarkable category. As Chinese memes become fully integrated into the BSC meme cycle iteration pipeline, and the market gradually becomes familiar with this approach, the ecosystem will revert to a "fast-paced" model. The entire meme cycle will be accelerated, relying on a cold start through "imperial decree," deceiving for sustained interaction, and a final boost through listing on Binance Alpha...
This round of Chinese memes is just a microcosm of the whole phenomenon.
