In the currency circle, there is a kind of wonderful virtual token project that is quite popular, and people usually call it " earth dog ". The teams of these projects are generally anonymous, with little technical content, emphasizing grassroots culture, and even stating clearly that "tokens have no value". They have a strong meme gene, and the project logo is sometimes an emoticon package.
Dogecoin is the originator of this type of project. At first, people bought it just because they thought it was fun. When more people bought it , there was a community and a collective resonance (consciousness). Recently, the "earth dog" frenzy has come again. The PEPE coin whose logo is based on the famous Internet IP "Sad Frog" suddenly became popular, and it increased by 270,000 times in half a month. After PEPE, a large number of "earth dog" meme coins appeared, and speculators felt huge price fluctuations in the fast in and fast out, and the thickness of the wallet changed at the same time.
Facing the myth of sudden wealth, only a very few people are lucky. Looking back at every wave of meme digital currency craze in history, it ended with the vast majority of projects returning to zero. Some people have suffered heavy losses in this round. In fact, the cost of issuing tokens on the chain is as low as 100 yuan, and even ChatGPT can be used to write software for issuing tokens in batches. The threshold for Sickle is getting lower and lower.
PEPE currency doubled 270,000 times in half a month, "earth dog" became "golden dog"
When it comes to the digital currency market, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most well-known. The former is "digital gold" with stronger asset attributes, and the latter, as the underlying network resource, has bred a large number of blockchain applications.
What many people do not know is that among the tens of thousands of digital cryptocurrencies, there is also a special type of project, which people in the circle will vividly call "earth dog". As the name suggests, such projects are neither supported by Daniel’s technical team nor favored by investment institutions. They are often labeled as “grassroots”, “cottage” and “scam”. This type of project has recently set off another wave of speculation in the currency circle. The typical representative is PEPE coin, which has doubled by 270,000 times in half a month. I wrote it right, and you read it right, not "times", but "ten thousand times", and a small group of people made a lot of money because they bet on this "earth dog".
Strictly speaking, PEPE is a meme coin, and "meme" is an Internet culture that is popular in the same cultural atmosphere or reproduced and spread in a derivative way. It can be a catchphrase, such as "Your uncle will always be your uncle", "Aolige", or a popular emoticon package, such as the sad frog named "pepe" in the picture below, I believe you are on the Internet Have seen it countless times while surfing. PEPE coin was born by capturing the sad frog, a globally popular meme element.
The sad frog pepe that is popular all over the Internet
As for why PEPE became popular in the currency circle, no one can tell. It’s just that this project appeared, and some big Vs in the currency circle began to talk about it, and some people went to buy it. The popularity is getting higher and higher, and more and more people are buying it. As for the value, the official website said that PEPE is completely useless and is only for entertainment. There is no official team or project development roadmap, and it has no connection with the creator of Sad Frog. It is just a tribute to the meme that everyone likes and recognizes.
This is the typical characteristic of "earth dog". It doesn't matter who the initiator is, there is no roadmap, and the blatant emphasis on "value is 0" is like a joke. Public chain tokens can be used as network resources, and decentralized application tokens still have the function of user voting, but the "Dogcoin" project has no use, only supported by popularity and entertainment. As a big V said, the reason for the skyrocketing PEPE is very simple, that is, the heat is in place and the emotion is in place.
PEPE's official declaration is very entertaining and provocative. It said that its appearance is to make meme coins great again, and it is time for the world's most famous emoticons to become the king of meme coins. Therefore, according to the data of Feixiaohao, a cryptocurrency data statistics platform, since its launch on April 15, PEPE has increased by 274,000 times, and the market value of PEPE has jumped from 0 to more than 1 billion US dollars.
PEPE currency official website introduction
Ember, an analyst on the chain, observed that a giant whale once spent $1.08 million to buy PEPE coins, which rose to $16 million a few days later, and a "small target" was easily obtained.
After the PEPE currency became popular, its identity has also been upgraded. According to the people in the currency circle, the "earth dog" has become a "golden dog", which has attracted many "earth dogs" to follow suit, including characters from the "League of Legends" game. The Hasaki (HAHA) currency of the "Yasuo" skill voice, the POGAI currency derived from the panda head spoof expression pack, and the WOJAK coin derived from the familiar facial expression pack of frustrated bald men.
This year's wave of speculation has also caught up withthe BRC -20 token standard developed by the Bitcoin network in March. Many projects have begun to issue meme coins on the Bitcoin network, which provides another opportunity for this "earth dog" speculation. A good excuse.
A meme project based on popular emoticons
For a time, under the background of the lack of new narratives in the currency circle, a group of "earth dogs" took to the main stage, and the momentum was fierce, far surpassing mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which made value investors look at it Stupid B.
The cost of issuing coins is as low as 100 yuan. After the heat is over, only "packaging" remains
In the currency circle, almost every once in a while, there will be a wave of meme currency carnival. Why carnival? Because this is a speculative market where hundreds of times coins, thousand times coins or even ten thousand times coins can appear under the catalysis of emotions. It is full of legends of "getting rich overnight", and it also inspires people's FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality.
Meme coins have even formed a sector. Dogecoin ( Doge ) is the recognized originator. It uses the image of a cute Shiba Inu as its logo, and its initial release started as a joke. It was created by two people, one is an Australian brand and marketing practitioner, and the other is an American programmer. The two met online in 2013 and hit it off with the idea of satirizing Bitcoin and other counterfeit digital currencies. Thus Dogecoin was born.
Because the price of Dogecoin is not expensive, people in the community initially used it to give tips and red envelopes to each other, and later some people used it to make charitable donations. The popularity gradually opened up in the next few years, and a Dogecoin subculture was formed in the currency circle. Later, Tesla founder Elon Musk stepped in, frequently posting about Dogecoin. In the end, the market value of the digital currency, which started as a joke, increased by more than 10 billion U.S. dollars, and it entered the top ten positions in the cryptocurrency market value list.
Later, Shiba (SHIB), another Shiba Inu project known as the "Dogecoin Killer", appeared. It was not satisfied with just being a meme coin, but also wanted to create a decentralized cryptocurrency trading market, Metaverse and other applications. Under the cheers of early participants, people who missed Dogecoin began to join the "Shiba Legion", and the project suddenly became popular. Currently, SHIB has a market capitalization of more than US$5.8 billion, ranking 16th in the encrypted asset market rankings.
Why people are willing to buy "earth dog" meme coins that have no value support is thought-provoking. Some big Vs in the circle believe that meme coins often represent grassroots culture and entertainment spirit, and it is easier to gain emotional recognition from retail investors, and it is often emotional factors that drive price increases.
For example, in the last round of cryptocurrency bull market, a project called Loser Coin was born, and the abbreviation of the token was directly displayed as "LOWB". The feeling of "diaosi" is not only reflected in the name, but the person who created it wrote a small essay in Chinese, claiming to be a poor young man from a fourth-tier city in China. He felt that he was a loser because of the huge losses in currency speculation, so he established it with a zero mentality. Loser Coin, offering a slogan of "do not protect the board, do not Rug Pull, and do not take responsibility". This attitude of "breaking the pot and smashing it" aroused the resonance of many retail investors in the currency circle, and turned it into purchasing power, and LOWB quickly rose. After the heat subsided, LOWB ended with a 99% drop.
Promotional poster of Loser Coin at that time
Recently, a project called "Turbo" has also become popular. Its Logo is a toad, and what attracts people's attention is the story circulating in the community: Turbo was initiated by an NFT artist because the market is not good and life is difficult. Recently, I thought of asking ChatGPT to help him with a blockchain project, including formulating the project name, logo, and deploying token contracts on the chain. With the help of ChatGPT, this artist with only $69 received financial support through crowdfunding. The project He was thriving and was recognized by his daughter. The initial success of the project finally gave him a precious opportunity to move to a place closer to his daughter's school. Some investors claimed to be moved by the story and were ready to buy some tokens. According to non-small data, Turbo has risen by 824% since its release.
Seeing this, you can probably understand why meme coins are popular. Compared with application tokens, storytelling and narrative speculation are the spiritual core of meme currency, but it only has a spiritual core. Looking back at the past, every round of meme currency carnival in history will eventually evolve into a "run fast" game. The other side of betting on the "golden dog" to get rich is blood loss and zero return.
In May 2021, after a wave of SHIB skyrocketed, countless meme coins also emerged. Most of them are named after cute pet images such as Akita dogs, Pikachu, pigs, and ants. They are characterized by anonymous teams and no long-term development. Planning, many even do not even have official websites. Under the FOMO sentiment, many investors rushed to these tokens, which raised the price in a short period of time, but the plunge also came very quickly. In less than a month, 99% of the "animal tokens" were close to zero, and a lot of money was harvested. People who want to get rich.
In this wave of meme currency craze, there have been a lot of tokens plummeting or close to zero, including XIRTAM, ROPE and so on. According to the statistics of the chain analyst Ember, a large encrypted asset investor recently invested in 9 meme coins, 8 of which suffered heavy losses, and the only profit was only a 13% floating profit.
In fact, the cost of issuing tokens on the chain is very low. Anyone who only needs to pay for the on-chain and storage fees can issue unlimited tokens, and the cost of issuing tokens is as low as about 100 yuan. Recently, some people have developed software for issuing coins in batches through ChatGPT, issued a large number of meme coins, and created an artificial intelligence "leek harvester". The threshold for token issuance has become lower and lower.
Whether it is Dogecoin or SHIB, they are only a very small number of projects left after the big waves washed away the sand, and the consensus of the encryption community has become their value support. Most of the "earth dogs" ended in death. After the heat subsided, there was only one "package" left, which contained not wealth codes, but countless blood and tears of investors.
Original Author: Kyle
