The Rise of MEME Token and the New Landscape of the Crypto Market

The rise of DOGE in 2021 marked the beginning of MEME tokens coming to prominence, while the explosion of MEME tokens in 2024 indicates a shift in market investment logic. MEME has become a mainstream investment category highly sought after by investment institutions and market funds.

The Internet Origin of MEME

MEME existed before blockchain and originated from internet culture. Most of the currently successful MEME projects emerged after the popularity of social media on the internet, such as Doge, SHIB, PEPE, etc. These projects represent communication and exchange generated globally through the internet and are considered the root of online culture, known as "grassroots culture".

MEME is everywhere, and every MEME has a story behind it. These stories spread globally through the internet, bringing a sense of belonging to people, which is a key reason for the popularity of MEME. MEME sprouts and spreads on social platforms, chat apps, and forums, becoming an important way for people to express their opinions and vent their emotions.

MEME expresses people's thoughts in specific scenarios through concise means (such as short text, innovative words, images, emoticons, etc.). Its wide dissemination makes those who do not understand MEME willing to learn about and integrate into it. A sense of belonging is the core value of MEME and also the main driving force behind the rise in MEME coin prices.

The Combination of MEME and Blockchain

Blockchain gives value to many intangible things, and MEME is no exception. In a sense, early Bitcoin was also a kind of MEME. After the popularity of Bitcoin, a large number of worthless altcoins emerged, causing chaos in the market, and DOGE was created to satirize this phenomenon. The first popularity of DOGE occurred in the market after 2013 and can be seen as the MEME 1.0 era.

The popularity of altcoins during the bull market in 2017 and the chaos in the market (ICO phenomenon) laid the foundation for the second rise of DOGE, which was also an important factor for DOGE's re-recognition in the market in 2021. Dog-themed MEME projects like SHIB also began to emerge, marking the entry of MEME into the 2.0 era.

In this round of price increase in 2024, the chaotic situation in the market has transformed into the overvaluation of certain projects and numerous "value" projects engaging in PUA with users, and MEME has once again developed. The stagnation of the mainstream market to some extent represents the resistance of underlying investors against certain chaos, while the fair distribution and price performance of MEME just happen to address the pain points of everyone, naturally gaining a lot of attention, and MEME has entered the 3.0 era.

Characteristics of Potential MEME

Not all MEME have investment value. It is crucial for ordinary investors to identify potential MEME projects. We can summarize through successful past MEME projects:

1. DOGE: Obtained through mining, it had a large supply and low price in the early days, making it suitable for online tipping, supporting multiple social platforms, and sponsoring sports events.

2. SHIB: Themed around Shiba Inu, it adopts a fair distribution method, has a large entertainment attribute, and is committed to becoming a "value coin", launching DEX and other Tokens, exploring the path of MEME turning into a value coin.

3. PEPE: Issued based on the popular internet meme of the comic frog Pepe, it has a strong user base and is widely used on major social platforms. It has introduced a deflationary mechanism and redistribution mechanism, attracting the attention of investors.

4. WIF: A dog-themed MEME Token on Solana, characterized by low cost and fast transfer speed, with the creator's balance set to 0 to ensure decentralization, endorsed by a well-known figure.

5. PUFF: The Mantle blockchain is primarily aimed at the mETH community and is a MEME project themed around dragons. Users can obtain PUFF by minting it with mETH and establish AMM pools for free exchanges.

The Common Points of the Explosive MEME

1. Distribution and low barriers: From hash power mining to fair distribution, allowing community users to participate at a low cost and accumulate a large user base.

2. Shift in value dimension: gradually transitioning from early internet culture uses to more value aspects, such as SHIB's Swap, PEPE's deflation, etc.

3. Celebrity Effect: Behind it all, there are celebrities/KOLs/public figures "promoting" and providing financial support.

4. Price Performance: The price increase has allowed retail investors to profit, enhancing the influence of MEME tokens and attracting institutional and exchange involvement.

The Development Goals of MEME Coin

High market cap MEME coins gain attention not only through speculation. Economic models and application scenarios are essential factors to consider for long-term development. For example, DOGE's tipping and POW, and the Swap developed by the SHIB team, etc. Recently, this trend has been further strengthened, such as PUFF increasing application scenarios and Token economic circulation, with the project development direction approaching that of ordinary "value coins".

The mETH incentives of PUFF have attracted a large amount of funds, becoming a leading DeFi project in the Mantle ecosystem. Its project planning also includes GameFi elements, with staking and gameplay attracting large investors and institutions. This indicates that the MEME project team has begun to focus on long-term development rather than short-term speculation.

Conclusion

MEME Token has gained recognition from numerous investors, leveraging humor and internet culture as its user base, making it easy to resonate with users. This is a low-cost and quick way to penetrate the user market and establish project communities, which may become a primary grassroots project's cold start strategy in the future.

However, projects that purely rely on the MEME concept find it difficult to sustain development. Mid-term technological follow-up is crucial for attracting the attention of institutional investors and exchanges, the "regular army." In this process, chips may gradually shift from retail investors to institutions, driving project transformation and growth. After retail investors profit, their sense of identity with MEME culture increases, creating a positive flywheel effect that helps MEME gain more recognition.