Initially like any other developer in web3, I was very suspicious about meme coins and thought of it only as a method of FUD…
And generally speaking it is, but my recent research around the domain have made me think deeper and find why this bull run is majorly about meme coins.
Like most Web3 developers, I used to be pretty skeptical about meme coins, seeing them as nothing more than a tool for hype and FUD.
And to be fair, that’s often the case. But after diving deeper into the space and researching recent trends, I’ve started to see things differently. This bull run is all about meme coins—and there’s a good reason why.
Pyramid
We are living in a world where everything is a multilevel marketing scheme and rich and informed are running a pyramid of sophisticated wealth extraction. Memecoins just exaggerated example of this:
- Founders get in the project on zero cost basis
- VCs/ Angel Investors get to buy a large % of token cheaply
- Exchanges and Market Makers enters next where they charge in token supply of upfront payment for listing of token.
- Twitter KOLs, Telegram Callers, You-tubers get the % of token supply to market among their influence
- Traders get the profit out by scalping the last bit of profit from the market.
- Retail are the Exit Liquidity
When retail enters in the project all the above make money.
Internal Reasons to memecoin supercycle?
There were only around 500 crypto token in 2017, and now with platform’s like pump.fun anyone can make their crypto tokens in minutes.
Crypto Industry has become the token production industry from a software production Industry.
This is happening because:
- Massive over production of tokens
- Extremely inflated valuations at TGE (Token Generation Event)/ CEX listing.
- All the price appreciation has been relegated to the private rounds
- All 2024 token launches on binance are literally down only
- 99.99% of altcoins don’t produce revenue, which justify their valuations.
- Crypto market doesn’t seem to value revenue as much as hype.
- Memecoins have proven themselves with DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, WIF and more
Token is the Real Product
The entire token market can’t sustain without retail inflows., but the vast majority of retail never cares about the Tech. Why would they?
What does Retail care about? Blockchain being slightly faster? Blockchain being bit more private? ZK Snark cryptography?
Most retail only care about:
- 70% Making Money
- 20% Having Fun
- 10% belonging to a tribe
Memecoins are counter attack of the “Trenches”. This is not a vampire attack against Crypto Tech, but that on Crypto Tech TOKENS.
Both memecoins and altcoins are selling you the same thing: TOKEN.
All tokens (tech and meme) are tables at the casino. Why should we play at your tables, when we can have our own tables?
Memecoins are reincarnation of 2017 ICO wave, in a new form.
Crypto Tech projects that managed to create cult-like communities and outperformed for a long period of time were those that had an ICO or another way of letting retail buy CHEAP before a major run up.
Why does this matter?
This matters because when you’re trading attention – a relentless community is the “Secret Sauce” that you need to look for.
If Poor people don’t get rich = You have no community.
Global Reasons to Memecoin supercycle
Global trends have affected the way people are reacting to memecoins:
- Accelerating price of everyday goods
- Accelerating AI capabilities coming for your jobs
- Wealth & Income inequality
- Loneliness, sexlessness, mental health issues
- Amount of time spent online.
- Competitiveness; few remaining ways to make it
- Diminishing influence of Religion in Society
- Crisis of Meaning
All of the above are bullish crypto, but specially memecoins.
Sharable Stories create trends, and for trends to emerge, there need to be stories shared across the Industry about people making large gains.
All the major stories this cycle are coming from memecoins: people making multi-x gains with memecoins like PEPE, BONK, WIF.
Every cycle the crypto asset category that outperforms the most is the one that generally is “new, weird and misunderstood”.
Parabolas are more likely to occur in assets that are difficult to value, and with each cycle the main altcoin narrative is becoming “crazier”, and this looks like a byproduct of inflationary pressure in Society and its collective mental and hormonal well being.
Anxiety pushes “the swarm” further down the Risk Curve. People do not need tech, or even a promise of future dividents to purchase a crypto coin. All they need is to like it, and see other people talking about it.
Altcoins work in 3 verticals:
- Software
- Community
- Token
Memecoins work in 2 verticals:
- Community
- Token
Memecoin Utility
Many VCs and thought leaders including me claimed that memecoins don’t have utility, but the best memecoins have more utility than almost all tech alts.
- Having Fun
- Loneliness reduction
- Sense of Belongingness
- Hope provisioning
- Friendship
- Being part of cutting edge culture
- Teamwork experience
- Greater sense of participation and contribution compared to software alts.
- Emotional Connection
- Being Happy
- Charity
- Collective Artistic Expression
- Collective Imagined Reality
- Storytelling and Lore
- Defying Social norms
- Volatility aka trading vehicle
It doesn’t matter that there is “No Revenue”, people are paying for these “Services” and participating by buying the token. These do apply for altcoins as well, but memecoins just do it better due to structural, tokenomic and emotional reasons.
Altcoins aren’t primarily about Tech
Memecoins aren’t primarily about Memes
They both are simply tokenised communities using different narratives and techniques to recruit people and get the price to go up.
What actually matters is:
- Community
- Poor people getting rich
- Perceived maximum upside
- Attention
- Fairness
- No unlocks
- No Supply overhung
- Positive momentum
- Evangelism + Community Participation
- Authenticity
- No VCs, No Cabals
- Who is talking about this on social media
- The concept/ The Meme
- The Message
- Decentralisation
- People not selling
- Emotion
- A good story with fresh narrative
- Inspiration
You can still be focused on Technology, but crypto Industry have become an Asset first industry from a Technology first Industry. Instead of tech, focus on human condition, retail motivation, and asset distribution.
Memecoins are here to stay and become an integral part of Crypto Industry.
Most retail don’t want to gamble and constantly rotate, they just want to BUY and HODL something they resonate with.
Memecoins are 30% about the Meme, and 70% about the people. Memecoins are tokenised communities which use the Meme as their symbol, their Banner and their Philosophy. Different communities have different flavours, and with religion losing influence around the world, the Brands, Experiences & Communities are filling the void.
Memecoins are not just about money, think about total Human Resource in aggregate:
Human Money + Human Attention + Human Time + Human Energy + Human Labor.
Attention will be dominated by crypto assets where not only retail money + attention, but also retail time, energy and labor is channeled.
No Community == Your token is Dead
Memecoins in 2024
Memecoins will go much higher than NFTs. Instead of 1000 people promoting 5000 illiquid JPEGs, you now have 100,000 people promoting 1 single liquid token. Memecoins are infinitely more effective and efficient.
One may ask, how to value these memecoins ? They are not equity, not debt, not currencies, and no future revenue promises.
Best memecoins are like emerging mini-religions and need to be analysed as such. These are financial vessels of faith, collecting dissatisfaction both with Crypto Tech and the World at large. Next optimum evolutions of these memecoins are becoming Movements from these Cults. These Memecoins are financial Middle finger to Crypto and World at large.
Unironically, memecoins will bring more new people to crypto than any other crypto asset category.
Putting all together, memecoins are:
- Simpler than tech alts
- More liquid than NFTs
- No Inflation (all tokens fully circulating)
- No VC dumping, No Unlocks
- Better odds than sports betting & Casinos
- More volatility than altcoins
- Fresh Narrative
- Giving retail a chance to win
- Most passionate and loudest communities in crypto.
Best crypto products don’t require a token: Opensea, Metamask, Pump.fun, Polymarket, Phantom, etc.
Best crypto tokens don’t require a product: WIF, POPCAT, PEPE, etc.
I hope this helps you understand memecoins a bit more, like, comment, and share this among your peers.
Happy Memeing!!!
Inspiration:
