Can the arrival of MEME SUMMER establish a new pattern in the crypto market?

If the rise of DOGE in 2021 is the emergence of MEME, then the outbreak of MEME in 2024 indicates a change in the market investment logic. MEME has become an investment category favored by investment institutions and market funds, and has become a mainstream investment product.

Originated from the Internet

MEME existed before blockchain, and it originated from the Internet. Currently, the successful MEME projects in the market are basically produced after the popularity of Internet social networking. For example, Doge, SHIB, PEPE, etc., represent the communication and exchanges generated by the Internet around the world. This is also the root of Internet culture. More people call it "grassroots culture."

MEME is omnipresent, and there is a story behind every MEME. Each story spreads around the world through the Internet, bringing people some sense of identity, which is also an important reason why MEME can become popular. MEME sprouted through social platforms, chat software, forums, and continued to let more people know. For example, social networking sites such as Twitter, Reddit, and Facebook are the main battlefields for the popularity of MEME, and are also important ways for people to express their opinions and vent their emotions, which is different from mainstream stereotyped network information.

MEME expresses people's ideas in specific scenes on the Internet in a concise way (short text, innovative words, pictures, emoticons, etc.). Its wide spread makes people who don't understand MEME willing to understand and integrate into it, just like a virus. Identity is the value behind MEME, and it is also the main driving force behind the rise in MEME currency prices.

When MEME meets blockchain, redemption under market chaos

Blockchain can give value to many intangible things, and MEME is no exception. Strictly speaking, BTC was also a kind of MEME in the early days. After BTC became popular, the emergence of a large number of worthless altcoins caused chaos in the market. DOGE was created to satirize this phenomenon. DOGE first became popular in the market after 2013, which can be regarded as the MEME 1.0 era.

The popularity of altcoins in the bull market in 2017 and the chaos in the market again (ICO chaos) laid the foundation for DOGE's second rise, which is also an important factor for DOGE to gain market recognition again in 2021. Even without Musk's divine assistance, there may be other public figures who stand up for MEME. Dog-themed MEME projects such as SHIB have also begun to emerge, and MEME has entered the 2.0 era.

Also in this round of rise in 2024, the chaos in the market turned into high valuations of VC coins and the PUA of many "value" projects to users, and MEME began to develop again. The sluggishness of the mainstream market actually represents, to a certain extent, the resistance of bottom-level investors to VC coins and the chaos of cutting leeks, and the fair distribution and price performance of MEME just solved everyone's pain points, and naturally received a lot of attention, and MEME entered the 3.0 era.

From the development history of MEME, it can be seen that the important reason why MEME can become popular is the inaction and chaos of the mainstream market. As bottom-level retail investors, they do not have enough strength and funds to resist this behavior, so they can only turn in the opposite direction. What retail investors lack the least is popularity and communication ability, which is also its value, and it is also the basic factor for us to choose MEME.

The clash between price and value, what are the characteristics of potential MEME

Not all MEMEs have investment value. Like the chaos of mainstream currencies, there are also mixed fish and dragons in the MEME track. Cutting leeks exists everywhere, and this phenomenon may be more obvious in the future. For ordinary investors, how to identify potential MEME projects is particularly critical. We can summarize it through the successful MEME projects in the past.

DOGE

DOEG is obtained through mining. The early Dogecoins are large in number and low in price. They are suitable for online rewards and support multiple social platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, etc. At the same time, they also sponsored some sports competitions, which is in line with the tipping culture abroad. Later, the community slogan To The Moon was promoted by Musk, and various MEME pictures circulated on Twitter.

SHIB

SHIB is themed on Shiba Inu and is another extension of Dogecoin. It adopts the Fair Launch issuance method and has huge entertainment attributes. At the same time, it is constantly building in the direction of development and is committed to becoming a "value coin". For example, it launched DEX and BONE tokens and launched the main network in 2023 to support the operation of its token economy, becoming an exploration of MEME's transformation to a value coin.

PEPE

PEPE is mainly based on the cryptocurrency issued by the popular online comic Pepe the Forg. In addition to comics, Pepe also has emoticons, animations, etc. It has a relatively strong user base and is widely used in telegram, twitter, Facebook, reddit and youtube. In addition to being mostly used for liquidity pools, PEPE's tokens have also added deflation mechanisms and redistribution mechanisms, which have attracted the attention of many investors and the support of market makers and investment companies.

WIF

WIF is a dog-themed MEME token on Solana, and is the third most successful dog-themed token to date. WIF has the characteristics of low cost and fast transfer speed. The creator balance is set to 0 to ensure the decentralization of the token. Endorsed by celebrities such as Hsaka, WIF stands out among the Dogecoins. The speculative attribute of WIF is relatively stronger. The price surge has also further increased the attention of investors.

PUFF

PUFF (PUFF The Dragon) is a MEME project on the Mantle chain that is mainly aimed at the mETH (Ethereum re-staking token) community. It is themed with a black and gold dragon. PUFF has redefined the meme narrative. Users obtain PUFF by casting mysterious potions with mETH, and then establish an AMM pool to achieve free exchange. Well-known trader DCF GOD spent $1.5 million to purchase PUFF, which made it the focus of attention.

Common points of the explosive MEME

From DOGE to PUFF, we can see that the distribution and low threshold of MEME are one of the main factors for success. From computing power mining to fair distribution, community users can participate at low cost. Of course, absolute fairness is impossible, but it also reserves a lot of participation opportunities for users who get on board. The advantage of doing so is that a large number of user bases have been accumulated, which is also the mainstay of MEME dissemination.

In addition, the MEME project has gradually shifted from the early network culture use (rewards, etc.) to more value levels, such as SHIB's Swap, PEPE's deflation, WIF's low cost and decentralization, and PUFF's value reproduction with mETH as the core, indicating that pure price speculation may not necessarily make popular MEME tokens, and there must be certain application scenarios, and investors still have certain expectations.

Besides, MEME has the support of celebrities/KOLs/public figures and funds. For example, Musk frequently mentioned Doge, WIF was endorsed by community celebrities, PEPE was listed on first-tier exchanges such as Binance, and investment institutions were behind it. PUFF also received a large number of purchases from star traders. The star effect played a key role in the success of the MEME project.

Of course, in addition to this, price is also a key factor in the success of MEME tokens. The rise in prices allows many retail investors to make profits from it. The increase in the retail base has further enhanced the influence of MEME tokens, thereby attracting the layout of institutions and exchanges.

Its development path is exactly the opposite of the current high-financing VC coins. Letting institutions take over from retail investors is an important sign of MEME's success. VC coins, on the other hand, focus on the profits of project teams and investment institutions, and end up with retail investors taking over. After retail investors have taken over, no funds will enter, thus acting as the last stick. This is why VC is unpopular now and MEME is hot.

The development goal of MEME coins

No high-market-value MEME coin has gained attention only by pure speculation. For investors, economic models and application scenarios must be considered for long-term development.

For example, DOGE's rewards and POW, Swap developed by the SHIB team, etc., this trend has been further strengthened since this year. For example, PUFF has further increased the application scenarios and the economic cycle of tokens. The project has a trend of approaching ordinary "value coins" in the direction of development, and MEME attributes have become the main distinguishing factor.

PUFF's mETH incentive attracted $300 million in funds, making it the first DeFi project in the Mantle ecosystem, which greatly promoted the development of the Mantle ecosystem. In addition, PUFF has added GameFi elements to its project planning, and staking and game play have become important factors in attracting large investors and institutions. This also shows that the MEME project has begun to focus on the long-term development of the project, rather than temporary pull and mindless rush.

If investment goes to extremes, it will inevitably backfire. PUFF's development path tells us that MEME, as an early means of publicity, can quickly gather people and funds, but if you want long-term development, empowerment and planning are factors that cannot be circumvented. And for some technical analysis investors, it is also easier to accept. Similar projects such as AIDoge's surge have brought huge traffic and transaction data to Arbitrum.

Summary

From the development paths of the above five MEME tokens, MEME has been recognized by many investors. At the same time, with the help of nonsensical humor and Internet culture as the user base, it can more easily arouse the user's sense of identity. This is a low-cost and fast way to enter the user market and build a project community, and it is expected to become the main cold start strategy for grassroots projects in the future.

However, projects that rely purely on the MEME concept are often difficult to develop sustainably. Therefore, mid-term technical follow-up is crucial to attract the attention of "regular forces" such as investment institutions and exchanges. In this process, chips may gradually transfer from retail investors to institutions, thereby promoting the transformation and growth of projects. After making profits, retail investors usually have a greater sense of identity with MEME culture, thus forming a positive flywheel effect and helping MEME to become more popular.