The Rise of MEME Tokens and the Changes in Market Landscape

The rise of DOGE in 2021 marked the beginning of attention on MEME Tokens, while the explosion of MEME in 2024 indicates a shift in market investment logic. Today, MEME has become a mainstream investment category favored by institutional investors and market funds.

The Internet Origins of MEME

The concept of MEME originates from internet culture, predating the emergence of blockchain technology. Currently prominent MEME projects mostly stem from popular trends on internet social platforms. For example, Doge, SHIB, and PEPE reflect the "grassroots culture" generated by global internet users communicating through the internet.

The charm of MEME lies in its ubiquitous nature, with each MEME having an intriguing story behind it. These stories spread globally through the internet, resonating with people, which is a key reason for the widespread popularity of MEME. Social platforms, instant messaging apps, and online forums are the main battlegrounds for the emergence and dissemination of MEME, as well as important channels for people to express their opinions and vent their emotions.

MEME conveys people's thoughts in specific scenarios through simple expressions (such as short text, innovative vocabulary, images, and memes). Its viral nature encourages even those unfamiliar with MEME to explore and engage. The sense of belonging is the core value of MEME and the main driving force behind the rise in MEME Token prices.

The Integration of MEME and Blockchain

Blockchain technology has endowed many intangible assets with value, and MEME is no exception. In a sense, early Bitcoin can also be seen as a MEME. After the popularity of Bitcoin, a large number of altcoins lacking substantial value emerged, causing market chaos, and the birth of DOGE was precisely to satirize this phenomenon. The resurgence of DOGE after 2013 can be regarded as the MEME 1.0 era.

During the bull market in 2017, the proliferation of altcoins and the chaos in the market (the ICO phenomenon) laid the foundation for the second rise of DOGE. This was also an important factor for DOGE's re-recognition in the market in 2021. Even without the push of specific public figures, there may be other well-known individuals endorsing MEME. Dog-themed MEME projects like SHIB have also started to emerge, marking the entry of MEME into the 2.0 era.

In this round of上涨 in 2024, the chaos in the market is reflected in the overvaluation of VC-supported tokens and the excessive marketing of numerous "value" projects to users. MEME is once again ushering in development opportunities. The downturn in the mainstream market somewhat reflects the resistance of ordinary investors to VC-supported tokens and the behavior of harvesting leeks, while the fair distribution and price performance of MEME just address this pain point, naturally attracting a lot of attention, thus MEME enters the 3.0 era.

The development of MEME shows that a significant reason for its popularity is the inaction and misbehavior of the mainstream market. As ordinary retail investors, they lack the strength and funds to resist such behavior, so they can only turn in another direction. What retail investors have in abundance is enthusiasm and the ability to spread, which is also the value of MEME and a fundamental factor in choosing MEME.

Characteristics of Potential MEME Projects

Not all MEME have investment value. Similar to the mainstream Token market, the MEME field also has projects of varying quality, and this phenomenon may become more pronounced in the future. For ordinary investors, identifying potential MEME projects is crucial. We can summarize some characteristics by analyzing past successful MEME projects.

The common points of successful MEME projects

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

2. Exploration of the value dimension: Gradually shifting from early applications of online culture (such as tipping) to more value-oriented aspects, such as SHIB's Swap, PEPE's deflationary mechanism, WIF's low cost and decentralized features, as well as PUFF's value representation centered around mETH.

3. Celebrity effect and funding support: Promotion by well-known individuals or KOLs, as well as funding support from investment institutions.

4. Price Performance: The rise in price attracts retail investors, thereby enhancing the influence of MEME Token and drawing the attention of institutions and exchanges.

In contrast to tokens supported by high-funding VCs, the success of MEME often begins with retail investors and then attracts institutions to take over. This model is in stark contrast to VC-backed tokens, which often end up being taken over by retail investors.

The Development Goals of MEME Token

No high market cap MEME token can gain sustained attention solely through speculation. For investors, the economic model and application scenarios are factors that must be considered for long-term development.

For example, the tipping feature of DOGE and the POW mechanism, as well as the Swap developed by the SHIB team. Starting this year, this trend has been further strengthened. Projects like PUFF have further expanded application scenarios and Token economic cycles, moving closer to ordinary "value coins" in terms of development direction, with MEME attributes becoming the main distinguishing factor.

PUFF has attracted a large amount of funds through mETH incentives, becoming a leading DeFi project in a certain ecosystem, significantly promoting the development of that ecosystem. Additionally, PUFF plans to introduce GameFi elements, with staking and gameplay becoming important factors in attracting large investors and institutions. This indicates that the MEME project team is beginning to focus on the long-term development of the project rather than short-term speculation.

Conclusion

The development path of MEME tokens indicates that they have gained recognition from numerous investors. With humor and internet culture as their user base, MEME is more likely to resonate with users. This is a low-cost and rapid way to penetrate the user market and build project communities, and it may become a major grassroots project's cold start strategy in the future.

However, projects that rely solely on the MEME concept find it difficult to sustain development. Mid-term technological follow-up is crucial to attract the attention of "mainstream" entities like investment institutions and exchanges. In this process, chips may gradually shift from retail investors to institutions, driving the transformation and growth of the project. After making a profit, retail investors tend to develop a greater sense of identity with MEME culture, thereby creating a positive flywheel effect that helps MEME gain more popularity.