๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ด๐ต, ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง๐ต๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ฐ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ค๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ด. ๐๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ท๐ข๐ญ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ญ๐ข๐ณ๐ช๐ต๐บ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ญ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ด๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ๐ข๐จ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ต ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ช๐ต๐บ. ๐๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ฐ๐ณ๐ค๐ฆ, ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข๐ฃ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ณ๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ต. ๐๐ฏ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ช๐ค๐ญ๐ฆ, ๐’๐ฎ ๐จ๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ค๐ญ๐ฐ๐ด๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ญ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฑ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ซ๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ฑ๐ช๐ท๐ฐ๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข.
The memecoin frenzy has been noticed by several projects building fundamental crypto products, but now they are starting their journey in the memecoins world. They’re combining the playful appeal of memes with the functionality of DeFi tech.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ผ๐น๐๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป๐ ๐ก๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐๐ฒ
The first wave of meme coins started in 2014, when Dogecoin emerged, and quickly gained popularity among a certain group of holders. But the overwhelming majority didn’t really know what to make of these funny coins.
Since then, the meme narrative has changed from a “ponzi economy” to a multi-million dollar sector with a new socio-economic phenomenon called the “economy of attention.” In the digital age, one of the most valuable resources is users’ attention, and the main goal is to keep and make money from it. There are thousands of new memecoin-related contracts being deployed on many blockchains every day. They’re attracting users’ attention with art, funny branding, quirky game mechanics, and funny meme stories. Of course, most of them don’t last long and are quickly neglected by their creators. But that’s the short time they shine like stars. And it’s this fact that has begun to attract not only crypto enthusiasts, but also an increasing number of investors, including institutional ones.
๐ข๐ฝ๐ถ๐ป๐ถ๐ผ๐ป ๐ผ๐ณ ๐ ๐ฎ๐ฟ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐
As Memecoins have spread like wildfire, so has the community’s attitude towards them – there are still some obvious detractors, but the number of supporters has increased significantly.
For example, Ethereum founder and CEO Vitalik Buterin dedicated an entire article to memecoins, titled “What else could memecoins be?”, and here is the last part of the article:
โ…And so I want to see higher quality fun projects that contribute positively to the ecosystem and the world around them (and not just by “bringing in users”) get more mindshare. At the least, more good memecoins than bad ones, ideally those that support public goods instead of just enriching insiders and creators. But also ideally, making games rather than coins, and making projects that people enjoy participating inโฆโ
Buterin’s views are shared by the TON Foundation, which has an initiative calledย Memelandia:
โWe recognize the importance of community tokens and meme coins, and we firmly believe that creativity, engagement, and fun are the key ingredients for community growth.โ
Large institutional investors have picked up on the meme narrative: the Franklin Templeton fund, which had $1.37 trillion under management by 2023, published anย essay on memecoins:
โ…Meme coins have been gaining popularity and attention within the past year due to their unique nature. Generally, meme coins require little technical knowledge, have low fees compared to traditional coins, and have the potential to provide opportunities for investors to make quick profits! However, it is important to note that these assets see lots of price volatilityโฆโ
However, not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for memecoins, for example Eddy Lazzarin, CTO at a16z, points out:
โBesides undermining the long-term vision of crypto that has kept so many of us in the space, memecoins aren’t very technically interesting. It shouldn’t be a surprise that they’re not attractive to builders.โ
Kee Young-Joo, founder and CEO of CryptoQuant,ย agrees:
“Meme coins harm the crypto industry. It’s frustrating to see billion-dollar-cap memecoins overshadow hardworking teams building legit products to advance this industry. Easy money can’t drive industry-wide progress, as shown by the 2018 ICO burst.”
Of course, all new developments, especially in the fintech sector, are usually perceived ambiguously in the early stages, so disputes about memecoins may continue for a long time. However, these controversies are not stopping Web 3 projects from creating their own meme.
Memecoins by Web3 Startups
It goes without saying that the meme narrative couldn’t ignore projects focused on creating infrastructure products. Here’s just a small list of these projects.
๐ฃ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐น๐ถ๐พ๐๐ถ๐ฑ
Purr is the first native token of Hyperliquid, a perpetual decentralized exchange. Users who traded on the platform and provided liquidity received PURR by airdrop. In addition, PURR has a special utility that gives its holders multiplier for farming Hyperliquid points for future airdrop of native token #2.
๐ช๐๐ก ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐๐ฝ๐ถ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ
Wen is the first meme coin to launch at Jupiter’s LFG launchpad. In addition, Wen New Standard (WNS) is a fully open-source framework for minting NFTs and paying royalties to creators of those NFTs.
The Wen New Standard NFT architecture is a wrapper around the Solana Token Extensions program that enables traditional NFT functionality using native Solana Programs rather than Third Party Extensions. The “ELEMENTS” bring the first collection minted on WNS by AssetDash
๐ฑ๐ผ๐ป๐ผ๐๐ณ๐ผ๐บ๐ผ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ถ๐๐ด๐ฒ๐ ๐ช๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ฒ๐
MOEW is a cat-themed meme token launched by Bitget Wallet on the Base network. By the way, the token does not have any utility. The MOEW was airdropped to all users who suffered losses in this meme marketplace and holders BWB.
๐๐ฒ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป๐ถ๐๐ฎ๐/๐ญ๐ผ๐ฟ๐ธ๐๐ฒ๐ฒ๐ ๐ฏ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐ป๐๐ต๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐
The big idea behind this interesting memecoin from the co-founder of Synthetix was to test EIP-4844. All SNX holders received airdrop of Keng Lernitas tokens. After that, users had to burn that token in order to be able to mint a new one called Zorksees.
๐๐ถ๐ด ๐ฃ๐๐บ๐ฝ ๐ฏ๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ธ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐๐ฆ๐๐ฎ๐ฝ
PUMP is a meme token by BakerySwap running on BNB Chain. This memecoin is the second token launched on the BakerySwap launchpad and has zero nutility, same as MEOW.
In addition to these projects, many others are preparing to issue their own memecoins, for example BorpaToken by Entangle. Borpa is a strategic financial game where users can play and earn $BORPA for engaging in high-risk financial strategies. The project will be built using Entangle’s core components to create a true omnichannel experience as well as a diffusion model of tokenomics.
๐ฅ๐ฒ๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ช๐ต๐ ๐ฃ๐ฟ๐ผ๐ท๐ฒ๐ฐ๐๐ ๐๐ผ ๐ ๐ฒ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฐ๐ผ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฃ๐ถ๐๐ผ๐
In addition to the main reason related to earn money by market making, projects started working on creating their own meme for the following reasons:
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Large projects that do not have their own token can release their own meme coin first and distribute a portion of the supply to users. The main goal is to avoid unnecessary pressure from the community regarding the release date of the main token. In addition, such move will give the project more time to develop and choose the most appropriate time to list. A prime example of this is Jupiter’s WEN memecoin.
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Projects that already have their own main native token can create the necessary marketing buzz in the community by releasing their memecoin as well, thus attracting additional users to their main product.
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In addition to the vested interest, projects may issue memecoins out of curiosity and technical interest to test new blockchain features. A good example is Synthetix’s memecoin, which was used to test EIP-4844 in the context of transaction fees for โblobsโ.
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A particularly effective point would be the possible added value of the memecoin, which would be linked to the main product/token. A prime example of this is Hyperliquid’s memecoin with the meaningful title PURR.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ผ๐บ ๐๐ถ๐ป๐ฒ
In the current Web3 landscape, users’ attention is directly endowed with financial value, and memecoins represent a special phenomenon. This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by the big players, and the new meme coin meta is emerging quite fast. New memecoins incubated by big projects will have even greater potential for development and additional utility. In addition, with the emergence of trusted issuers, the problem of fraud inherent to memecoins may disappear.
Investing in meme coins has many risks, the most notable of which is rug pull, so it may not be suitable for everyone. However, if you miss out on the meme fever, you are missing out on a lottery ticket with a potentially impressive prize.
