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Author: Eli Nuss Source: X, @nuss_eli Translation: Shan Oppa, Bitchain Vision
Currently, the total market value of meme coins has exceeded US$100 billion.This makes it more massive than DeFi (Decentralized Finance) and is bigger than the decentralized Internet of Things (DePIN), gaming and the metaverse combined.
Given that this asset class has become so large and diverse, we try to map it out in search of potential opportunities.
We looked at the best performing tokens for each quarter of the year and verified our guess: Meme coins dominate every quarter.In the first quarter, $POPCAT, $WIF, $MOG and $MYRO performed well; in the second quarter, $PONKE, $SPX, $TURBO, $GIGA, $WOJAK, $BRETT and $MOG ranked on the list;In the third quarter, $SPX, $GIGA, $FUD and $MUMU became the leader.
When trying to analyze meme coins, you must first realize the importance of understanding “meta” (meta).
This applies throughout the cryptocurrency field, but is particularly evident in the meme coins field.We put together an extended timeline to try to highlight some of these important metanarrative transformations and origins.
Until 2021, there is almost only Doge.The subsequent launch of Shiba Inu became the first real “dog killer”, attracting investors who hope to copy Dogecoin successfully.This desire to find the “next…” eventually forms a “meta-narrative.”The success of Shiba Inu coins has spawned a large number of meme coins related to dogs or Elon in 2021, which has also become the first real meme coin “yuan narrative”.
By 2023, the emergence of the Frog Coin (Pepe) has brought a large number of meme coins related to frogs and the “Brothers Club”.By later in 2023, Bonk and Wif launched the meme coins, solidifying Solana’s dominance as the meme chain and ultimately spawned the pump.fun platform.This stage reached a full meme coin fanaticism in the first quarter, with new meta narratives emerging every week and even every day.After reaching a local high in March, the summer heat has declined.
Meanwhile, @MustStopMurad’s meme coin community and network effect framework have been very popular, causing capital to flow into SPX6900-like “cult coins”.Recently, with the breakout of Bitcoin prices, we have seen the fanaticism revived, with new dollar narratives such as @truth_terminal’s $GOAT, the cute Hippo Ringgit $MOODENG, and the “premature death” $PEANUT.
Now we have too many different metadata to track and we try to segment the market based on their categories.
It can be seen that Dogecoin is still the dominant category in the meme currency field, mainly driven by Dogecoin.However, when we started collated this data a few weeks ago, the “AI agent” category was barely there yet, and the “martyrs” category (a tribute to OG $Harambe) just now.This fully illustrates the rapid evolution of this asset class.
Unsurprisingly, the dominance of the “dog line” has been declining since the launch of the Frog Coin.
This trend may continue as the SNR narrative continues to form and different categories are pushed into the spotlight.
Analyzing the weights of these different categories over time can reveal some interesting trends.
In 2023, Crypto Culture Coins like $bitcoin still made some progress with less capital inflows.However, starting later that year, with the infusion of some new funds, crypto culture gradually gave way to a wider Internet culture (such as $giga and $npc, etc.).
As we mentioned earlier, coins like $goat and $peanut have risen rapidly, which is shocking.Although they have triggered numerous AI memes worth hundreds of millions of dollars, it is still too early to upgrade them from “meta” to a new category.
There are other categories, such as celebrity tokens and political memes, which had some growth at the beginning of the year but then gradually faded.
In the long run, the meme currency market may become a microcosm of the crypto marketDoge Coin is similar to the role of Bitcoin (BTC).There will be some “cult coins” that are extremely loyal to the community and are never sold easily, and these coins may exist for a long time.However, most meme coins are more likely to be flashy, as we have seen in the 2021 NFT boom.
Having said that,There is obviously a huge opportunity to participate in the early stages of the new meme/meta-narrative.
I expect the Internet culture and the “smart AI” category to continue to grow at the fastest rate.Internet memes are already widely known and associated with a rich cultural background, so they have inherent advantages over other categories.And “smart AI” combines the most exciting technology with the most volatile asset classes, and seems destined to further dominate the meme market.
As for emerging fields, there is still a lot of room for development.The types of animal memes on the market are surprisingly scarce, with animals like tigers, giraffes and zebras being barely exploited.As for a whole new direction, existing fan cultures (such as superheroes, sports, etc.) may be tokenized in creative ways.
In short, I am very looking forward to hearing feedback from everyone or having different opinions on the market.Of course, this is by no means financial advice.
