Author: Mia, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher
When discussing the distribution of Meme coins with ChainCatcher, Old Mac (pseudonym) used an old joke: how many steps does it take to fit an elephant in the fridge?
To Old Mac, a Meme project is like “fitting an elephant in the fridge,” it only requires three steps: pre-launching the coin, managing market value, and maintaining the community.
During the Meme Summer, ChainCatcher interviewed several Meme coin operators who either actively followed the trend by launching Meme coins and operating the project, wholesale launching Meme coins and continuously changing hot topics, or inadvertently becoming “shareholders” by buying Meme coins and becoming project operators.
In this wealth-building movement, human emotions vary.
According to The Block Pro data, in May of this year, there were approximately 455,000 tokens created on the Solana blockchain, 177,000 on the Base chain, and 39,000 tokens on the BNB Chain, not including other public chains.
Most tokens created on Solana are Meme tokens, partly thanks to Pump.fun’s popularity.
It is estimated that at least over 100,000 tokens are generated on the chain every day, creating an environment for easy token issuance, becoming a paradise for monetizing Meme culture.
Perhaps behind every Meme coin you consider purchasing that may explode, there is the same team doing bulk issuance.
However, this frenzy does not seem to show any signs of ending, with many institutions joining in.
Projects are in progress.
Recently, Xiao Xi (pseudonym) released advertisements about a Meme coin in various media, announcing their collaboration with a film and television company to create a series of film and television works based on the Meme series.
Xiao Xi mentioned that he has always been active in various “dog” groups, where many Meme projects are not well-prepared, and have no clear direction, jumping on a hot trend suddenly, gaining popularity and traffic, and quickly announcing the token distribution address and setting the coin issuance time.
His project is in this situation.
The project, which originally wanted to build slowly, jumped on the Meme trend and hastily issued coins. Without a clear concept and product support, this project achieved success.
“This success may be more attributed to market hype, now many Meme projects depend on the market hype for their success,” Xiao Xi said.
Meme projects endorsed by celebrities are more likely to gain traction.
The Meme coin $Jenner by Caitlyn Jenner, the stepfather of American internet celebrities the Kardashian sisters, skyrocketed from Pump.fun to the secondary market.
Musk endorsing Dogecoin became the representative of the last bull market’s surge.
Although former US President Trump did not personally endorse a Meme, there are many tokens named after him in the market that fluctuate due to his news.
However, most grassroots Meme projects lack influence and IP endorsement, with project traffic primarily driven by market trends.
If a project catches a hot trend, successfully launches a pre-sale, bringing liquidity and initial funds to the project, some projects will start working.
“To be honest, we had nothing at first, but users thought we were ‘keeping the project progress secret,'” Xiao Xi said. It was only later, after having money, that the project was developed.
When asked if this approach is a bit crazy and if users are not worried about you running away, Xiao Xi replied, “This coin issuance process has become the norm in the current Meme market. I cannot confirm if other ‘dog’ projects will run away, but at least we won’t.”
As Xiao Xi said, most Meme coins originate from a hot topic or market trend, and project development, concepts, and future planning only begin after funds are secured.
Regarding the question of “running away,” for investors like “10U War God” who choose to invest in Meme “dog” coins, it is more like gambling, making the Meme market more chaotic.
Veteran Meme player R (pseudonym) said, “Anything in the early stages will be chaotic, just like the A-shares in the 1990s, where everyone was skeptical. The Meme environment is much better than the previous bull market.”
Meme coins are forming an industry chain.
The Meme Coin Industry Chain
From celebrities issuing coins to various animated characters, and even “emoticon packs” issuing coins, all Meme coins are not coincidental.
Old Mac has been involved in the issuance of multiple Meme projects, and to him, managing a mature Meme project is like “fitting an elephant into the fridge,” only requiring three steps: pre-launch, market value management, and community maintenance.
This mature operation matrix involves the entire crypto industry chain.
The issuance process starts with pre-launch. Meme matrix researcher Ghost (pseudonym) told ChainCatcher that pre-launching can be achieved through self-fermentation of Meme IP, such as IPs like “pepe” and “doge” that already have traffic, resonating with the public to gain mass traffic. Another method is through the crazy promotion of crypto KOLs, community leaders, and industry media.
Old Mac believes that promotion is essential for Meme, as setting expectations too high can make it difficult for retail and whale investors to participate.
When the hype reaches a certain level, coins can be issued, with the current sales methods divided into project pre-sales and fair public launches.
Regarding market value management of Meme, some projects choose to involve market makers, while others choose to build with the community.
Ghost believes that if a project focuses too much on promotion in the early stages of Meme before its launch, starting with an excessively high market value may cause issues for participants in pre-sales, airdrops, or even the project team, leading to ecosystem abandonment.
Most Meme projects that fizzle out show a pattern of high opening and low closing, either due to pre-sale investors selling off or bad project teams “exit scamming.”
In response, Old Mac stated, “Market value management should involve market makers, as whales continuously arbitrage within a Meme, making sustained upward trends difficult. Most so-called ‘project-controlled positions’ are mostly manipulated by small traders, resulting in ‘eternal profits’ for the project.”
Regarding project maintenance, R’s experience-based approach is, “Promote during the peak, plan during the low.”
During market peaks, more promotion should be done to expand the market, while during downturns, the next plan should be developed, and the team optimized.
As Meme develops in the later stages, Old Mac admitted, “Listing on a major exchange is the only way out.”
Listing on a major exchange means going public, but few Meme projects survive to the secondary market, as the primary market is the main battlefield for Meme.
Listing on exchanges also hands over part of the life and death of Meme to the exchanges, as “average liquidity cannot generate fees,” making Meme coins at risk of being delisted.
Therefore, when the positive effects of listing on major exchanges kick in, project teams also coordinate with promotional activities to boost the price. At this point, the price of Meme coins reaches a new high.
This height may become a new starting point or endpoint.
“Currently, listing on major exchanges will lead to a significant sell-off,” Old Mac stated. Currently, most Meme speculators tend to sell off once the positive effects are complete, as “they don’t care about selling high, as they will ‘eternally profit.'”
Speculators are the main audience in the Meme race, and how to maintain this wave of speculators is the most challenging issue for project teams in the development of Meme coins.
Taking over or community consensus
Whether successful in getting rich or hindered by Meme, the real active force behind each project has always been the grassroots users in the crypto community.
R explained, “In the early stages, retail traders who like fast trades may become more united over time.”
Meme coins can be seen as a symbol of decentralization, where the community represents the decentralized collective consciousness. When this collective consciousness turns into consensus, the decentralization of Meme coins becomes complete.
Successful Meme coins are not just led by project teams but also originate from the collective excitement of the community.
Community involvement (CTO) is common in the Meme field, with R being one of them.
When faced with early team malicious exit scams, R and a group of like-minded community OGs, KOLs began voluntarily taking on the entire operation of the Meme project.
R said, “Our strength and that of the KOLs are powerful, and the subsequent splendor is achieved by the current long-term team.”
In R’s view, rescuing a project from a malicious team is the power of community consensus and brings vitality to Meme projects.
Currently, each Meme project will have official Telegram and Discord groups, as well as official administrators to engage users and answer questions.
Most mature Meme projects conduct regular AMA activities to showcase development progress to the public and address user concerns, while the community can also provide suggestions to the project team.
Compared to the centralization of mainstream coins, the top-down connectivity established by the Meme community is more decentralized.
Excessive decentralization – Meme becoming a speculative casino
As Meme coins push decentralization to its extreme, speculation also grows wildly.
For Old Mac, he never thought about issuing coins at first, but the profit-seeking and speculative nature of Meme drew him in.
The public transparency and decentralization on the chain make it a natural breeding ground for speculative behavior.
Here, Old Mac has witnessed the emergence and disappearance of too many Meme projects.
“For me, projects are like pets; I don’t have high expectations for them, and I see their entire life cycle from birth,” he said.
Few projects truly break away, with many projects going through cycles of birth and collapse repeatedly, but the team behind them may remain the same.
Old Mac defended himself, “I never consider myself to be a big loser; in the Meme race, most of it is speculation, with losses and gains being part of the game.”
In the Meme casino, human desires are magnified in high multiplier gains, attracting more and more profit-seeking speculators.
Ghost believes, “There are many ‘one-night stands’ in the Meme market, where people go crazy for arbitrage. But afterward, only trapped speculators and depleted liquidity remain.”
“Take a gamble, and a bicycle becomes a motorcycle” is a common phrase in the Meme circle, where for most players buying Meme coins daily is more like buying a lottery ticket.
“I buy ten popular Meme coins every day, and one of them is bound to surprise me,” but in most cases, all ten tokens turn out to be empty.
As an investor and “Builder,” R looks at Meme from an investment perspective, “Many Meme coins now have certain use cases and are gradually moving towards good long-term development. As long as the investment is reasonable, I have confidence in this area.”
Meme tokens follow every market cycle. A group of investors passionate about a particular Meme token gathers, driving up the asset price in a short period, a strategy that has become popular in the crypto field, boosting token prices while revitalizing the entire ecosystem.
From Solana to Base, and now to Ton, Meme coins are leading this round of the bull market, with more traditional institutions eyeing Meme, Avalanche even establishing dedicated Meme token funds.
