MEME Rise: New Investment Logic in the 2024 Crypto Market

In 2024, the MEME project exploded in the crypto market, marking a shift in investment logic. MEME has become a mainstream investment category favored by investment institutions and market funds.

The Cultural Phenomenon Nurtured by the Internet

MEME originated from internet culture, before the emergence of blockchain technology. Currently, most of the outstanding MEME projects stem from social trends on the internet. These projects reflect the "grassroots culture" generated by global internet users communicating through the internet.

MEME is everywhere, and every MEME has a story behind it. These stories spread globally through the internet, resonating with people and being a key factor in the popularity of MEME. Social platforms, chat software, and forums are the main battlegrounds for the emergence and dissemination of MEME, as well as important channels for people to express their views and emotions.

MEME expresses ideas in specific scenarios in a concise manner (such as short text, innovative vocabulary, images, memes, etc.). Its widespread dissemination encourages those who are unfamiliar with MEME to learn about and integrate into it. A sense of belonging is the core value of MEME and is also the main driving force behind the increase in MEME's price.

MEME and the integration with blockchain

Blockchain technology has endowed many intangible assets with value, and MEME is no exception. In a way, early Bitcoin was also a kind of MEME. After the popularity of Bitcoin, a large number of worthless altcoins emerged, causing chaos in the market. The birth of DOGE was to satirize this phenomenon.

The proliferation of altcoins and the market falling into chaos again (the chaos of ICOs) during the bull market in 2017 laid the foundation for the second rise of DOGE. This was also an important factor for DOGE to gain market recognition again in 2021. Dog-themed MEME projects like SHIB began to emerge, and MEME entered the 2.0 era.

In this round of the rise in 2024, the chaos of the market has transformed into the high valuations of VC coins and the PUA of numerous "value" projects towards users, with MEME rising once again. The sluggishness of the mainstream market reflects, to some extent, the resistance of ordinary investors against the VC coins and the chaos of being cut down. Meanwhile, the fair distribution and price performance of MEME precisely address this pain point, naturally attracting a large amount of attention, leading MEME into the 3.0 era.

Identify Promising MEME Projects

Not all MEMEs have investment value. There are mixed situations in the MEME track, and the behavior of cutting leeks is everywhere. For ordinary investors, it is crucial to identify potential MEME projects. We can summarize some characteristics by analyzing past successful MEME projects:

1. DOGE: Obtained through mining, with a large early supply and low price, suitable for online tipping, supports multiple social platforms, sponsors sports events, etc.

2. SHIB: Themed around Shiba Inu, it adopts a fair issuance method, has entertainment attributes, and is committed to becoming a "value coin", launching DEX and other tokens, exploring the path of MEME turning into a value coin.

3. PEPE: Based on the internet-popular comic frog Pepe, it has a rich user base and has introduced deflationary and redistribution mechanisms.

4. WIF: A dog-themed MEME token on the Solana chain, featuring low cost and fast transfer characteristics, with the creator's balance set to zero to ensure decentralization, endorsed by well-known figures.

5. PUFF: The Mantle blockchain MEME project aimed at the mETH community, themed around dragons, enables token acquisition through mETH minting and establishes AMM pools for free exchange.

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 value aspects: Transitioning from early internet cultural uses to more value aspects, such as the Swap of SHIB, the deflationary mechanism of PEPE, the low cost and decentralization of WIF, and the core value representation of mETH in PUFF.

3. Celebrity effect and funding support: For example, Musk frequently mentions Doge, WIF has community celebrity endorsements, PEPE has been listed on top exchanges, and PUFF has been purchased in large quantities by star traders.

4. Price Performance: The price increase has allowed retail investors to profit, further enhancing the influence of the MEME token and attracting institutional and exchange investments.

The Development Goals of MEME Coin

High market cap MEME coins gain attention not only through speculation. For investors, the economic model and application scenarios are necessary considerations for long-term development. Recently, MEME projects have been trending towards ordinary "value coins" in their development direction, with MEME attributes becoming the main distinguishing factor.

The mETH incentives of PUFF have attracted a large amount of capital, becoming a leading DeFi project in the Mantle ecosystem. The project plan also incorporates GameFi elements, with staking and gameplay attracting large investors and institutions. This indicates that the MEME project team is beginning to focus on long-term development rather than short-term speculation.

Summary

MEME has gained recognition from numerous investors, leveraging humor and internet culture as a user base, which easily evokes a sense of identification. This is a low-cost and rapid way to penetrate the user market and establish project communities, and it may become a key grassroots project's cold start strategy in the future.

However, projects that purely rely on the MEME concept find it difficult to sustain development. Mid-term technological follow-up is crucial for attracting investment institutions and exchanges, the "regular army." In this process, chips may gradually shift from retail investors to institutions, driving the transformation and growth of the project. After retail investors make a profit, they usually develop a greater sense of identity with MEME culture, creating a positive flywheel effect that helps MEME gain more traction.