Author: Mia, ChainCatcher
Editor: Marco, ChainCatcher
When discussing the distribution of Memes with ChainCatcher, Old Mac (pseudonym) used an old joke: How many steps does it take to put an elephant in the refrigerator?
To Old Mac, a Meme project is like “putting an elephant in the refrigerator”, it only requires three steps: pre-release, market management, and community maintenance.
During Meme Summer, ChainCatcher interviewed several Meme coin operators. Some actively followed trends by launching Meme coins and managing projects. Others wholesale distributed Meme coins, capitalizing on trends. And some became “shareholders” by buying Meme coins and becoming project operators.
In this wealth creation movement, human emotions vary.
According to The Block Pro data, in May of this year, approximately 455,000 tokens were created on the Solana blockchain, 177,000 on Base Chain, and 39,000 on the BNB Chain, not including other public chains.
Most of the tokens created on Solana are Meme tokens, partly due to the popularity of Pump.fun.
It is estimated that at least over 100,000 tokens are generated daily on the chain, making the environment conducive for monetizing Meme culture.
Perhaps behind every Meme coin you think about buying in bulk, there is a team behind batch issuance.
However, this frenzy seems to show no signs of ending, with many institutions joining in.
Projects are in progress.
Recently, Xiao Xi (pseudonym) placed advertisements about a Meme coin with several media outlets, announcing a collaboration between their Meme coin and a film company to create a film series based on the Meme.
Xiao Xi revealed that many Meme projects are not well-prepared and lack direction, merely jumping on a trend for sudden popularity. Once they gain traction and traffic, the project team quickly announces the payment address and finalizes the coin release date.
His project is no exception to this scenario.
Initially intended to develop the project gradually, they hopped on the Meme trend and hastily released the coin. Despite lacking concepts and product support, the project succeeded.
“This success may be more attributed to market hype. Nowadays, many Meme projects thrive or fail based on market trends,” Xiao Xi stated.
Meme projects endorsed by celebrities are more likely to gain popularity.
The Meme coin $Jenner from Caitlyn Jenner, stepfather of the Kardashian sisters, skyrocketed from Pump.fun to the secondary market, increasing a thousandfold.
Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin became a symbol of the last bull market.
While former President Trump did not personally endorse a Meme, many tokens named after him experienced fluctuations due to his news.
However, most grassroots Meme projects lack influence and intellectual property endorsements, relying more on market trends for traffic.
If a project seizes a trend, successfully launches a presale, and gains liquidity and initial funding, some projects start taking action.
“To be honest, we had nothing at the beginning, but users thought we were ‘keeping the project progress secret’,” Xiao Xi said. They commenced project development once funding became available.
When asked if this approach seemed too reckless and if users worried about a potential exit scam, Xiao Xi reassured, “This coin issuance process has become the norm in the current Meme market. I cannot confirm if other grassroots projects may exit, but we won’t.”
As Xiao Xi mentioned, most Meme coins stem from a trend or market hype, with project development and planning commencing once funds are secured.
As for the potential for exit scams, for investors like “10U War God” who choose to invest in Meme grassroots projects, it’s more akin to gambling, making the Meme market more chaotic.
Experienced Meme player R (pseudonym) stated, “Early stages are always chaotic, similar to A-shares in the 1990s. People were skeptical. The current Meme environment is much better than in the last bull market.”
A Meme coin industry chain is emerging.
Meme Coin Industry Chain
From celebrity coin launches to various animated characters, even “emojis” launching coins, all Meme coins are not accidental.
Old Mac has been involved in multiple Meme project launches. To him, managing a mature Meme project is like “putting an elephant in the refrigerator”, requiring three steps: pre-release, market management, and community maintenance.
This mature operational matrix involves the entire crypto industry chain.
The coin issuance begins with the pre-release. Meme matrix researcher Ghost (pseudonym) told ChainCatcher that there are two ways to pre-release. One is the self-fermentation of Meme IPs, like “pepe” and “doge”, which naturally attract traffic. The other method involves aggressive promotion by crypto KOLs, community leaders, and industry media.
Old Mac believes that promotion is essential for Memes. Setting expectations too high can make it challenging for both retail investors and whales to participate.
Once the hype reaches a certain level, the coin can be released. The current sales methods include project presales and fair public launches.
Regarding market management for Memes, some projects involve market makers, while others opt for community collaboration.
Ghost believes that if a project focuses too much on promotion in the early stages of a Meme, setting a high initial market value can lead to issues with presale participants, airdrop recipients, or even the project itself, jeopardizing the ecosystem.
Most “dead” Meme projects on the chain exhibit a pattern of high opening followed by a decline, either due to presale investors selling off or unscrupulous project operators running off with the money.
In response, Old Mac stated, “Market management should involve market makers to intervene, as whales continuously arbitrage within a Meme, making sustained growth difficult. Most so-called ‘project control’ is just wash trading. For project operators, it’s a perpetual profit.”
As for project maintenance, R’s approach is, “Promote during highs, plan during lows.”
During market highs, more promotion should be done to expand the market. When facing market lows, planning for the next steps and optimizing the team are crucial.
As Meme projects progress, Old Mac frankly admits, “Going public is the only way out.”
Going public means going mainstream, but few Meme projects survive to the secondary market, as the primary market is the main battlefield for Memes.
Listing on a major exchange transfers some of the life and death decisions to the exchange, as tokens with “mediocre liquidity” risk being delisted.
Therefore, when the benefits of listing kick in, project teams coordinate with exchanges to promote listings. At this point, the token price reaches new highs.
This peak could be a new starting point or the end.
“Nowadays, listing often leads to a large number of sell-offs,” Old Mac said. Currently, most Meme speculators tend to sell off once the benefits are realized. “They don’t care about selling high, as they always make a profit.”
Speculators are the primary audience in the Meme race. How to retain these speculators is the biggest headache for project teams in the development of Meme coins.
Bargain hunters or community consensus
Whether successful in wealth accumulation or hindered by Meme obstacles, the grassroots users in the crypto community are always the most active participants.
R explained, “In the early stages, individual investors who enjoy quick trades might become more united over time.”
Meme coin can be seen as a symbol of decentralization, with the community embodying decentralized collective consciousness. When this collective consciousness turns into consensus, the decentralization of Meme coin becomes complete.
Successful Meme coins are not solely driven by project teams but also by the collective enthusiasm of the community.
Community takeover (CTO) is common in the Meme field, where R is also involved.
When facing malicious teams running off in the early stages, R and a group of like-minded community OGs and KOLs voluntarily took over the entire operations of a Meme project.
“We have a strong team and KOLs. The glory ahead is all thanks to the current long-term team,” R stated.
To R, rescuing a project from malicious teams showcases the power of community consensus, breathing life and vitality into Meme projects.
Currently, every Meme project typically has official Telegram and Discord groups, with designated administrators to engage users and address queries.
Most mature Meme projects conduct regular AMA sessions to update the public on developments and address user questions, allowing the community to offer suggestions.
Compared to the centralized nature of mainstream coins, the top-down and bottom-up connections established by the Meme community are more decentralized.
Excessive decentralization—Meme becomes a speculative casino
As Meme coins push decentralization to its limits, speculation also thrives within the ecosystem.
For Old Mac, he never initially planned to launch a coin. The profit-driven and speculative nature of Memes drew him into this realm.
The transparency and decentralization on the chain make it a natural breeding ground for speculation.
Here, Old Mac witnessed the emergence and disappearance of countless Meme projects.
“Projects are like pets to me; I don’t have high expectations for them. I see their entire life cycle from birth,” he reflected.
Few projects truly break out; most are born and cut short, repeating the cycle. However, the team behind them may remain the same.
Old Mac defended himself, stating, “I never consider myself a big loser. In the Meme race, most are speculators, where there’s both loss and gain.”
In the Meme casino, human desires are magnified infinitely amidst high percentage gains, attracting more profit-driven speculators.
Ghost pointed out, “Many ‘one-night stands’ occur in the Meme market, where people engage in frenzy for quick profits. However, it often leaves trapped speculators and depleted liquidity afterward.”
“Take a chance, and a bicycle becomes a motorcycle,” a common phrase in the Meme community. For most players who buy Memes every day, purchasing tokens is akin to buying lottery tickets.
“I buy ten popular Memes every day, and one of them is bound to surprise me,” but in most cases, all ten tokens end up failing.
As an investor and “builder,” R views Meme from an investment perspective, stating, “Many Meme coins now have practical use cases and are gradually moving towards a more sustainable long-term development. As long as the investment is rational, I am confident in this area.”
In every market cycle, Meme tokens shadow the trends. Enthusiastic investors in a particular Meme asset band together, rapidly driving up the price in a short period, a strategy that has become common in the crypto space. By boosting token prices, the entire ecosystem remains active.
From Solana, to Base, and now to Ton, Meme coins are leading this round of the bull market, attracting traditional institutions to Meme, with Avalanche even establishing dedicated Meme token funds.
