Article by: Mia, ChainCatcher
Edited by: Marco, ChainCatcher
When discussing the release of memes with ChainCatcher, Old Mike (a pseudonym) used an old joke: How many steps does it take to put an elephant in the fridge?
To Old Mike, a meme project is like “putting an elephant in the fridge,” only requiring three steps: pre-coin release, market value management, and community maintenance.
During Meme Summer, ChainCatcher spoke with several meme coin operators. Some actively followed hot trends by releasing meme coins and operating projects; others wholesale released meme coins, generating a lot and constantly switching hot trends; some became “shareholders” by buying meme coins and became project operators.
In this wealth-building movement, human emotions do not resonate.
According to The Block Pro data, in May of this year, approximately 455,000 tokens were created on the Solana blockchain, 177,000 on the Base chain, and 39,000 on BNB Chain, not counting 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 on the chain every day. The environment for one-click coin issuance has become a paradise for monetizing meme culture.
Perhaps behind every meme coin you think about buying a bunch of, there is always the same team doing bulk issuances.
However, this frenzy does not seem to show signs of ending anytime soon, with numerous institutions joining in.
Projects are in progress
Recently, Xiao Xi (a pseudonym) has placed ads about a meme coin with several media outlets, announcing their collaboration with a film company to create a film series based on the meme coin.
Xiao Xi mentioned that he has always been active in major “dog” groups, where many meme projects are not well-prepared or lack a clear direction. They simply latch onto a hot trend, gain popularity and traffic, and quickly announce the token distribution address and coin issuance time.
His project is one such case.
The project, which was originally intended for gradual development, jumped on the meme trend and hastily released the coin. Without a clear concept or product support, the project still achieved success.
“This success may be more attributed to market trends. Nowadays, many meme projects rely on market trends for their success,” Xiao Xi said.
Meme projects endorsed by celebrities are more likely to gain traction.
The meme coin $Jenner created by Caitlyn Jenner, the stepfather of the Kardashian sisters, skyrocketed from Pump.fun to the secondary market by a thousandfold.
Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin became the representative of the last bull market’s surge.
Although former U.S. President Trump did not personally endorse a meme, there are many tokens named after him in the market, which occasionally skyrocket or plummet due to his news.
However, most grassroots meme projects lack influential endorsements or intellectual property, with project traffic mainly coming from market trends.
If a project seizes on a hot trend, successfully launches a pre-sale, and attracts liquidity and initial funding, some projects will start to take action.
“To be honest, we had nothing at the beginning, but users thought we were ‘keeping the project progress secret,'” Xiao Xi said. It was only later, after having funds, that the project started its development.
When asked if this approach might seem a bit crazy, and if users would not be concerned about the project exiting, Xiao Xi responded, “This coin issuance process has become the norm in the current meme market. I cannot confirm whether other ‘dog’ projects will exit, but at least we will not.”
As Xiao Xi said, most meme coins originate from a specific trend or market frenzy, and only after funds are in place do project teams begin to study concepts, strategies, and future plans.
Regarding the question of whether they will exit, for “10U War God” investors in meme dog coins, it is more akin to gambling, making the meme market more chaotic.
Veteran meme player R Zai (a pseudonym) stated, “Anything in the early stages will be chaotic, much like the A-shares of the 1990s. People were skeptical then, and the meme environment is much better now compared to the previous bull market.”
Meme coins are now developing an industry chain.
The Meme Coin Industry Chain
From celebrities issuing coins to various animated characters and even “emojis” issuing coins, all meme coins are not accidental.
Old Mike has been involved in the issuance of multiple meme projects. In his view, managing a mature meme project is like “putting an elephant in the fridge,” requiring three steps: pre-coin release, market value management, and community maintenance.
This mature management matrix involves the entire crypto industry chain.
The issuance starts with preheating. Meme matrix researcher Ghost (a pseudonym) told ChainCatcher that preheating can be through self-fermentation of Meme IPs, such as “Pepe” and “Doge,” which already have traffic and resonate with the public. Another method involves crazy promotion by crypto KOLs, community leaders, and industry media.
Old Mike believes that promotion is necessary for memes. If expectations are too high, it may be difficult for both retail investors and whales to get involved.
Once the hype reaches a certain point, coins can be issued, with the current sale methods being project pre-sales and fair public launches.
Regarding market value management for memes, some project teams choose to involve market makers, while others opt to build with the community.
Ghost believes that if a project focuses too much on promotion in the early stages, it may lead to excessively high initial values, causing participants, airdroppers, or even the project itself to lose control and abandon the ecosystem.
Most “dead” meme projects on the chain show a pattern of high opening and low closing, either due to investors in pre-sales selling off or due to unscrupulous project teams “rugging” and running away with the funds.
In response, Old Mike stated, “Market value management should involve market makers. After all, whales continuously arbitrage in a meme, making it difficult to achieve a steady upward trend. As for the so-called ‘project control,’ most of it is minor wash trading, leading to ‘eternal profits’ for the project team.”
For project maintenance, R Zai’s approach is to “promote during highs and plan during lows.”
During market highs, more promotion should be done to expand the market. When the market faces lows, plans should be developed, and the team should be optimized.
As memes develop later on, Old Mike admits, “Listing on major exchanges is the only way out.”
Listing on major exchanges means going public, but few meme projects manage to survive to the secondary market; the primary market is the main battlefield for memes.
Listing on exchanges also leaves some of the life and death of memes in the hands of the exchanges, as coins with “average liquidity that cannot generate fees” face the risk of being delisted.
Therefore, when the positive listing effect starts, project teams also join in promoting the listing. At this point, the coin price of meme coins reaches a new high.
This high could be a new starting point or a final destination.
“Now, a large number of sell-offs will occur after the listing,” Old Mike said. Currently, most meme speculators tend to sell off after positive news, not caring about selling high, as they always profit from it.
Speculators are the main audience in the meme race, and maintaining these speculators is the most challenging issue for meme coin projects during their development.
Bargain hunters or community consensus
Whether they succeed in getting rich or are hindered by memes, the most active behind each project are the grassroots users in the crypto community.
R Zai explained, “In the early stages, retail investors who enjoy quick trades may eventually become more united.”
Meme coins can be seen as a symbol of decentralization, and the community embodies decentralized collective consciousness. When collective consciousness turns into consensus, the decentralization of meme coins becomes complete.
Successful meme coins come not only from the project team’s leadership but also from the collective enthusiasm of the community.
Community involvement (CTO) is common in the meme field, with R Zai being a part of it.
When faced with early team malice and exits, R Zai and a group of like-minded community OGs and KOLs began voluntarily taking on the operation of the entire meme project.
R Zai stated, “Our strength and that of the KOLs are strong, and the subsequent glory is achieved by the current long-term team.”
In R Zai’s view, rescuing a project from a malicious team is the power of community consensus, bringing vitality and energy to meme projects.
Currently, each meme project comes with official TG and Discord groups, along with official administrators to create an active atmosphere and answer user questions.
Most mature meme projects conduct regular AMA activities to show the public the current development status and answer user questions, allowing the community to provide suggestions to the project team.
Compared to the centralization of mainstream coins, the top-down connections established by meme communities are more decentralized.
Excessive decentralization—Memes become a speculative casino
As meme coins push decentralization to the extreme, speculation also grows rampantly within.
For Old Mike, he never thought he would issue coins at first. The profit-seeking and speculative nature of memes drew him to this space.
The public transparency and decentralization on the chain make it a natural breeding ground for speculation.
Here, Old Mike has witnessed the emergence and disappearance of many meme projects.
“For me, projects are like pets. I don’t have high expectations; I see their entire life from birth,” he said.
There are few projects that can truly break the cycle, with most either being born or cut off, repeating the cycle. However, behind them, there may be the same team.
Old Mike justifies himself, saying, “I never considered myself a big loser. In the meme race, it’s mostly speculation, with losses and gains going hand in hand.”
In the meme casino, human desires are magnified endlessly in high multipliers, attracting more and more profit-seeking speculators.
Ghost believes, “Many ‘one-night stands’ occur in the meme market, with people going crazy to profit. However, afterwards, only trapped speculators and depleted liquidity remain.”
“Take a gamble, and a bicycle becomes a motorcycle” is a common phrase in the meme circle. For most players buying memes daily, buying coins is more like buying a lottery ticket.
“I buy ten popular memes every day, and one will surely bring a surprise,” yet in most cases, all ten tokens end up failing.
As an investor and “Builder,” R Zai views memes from an investment perspective. “Now, many meme coins have certain use cases and are gradually moving towards good long-term development. As long as the investment is reasonable, I still have confidence in this area.”
In each market cycle, meme tokens are ever-present. A group of investors passionate about a specific meme will gather and drive up the asset’s price in a short period, a strategy that has become popular in the crypto field, boosting the token price and revitalizing the entire ecosystem.
From Solana to Base and now to the current Ton, meme coins are leading this bull market, with more traditional institutions setting their sights on memes, with Avalanche even establishing a dedicated meme token fund.
