When foreigners start playing Chinese Meme coins: a cross-cultural cryptocurrency experiment

Polish trader Barry has been having quite a surreal experience lately.

He runs a European trading community with hundreds of members. One morning in early October, the group exploded with activity — a bunch of Chinese tokens that nobody understood were rapidly gaining traction. By the time he realized what was happening, a certain Chinese ticker had already soared to a $60 million market cap, and members were franticly depositing on BSC, completely confused about the situation.

“It felt like watching others get rich while I didn’t even understand the rules of the game,” Barry recalled.

The “Printing Press” on BSC at All Times

Numbers don’t lie. On October 8th, transaction volume on BSC surged to $6.05 billion, reaching the levels of the 2021 meme coin craze. Even more astonishing, over 100,000 new addresses flooded in that day, with nearly 70% of them making profits.

The most active players in this wave were Chinese retail investors. One guy spent a week buying 65 Chinese meme tokens on BSC, initially throwing in $100 to $300 to test each one, then adding more once they showed signs of rising. Over seven days, he netted $87,000 — a textbook example of a “broad net” strategy.

Meanwhile, Western and European players were genuinely baffled this time. They’re used to following big KOLs in Ethereum’s shady projects, but suddenly there were so many tokens with Chinese names — and they couldn’t even understand the meanings, let alone grasp the cultural references behind them.

The Underlying Logic of Two Different Approaches

European meme coin players have their own routines. Usually, influential teams or KOLs hold large amounts of tokens, then gradually build communities to pump the price. This approach is stable but also risky — it can be easily crushed by whales, making long-term projects difficult.

The Chinese community’s style is completely different. They tell stories in WeChat groups, evoke emotional resonance, and hype trending IPs, pushing prices through sentiment on a relatively “fair” starting line. The recent hot topics like “Humble Little Hero,” “Cultivation,” or “Life on a Certain Platform” are essentially selling dreams and social identity.

For Chinese investors, this is called “widening the road,” but to Western players, it means the token’s fate depends on whether some “system” is willing to pump it. This way of thinking is hard for them to understand.

A Certain Top Platform’s “Wealth Creation Movement”

This wave of Chinese meme hype wasn’t spontaneous. It was carefully designed — from a founder’s joking reply, to a series of official interactions, to the launch of dedicated meme issuance platforms.

This “step-by-step” release of benefits is clever: initial hype to go viral, mid-term to ensure liquidity, and later to sustain momentum. The result is that what was once chaotic meme coin issuance has become organized ecosystem building, keeping BSC in the spotlight.

The most intriguing part is the psychological hint that “the next order might make you financially free.” When multiple hot projects appear simultaneously, funds don’t get siphoned off — everyone believes there are bigger opportunities ahead. This was unthinkable a few months ago.

Western meme coins rely more on luck and community enthusiasm, but this time, the BSC ecosystem demonstrates that under the resonance of platform, community, and emotion, a carnival can be deliberately crafted into a clear “wealth creation experiment.”

Controversy Over Coin Listing Fees and Two Major Platforms’ “Ice-breaking”

In mid-October, a big scoop emerged. The founder of a prediction market project publicly claimed that listing on a major exchange required pledging 2 million platform tokens, giving away 8% of the tokens via airdrop, and paying a $250,000 deposit.

The exchange immediately issued a denial, saying they would pursue legal action. But shortly after, they softened their tone in an announcement, admitting their initial reaction was overblown.

Interestingly, another US exchange responded differently. Their blockchain head initially stated publicly that “projects listing on our exchange should have zero fee,” but a few days later, the tone changed — officially supporting a competitor’s platform tokens, a historic first.

Even more surprisingly, this person posted a video demo using “a certain platform’s life” as an example, and tweeted in Chinese “You can also start the ‘Life Mode’ on our platform.” The previously tense standoff suddenly turned into a warm story of “breaking the ice” in the US-China crypto camp.

Of course, the underlying business logic is clear: the trading volume and user base in Asia have grown so much that Western platforms can no longer ignore it. Cultural differences are no longer a barrier when stakes are high.

The Surreal Reality of Westerners Learning Chinese to Buy Coins

Western media covered this story extensively, but most Western retail investors remain confused. Even seasoned players like Barry, who work closely with Chinese communities, often find themselves “understanding the gist but missing the meaning”—they can read the words but can’t grasp the cultural context.

This has led to some amusing scenes: Western communities developing Chinese-to-English translation tools specifically for dog names; YouTube series where foreigners learn Chinese to buy meme coins; some people outright shouting in groups, “Who understands Chinese? Come explain what this coin name means!”

“This is the first time Western investors have to understand Chinese culture to participate,” Barry lamented. “Language itself is a layer of value information.”

He also feels that this wave of Chinese meme tokens might be nearing its peak. “The longer it lasts, the more psychological shadows it leaves on traders. These coins are starting to move toward small market caps and quick rotations — a sign of topping out.”

Where Is the Next Hotspot?

Barry remains optimistic about the future: “Chinese and English will continue to dominate the meme market, and this pattern won’t change in the short term. But English tickers might incorporate more Chinese humor and aesthetic elements, and vice versa — cultural fusion is the big trend.”

Currently, AI tools can help translate social media updates and generate Chinese meme images, but truly understanding cultural contexts still depends on humans. The future of crypto might become more multipolar — more Chinese “Golden Dogs” on chains like Base and Solana, while Chinese communities absorb Western meme styles.

Opportunities often hide in the cracks. For those capable of bridging both Chinese and Western community cultures, this cross-cultural experiment has only just begun.