The frenzy and cold thinking of MEME coin: Is it a story or a bubble?

Author: Nomos Labs Source: mirror

Few people have ever thought that the birth of meme coins might be a “cultural experiment” in the crypto world: how much can a joke be worth? How much can a humorous satire stir up ripples in the financial world? From DOGE to SHIB, to this year’s skyrocketing $Neiro, these seemingly “nonsensical” currencies repeatedly challenge people’s perception of the narrative ability of meme coins.

In 2024, the Meme coin market remains lively amidst uncertainty. It is not just a playful symbol in the crypto circle, but also a playground for speculators and a barometer of market sentiment. However, if we dig into the story behind the soaring prices, we will find that behind this frenzy, there is a familiar yet unfamiliar logic driving it: meme culture, market sentiment, and technological narrative are redefining the value boundaries of Meme coins.

1. How to tell a good story about emotions with Meme Coin?

On the surface, Meme coin is a continuation of internet meme culture, but its real charm lies in its ability to quickly gather emotions through storytelling, shaping short-term ‘group frenzy.’ However, when it comes to the long-term value of Meme coin, no one has been able to dispel the fog and find the countless certainties and meanings made up of stories within that ‘bubble’.

It’s a joke, it’s also a cultural resonance

The earliest $DOGE Dogecoin can be said to be a complete ‘parody’. It has neither complex technical support nor ambitious application plans, but with a Shiba Inu emoticon, it has become the spokesperson for internet meme culture. In 2024, this meme narrative was further developed, and new players not only attracted attention with ‘jokes’ and ‘humor’, but also began to play the cultural and emotional card.

For example, Pepe’s Sad Frog, the frog image behind it has long been a classic in Internet culture. Its popularity does not rely on technical highlights, but on community dissemination and cultural identification. In a short period of time, Pepe’s community has grown exponentially, becoming the biggest Meme coin dark horse of the year. It is not difficult to see that as long as you can grasp the ‘emotional point’ in Internet meme culture, Meme coins can quickly tell a good story and gather consensus.

Community-driven: more like an emotional game

The popularity of a meme coin must have a crazy community standing behind it. Elon Musk’s support for Dogecoin, $Pepe’s “Frog Army”, these community members are not only investors, but also active “content creators”. They are keen to “create memes” on social platforms, attract people, and even turn meme coins from a “joke” into a “trend”.

The example of $SHIB is very typical. In 2024, it not only maintains its popularity through meme culture, but also tries to attract long-term users through technological narrative, such as its launch of the metaverse project Shibaverse, which is still in its early stages, but enough to give the community a new “show-off point”.

We can see from this that for Meme coins, meme culture is the background, but its real charm is the community narrative ability - telling a story that resonates emotionally and makes everyone ‘want to buy, dare to buy’.

2. A magnifying glass of market sentiment, a safe haven for speculators

However, the underlying logic of a ‘good story’ that can affect market changes requires ‘interest-driven’. The reason why Meme coins can continue to be popular is not only because they are ‘fun’, but also because they have become a high-volatility safe haven for speculators in the cryptocurrency market downturn.

Price skyrocketing, the ‘get rich quick myth’ loved by speculators

Looking back at 2024, the most eye-catching market trend was undoubtedly the soaring price of $Pepe. From the beginning of the year to the middle of the year, the price of this sad yet funny frog increased by more than a hundredfold—the market was attracted to this kind of currency not because of its strong technology or application, but because it was easy to “hype up.”

The issuance threshold of meme coins is low, the unit price is extremely low, and the room for growth seems to be infinite. This feature is particularly friendly to retail investors: even if it is only a few hundred dollars, it can fight for a “10 times, 100 times” imagination. For those investors who “enter the market late”, this kind of high-risk and high-return speculative varieties has become the best choice for them to catch up with the wealth effect.

Market fluctuations, the “emotional outlet” in a bear market

Interestingly, when the overall market sentiment in the cryptocurrency market enters a period of volatility, the popularity of Meme coins instead rises against the trend. This is not because Meme coins themselves have strong fundamentals, but because speculative funds need a new ‘emotional outlet’.

Unlike mainstream currencies, Meme coin does not have complex valuation logic, nor does it rely on strong ecosystem support. It relies on market sentiment. When other assets are unable to leverage retail investor sentiment, Meme coin becomes the “vanguard” of emotional trading.

So the clear market direction is that behind the price fluctuations of Meme coins lies the amplification and reflection of market sentiment: for speculators, it is their preferred choice due to its low cost and high volatility; for the market, it is a true ‘emotional mirror.’ So it is not difficult to understand why everyone likes to listen to their stories and prefers them to create countless ‘get rich quick’ stories that seem within reach and yet dreamlike.

Three, can Meme coin use technology to score itself?

We understand the changes in market sentiment, but we also need to clearly recognize that relying on cultural narratives and speculative emotions can only be popular for a while. However, if Meme coins want to go further and find the underlying logic that can support long-term value compounding, they must rely on technological innovation to create new narratives and application scenarios.

AI ‘New Meme’, Empowering Technological Narratives

This year, AI technology has become a hot topic in the encryption circle. Some Meme coin projects have seized the opportunity to launch AI-empowered gameplay, such as AI-generated content. Through this method, Meme coin projects can provide continuous interaction and entertainment experiences for investors and community members quickly and at a low cost. Another example is AI trading strategies. With the advantages of AI algorithms, project parties can more accurately predict market trends, analyze trading data, and optimize investment decisions, etc. Although the early performance may not have achieved the expected effect, it is undeniable that the introduction of AI technology has injected new vitality and new narrative clues into Meme coins.

NFT linkage, the continuation of cultural narrative

Meanwhile, NFTs are still an important partner for meme coins, demonstrating their unique charm and potential in 2024. Especially in projects like $Pepe, investors can not only profit by buying and holding Pepe coins, but also showcase their identity and status by acquiring unique NFTs.

The combination of NFT and Meme coins is no longer just a simple digital asset exchange, but a profound reflection of identity and community culture. Through the gameplay bound by NFTs, these projects provide investors with more personalized and emotional ways to participate, making holding these Meme coins not just an investment, but also an expression of community belonging. It is not difficult to imagine that with the emergence of more similar innovative gameplay, NFTs will continue to be an important accelerator for the development of Meme coin projects.

Attempts to combine payment scenarios with DeFi, increasing the value of token weights

Of course, in the imaginative cryptocurrency market, there are also some meme coins that are trying to expand their payment functions. At the end of the year, DogWifCoin officially announced a partnership with Oobit to launch a new payment function called ‘Wif Pay’, which allows users to spend $WIF and enjoy a 3% cashback reward.

Projects like SHIB, on the other hand, combine DeFi protocols to provide holders with more actual returns. For example, the governance token $BONE in the SHIB ecosystem is widely used in liquidity mining on ShibaSwap. Investors can earn profits by staking (BURYing) and providing liquidity (DIGging).

Such technological narratives continue, and technological empowerment will be an important focus of the next stage of Meme coins. Although it may seem like a ‘story’ in the short term, in the long run, only when the technological narrative is implemented, Meme coins may be able to escape the fate of ‘short-term speculation’.

Final Thoughts: Will Meme Coin’s next stop be the rise of meme economy and culture or the burst of a bubble cycle?

When we look back at the market in 2024, we can find that the rise of Meme coins is driven by three key factors:

• Culture: Meme culture and community consensus are the foundation of Meme coin, which can continuously tell an attractive story;
• Emotion: The fluctuation of market sentiment and the push of speculators make it the most “explosive” asset;
• Technology: New concepts and new application scenarios are the key to making Meme coins more valuable in the future.

However, these three also have obvious risks: how long can the story last? How long can emotions sustain? Can the technology really be implemented? The answers to these questions will determine the future of Meme coins.

However, as we begin to look ahead to the future in 2025, one thing is certain: Meme coins have evolved from a ‘joke’ to a unique phenomenon in the crypto market. Amid the increasingly restless and ongoing ‘golden age’ of cryptocurrencies following the US election, their vitality is far from over. The question remains whether they can break free from the frenzy and enter a true ‘era of value’:

2025, please welcome Meme coin to respond.