Murad's Meme Cycle Narrative Faces Scrutiny

According to PANews, Murad has recently gained significant attention in the crypto community, particularly for his narrative around the 'Meme Cycle.' Despite entering the crypto space in 2016 and experiencing a notable setback with the collapse of Adaptive Capital in 2020, Murad has found his niche in promoting meme coins. He began sharing his insights and predictions about meme coins in June, culminating in a list of meme coins he believes will thrive in the next 'Super Meme Cycle.' His growing influence has led some to dub him the new 'Meme God.' Murad's core arguments for the 'Super Meme Cycle' include the oversupply and high valuation of VC-backed value coins, which he claims do not perform well in the market. He argues that value coins are primarily designed for VCs to profit, leaving retail investors to bear the losses. Murad suggests that meme coins are more straightforward, focusing solely on community and token, unlike value coins that require software development and operations. He believes meme coins offer various emotional and social benefits, such as fun, identity, hope, and a sense of belonging, which he claims are lacking in value coins. Additionally, Murad criticizes VCs for disliking meme coins as they threaten their core business of selling 'air.' In another interview, Murad outlined his criteria for selecting meme coins, which include a market cap between $5 million and $200 million, being based on Solana or Ethereum, and having at least six months of history. These criteria, however, appear broad and somewhat arbitrary. While Murad's critique of VC-backed coins is not entirely unfounded, as the market has already penalized many poor-quality VC projects, his grand narrative of the meme cycle is seen by some as overly embellished. The idea that retail investors can create their own successful meme coins is questioned, as is the notion that meme coins provide significant emotional and social value, especially when many meme projects fail. Critics argue that the success of meme coins is often due to market manipulation by entities like Gobit and the promotion by influential figures like Murad, rather than any inherent community culture or value.