ACT has increased 10 times since launch. Why is Meme coin still popular? What is the current situation of the track?

As of November 10, the statistics of BTC, ETH, and TON on the TrendX platform are as follows:

The number of BTC discussions last week was 20.53K, up 21.23% from the previous week; the price last Sunday was $81,357, up 19.2% from the previous Sunday.

The number of ETH discussions last week was 5.75K, up 50.03% from the previous week; the price last Sunday was $3,203, up 27.1% from the previous Sunday.

The number of TON discussions last week was 786, down 2.48% from the previous week; the price last Sunday was $5.42, up 0.83% from the previous Sunday.

Just today, Binance launched AI Meme projects ACT and PNUT. As soon as the news came out, the ACT token immediately soared about 10 times, breaking the record of the increase in Meme exchanges, and also brought a little Meme shock to the industry. Exchanges seem to be turning their attention to Meme.

This month, Binance Research Institute released a report titled "Understanding the Rise of Meme Coins". The data in the report showed that since 2022, the total market value of Meme coins has increased from 4% to 11% in 2024. In just two years, the total market value of Meme coins has almost tripled. According to a report released by Bybit Exchange in June this year, institutional investors' holdings of spot Meme coins increased from US$62.5 million to US$204.8 million between February and March this year, and peaked in April, with total holdings reaching US$293.7 million, an increase of nearly 500%. The wind of meme coins is getting stronger and stronger. DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, GOAT... The suddenly popular meme coins have made many people rich, but also confused people. This article will explain why meme coins are so popular and analyze the current status of their track.

The rise of meme coins

Meme coins - a cryptocurrency based on Internet memes. Usually created by developers or enthusiasts, they are inspired by popular memes or Internet culture and are widely circulated through channels such as social media and online forums.

From the definition of Meme coin, we can see that, unlike other crypto assets, Meme coin may be created for the purpose of being funny and entertaining. These Meme coins have no specific purpose and actual application scenarios. They just accidentally provide investment opportunities about consensus when stimulating people's sense of humor. This basic concept also laid the foundation for the general trend of Meme coin this year. The following is an analysis of the reasons why Meme coin continues to be popular this year:

1. Financialization of Internet Culture

The viral spread and community-driven appeal of Meme coin have been extended to the financial field through encryption technology, realizing the financialization of Meme coin. It has been given value from the existence of a network culture, and can be bought and sold after being financialized, becoming a financial instrument.

As one of the basic conditions for financialization, these Meme cultures have gained consensus on the Internet "market", which is also one of the biggest features of Meme coins - no practicality, but attractive: Meme coins are based on Internet culture, memes or popular trends, and usually have no clear practicality or intrinsic value. They represent a newer, fairer and more people-friendly wealth creation opportunity. There is no pre-mining, team allocation or venture capital allocation. All tokens are equally available to all participants at the time of issuance.

2. Impact of the global macroeconomy

This is a butterfly effect caused by the US dollar. During the COVID-19 crisis, global central banks have carried out unprecedented water release, resulting in an increase in the total global money supply from US$81 trillion to US$102 trillion, an increase of more than 25%. This "large water release" phenomenon has made high-risk investments more attractive, and funds have begun to flow to high-risk, high-return investment tools including Meme coins.

This rapid expansion of the global money supply has triggered inflation and rising commodity prices around the world. The U.S. inflation rate reached 7% in 2021 and 6.5% in 2022. Faced with currency depreciation, rational actors put money into assets that are considered to have long-term value. Meme coins, as an emerging asset class, have attracted some excess capital.

3. The "traffic spread fast-hitting strategy" of Meme coins of major public chains

As the "bridgehead" of ecological development, Meme coins are regarded as the pioneers of the ecological development of major blockchains, and promote subsequent ecological development by attracting market attention and funds. Moreover, its spread has the characteristics of periodic high fever. The Meme coin in 2024 showed periodic high fever. It spread like an infectious disease, with the help of social media and community spread, usually accompanied by exponential growth.

These factors work together to promote the explosive rise of Meme coin in 2024. Its rise is not only a reflection of changes in the financial market, but also a result of the younger generation's dissatisfaction with the traditional financial system and seeking new investment opportunities. At the same time, the dissemination model and value proposition of Meme coin have also attracted the attention and participation of a large number of investment institutions.

Mainstream institutions' views on the Meme coin track

It can be said that since this year, Meme coin has increasingly become an important focus of institutional investors. Since the second half of 2024, some VCs have also announced that they will invest in Meme coin infrastructure, and Meme coin has gradually been accepted by VCs instead of being opposed by VCs.

1.Binance

As early as 2023, Binance Labs invested in multiple Meme coins, and continued to participate in the Meme coin track in 2024. In January, it invested in Memeland's native ecological token MEME, which was included in Binance Launchpool in October 2023. Subsequently, Binance Labs supported the development of its Whyanelephant project.

2. Coinbase

Coinbase Ventures also began to support DOGE as early as 2018, but the specific investment amount was not disclosed, but the project has accumulated a lot of support in the community. In 2021, Coinbase Ventures invested in SHIBA, and the parent company Coinbase announced at the end of 2023 that Bonk would be added to its list of tradable assets. And after GOAT became popular, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong proposed to set up a crypto wallet for Truth Terminal, which is enough to show their continued attention to the Meme track.

3.a16z

As a well-known mainstream venture capital institution, a16z was not friendly to Meme coins that had seized the market at the beginning. Many chief leaders of a16z have tweeted to severely criticize Meme coins, saying that it undermines the long-term vision of cryptocurrency and bluntly states that this is a casino in the crypto world.

However, a16z has recently changed its critical attitude in the first half of the year and frequently participated in Meme events. First, a16z co-founder Andreessen Horowitz gave $50,000 in BTC to the robot account Truth Terminal on X, which gave birth to the recently popular goat coin GOAT, pushing GOAT from an obscure project to a shocking historical high market value of $850 million. Truth Terminal became the first AI millionaire, and also promoted the development of AI+Meme.

Meme coin projects that performed strongly this year

Meme coin is the "get rich concept" we hear every day. Compared with other sectors in the crypto market, the Meme coin sector obviously has a strong effect of getting rich. For example, SHIB rose 500,000 times and DOGE rose 400 times. These wealth-making myths have attracted countless traffic and funds to the cryptocurrency industry. However, the Meme coin track is not just a flash in the pan, and this wave of wealth-making myths continues.

1.DOGE (Dogecoin)

As one of the originators of Meme coins, DOGE has always been known for its community support and market performance. In 2021, DOGE coin gained mainstream popularity, growing from a market value of $700 million on January 1 to a market value of $88 billion in early May. In 4 months, the market value increased by more than 100 times.

The current market value of DOGE is around $36 billion. Of course, when mentioning DOGE tokens, we have to mention the huge traffic and influence brought by Musk. He has mentioned his love for DOGE many times on Twitter. Recently, due to the fact that Trump, whom he supported, won the US election, the price of DOGE tokens rose by 140% in three months and 70% in seven days. The promotion of such an influential world-class technology influencer has a great relationship with the development of DOGE.

2. PEPE

The PEPE token was launched in April this year. In less than a month, the number of addresses of token holders reached 100,000. This rapid growth was absolutely unprecedented at the time. Looking at the token price alone, the increase on the 22nd reached 120,000 times. The price rose from 10 zeros before the decimal point when it was launched to 5 zeros. This not only attracted great attention from the market, but it was simply boiling red.

The success of PEPE is naturally a combination of multiple factors. After seeing the huge wealth effect brought about by the crazy surge in Dogecoin and SHIB, people have been looking for the next MEME coin. The emergence of PEPE and its rapid growth have stimulated people's FOMO emotions, fearing that they will miss such good opportunities as 100x coins and 1,000x MEME coins again. Therefore, the faster the growth in the early stage, the more people will buy, which is a self-reinforcing process.

In addition, exchanges have also played a considerable role in the development of PEPE. For example, it took only 6 days for the PEPE token to log in to the MEXC exchange, and 22 days to go online on Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, which is a treatment that many other mainstream tokens do not have.

3. Degen

Degen is a representative Meme project on the Base chain. It was very popular in February and March of this year before PEPE had an accident. In the early days of Degen's development, it was originally a community Meme project, with 100% Meme attributes. As Degen's attributes of a gentleman with a high hat became more and more prominent, Degen was later given utility by the official APP as a tip token for the Farcaster social platform, but its Meme attributes were still unchanged, equivalent to 80% Meme attributes + 20% utility attributes. The support of Farcaster and base ecosystems for Degen in the later period made it take advantage of the favorable conditions and also played a role in promoting the development of the Meme market, which also paved the way for PEPE.

4. GOAT

AI Meme coin, its birth is even more creative, the fundamental reason for the rise of GOAT coin, the combination of AI and Meme coin, this combination created a novel concept, that is, AI self-issued coins, which no one has tried in the past, making GOAT coin appear self-consistent and native against the backdrop of tens of millions of market value. Of course, it is difficult to be seen without a certain amount of traffic support. GOAT entered the public eye at the beginning thanks to the influence of a16z. Its founding partner Marc Andreessen bought Bitcoin worth $50,000 for it. This celebrity effect brought initial attention and trust to the GOAT coin. The launch of Moonshot also brought the convenience of buying GOAT with fiat currency, which made its price soar and completely entered the fomo rhythm. Subsequently, GOAT's market value continued to rise. On October 20, the total market value reached a high of $600 million. Crypto big Vs like Arthur Hayes even said that GOAT would reach a market value of $1 billion.

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5.ACT

ACT Meme is a cryptocurrency that combines AI technology with blockchain, aiming to create an ecosystem with the theme of "AI and Meme". The project, called "Act I: The AI ​​Prophecy", is built on the Solana blockchain and provides users with an equal and collaborative digital interactive experience through its innovative AI-driven mechanism.

Conclusion

The popularity of Meme coins not only demonstrates the integration of Internet culture and the financial field, but also marks a new trend in the combination of Meme and AI. As an indispensable part of the cryptocurrency sector, Meme coin continues to attract the attention of global investors with its unique community drive and cultural symbolism. With the intervention of AI technology, the innovation potential and market influence of Meme coin will be further expanded, bringing new vitality and possibilities to the cryptocurrency market. In the future, Meme coin will continue to play an important role in the cryptocurrency field and promote the development and transformation of the industry.

Research Report