From Silly Dragon to Minu, an overview of representative Meme projects on various public chains
In this year's cryptocurrency market, a unique craze is emerging. This phenomenon can be summed up in one sentence: without assets, we create assets; without narratives, we manufacture narratives. This perfectly depicts the fervor surrounding inscriptions in the crypto market this year. In this process, the attitude against traditional venture capital (VC), the creation of new assets, and the shaping of consensus have jointly contributed to an irresistible FOMO phenomenon.
Beyond the shadow of inscriptions, another force is spreading: Meme coins. These coins typically feature animal shapes, such as chickens, dogs, monkeys, frogs, etc., continuously emerging and achieving astonishing gains in the recent bull market. The popularity of the Meme sector has risen accordingly. Surprisingly, some Meme coins have seen their prices soar over 100 times within just a week.
CoinGecko: AI, GameFi, and Meme Coin are the three major crypto narratives of 2023
This phenomenon reflects the high popularity of the Meme sector while also hinting at the deeper motivations behind this market trend. In the following sections, we will take a detailed look at different Meme coins across various chains and explore their characteristics and market performance.
Silly Dragon: Launched by the founder of Solana, riding on the concept of the Chinese Lunar New Year of the Dragon
In the Solana ecosystem, the Meme coin Silly Dragon has recently attracted widespread attention, especially after its unique connection with founder Toly (aeyakovenko) emerged. Last Saturday, this Meme project named Silly Dragon suddenly caught Toly's attention. This attention was not limited to social media interactions but extended into his personal image presentation. In Toly's Twitter profile picture, he is wearing a dragon-shaped outfit similar to the Silly Dragon cartoon character, a detail interpreted by the community and the market as implicit support for the Silly Dragon project.
This connection is not merely online; Toly personally cosplayed as a dragon at a public meeting, further solidifying his link to Silly Dragon. The blue dragon outfit he wore remarkably matched the cartoon character in his Twitter profile, although these fragmented pieces of information do not directly prove a substantial connection between the Solana founder and Silly Dragon, their existence visually ties Silly Dragon more closely to Toly.
Another factor driving Silly Dragon's popularity is that next year marks the Chinese Year of the Dragon, making this narrative more appealing within the Chinese community. Notably, within 1-2 hours of Toly expressing interest in Silly Dragon, the price of the Silly token nearly surged tenfold, indicating the market's sensitivity to this association.
Currently, Silly Dragon's price has increased over 80 times, surpassing 0.13 USDT. The total supply of Silly tokens is 1 billion, with a market cap of approximately 118 million USD and a 24-hour trading volume of 36.14 million USD. There are over 6,000 addresses trading on-chain, with more than 13,000 addresses currently holding SILLY. Among them, the bitgetzero.sol address holds the highest proportion at 6.78%, followed by the HRgsV 5…zhjg address at 5.77%, and the 12 eC 4 Ew…KgkW address at 2.19%.
This phenomenon reflects the cryptocurrency market's rapid response capability to specific events while also highlighting the unique position and influence of Meme coins within the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Although the market's interest in Silly Dragon may be driven by specific factors, its long-term performance still requires further observation.
COQ: The Meme representative on the Avalanche chain, claiming to be completely useless and only for entertainment
The AVAX token has recently shown significant growth momentum. According to data from OKX, the price of AVAX recently reached a new high of 46 USDT for the year. This growth not only highlights the strong performance of AVAX itself but also reflects the overall vitality of the Avalanche ecosystem. Within this ecosystem, besides AVAX, other types of tokens are also attracting market attention, including Meme coins.
In the realm of Meme coins, the COQ (Avalanche Chicken) token stands out. This chicken-themed Meme token was launched on December 8 last year and has since seen its market cap rapidly grow to as high as 230 million USD. Interestingly, despite COQ token's impressive market performance, its developers have explicitly stated that this token has no intrinsic value and should not be expected to yield any financial returns. This seemingly contradictory phenomenon is not uncommon in the cryptocurrency space. The official website of COQ even has a statement: "This coin is completely useless and is for entertainment only."
However, despite the developers' low-key evaluation of COQ, it has still garnered significant attention in the market. Currently, COQ has been listed on the well-known cryptocurrency exchange Kucoin. The growth in its market cap and trading volume indicates that even a token labeled as "useless" can attract considerable investor interest in a specific market environment. The success of COQ somewhat suggests that part of the cryptocurrency market's momentum comes from the interest and participation of community members rather than purely economic value.
In the Avalanche ecosystem, COQ has become an emerging token worth watching, with over 30,000 holders and a daily trading volume of 30 million USD.
ZeekCoin: A Meme coin in the ZKSync ecosystem, with the project team retaining only 10% of the total assets
In the ZKSync ecosystem, a Meme coin named ZeekCoin has recently attracted attention from the market and its founders. Although ZeekCoin has not received official recognition, it is seen as a symbol of the unofficial mascot "Zeek" of zkSync. This unique positioning gives ZeekCoin a place in the ZKSync ecosystem, attracting the eyes of investors and community members.
From the perspective of token economics, ZeekCoin has adopted some unique strategies. First, it has not conducted any presales, meaning all tokens are distributed through market transactions rather than through pre-set sales. Second, ZeekCoin has set a purchase limit of 2% of the total supply for each transaction, a strategy that may aim to prevent market manipulation and excessive influence from single large holders. Additionally, ZeekCoin imposes a 2% tax on each sale, a mechanism typically used to maintain the project's long-term operation or fund community incentive programs.
In terms of token distribution, ZeekCoin demonstrates its emphasis on market liquidity: 80% of the tokens are allocated to liquidity pools to ensure market liquidity and stability. The project team retains only 10% of the tokens, reflecting confidence and commitment to the project's future. Meanwhile, another 10% of the tokens are allocated for community rewards to incentivize participation and contributions from community members.
ZeekCoin also introduces a limit of 2% of the total supply for each wallet, which helps promote the distribution of tokens among a broader user base, thereby avoiding the risk of excessive concentration.
The positioning and strategy of ZeekCoin in the ZKSync ecosystem, while unique, also bring market uncertainty. As a Meme coin, it may not be viewed as a traditional investment tool but rather as a form of community culture and participation. For investors, this means they need to keep an eye on ZeekCoin and its market performance while maintaining a clear understanding of its potential risks and volatility.
LONK: A Meme coin representative in the NEAR ecosystem, homophonous with LONG
In the NEAR ecosystem, the LONK token has become the first widely recognized Meme coin, attracting attention from NEAR officials and related ecosystem personnel. This unique Meme coin not only has a creative name—LONK, pronounced "LONG," which semantically associates with "dragon (LONG)"—but also carries elements of humor and entertainment.
The design concept of the LONK token and its community culture are filled with fun and creativity. Its slogan "LONK IS LONG, LONK IS 龍, LONK IS DRAGON," along with "LONK IS FREN WITH BONK," and "LONK IS LOVE," reflects a relaxed and friendly community atmosphere. LONK is explicitly described as different from ordinary Meme coins; it was born out of collective friendship and is deeply rooted in the fields of memes and humor.
In terms of supply, the total amount of LONK is set at 4.2069 billion, with 83.058% allocated to liquidity pools (LPs), and the remaining 16.9420% reserved for airdrops, exchange listings, and other purposes. Notably, LONK has adopted some unconventional strategies, such as no taxes, no team allocations, no venture capital (VCs), no presales, and no nonsense (NO BS). These strategies indicate that LONK's operational approach is fundamentally different from many other cryptocurrency projects.
The LONK token is defined as a purely entertainment-oriented Meme coin, with no intrinsic value and no promise of financial returns. Its management is informal, without a dedicated team or a defined roadmap, existing purely as a symbol of entertainment. This characteristic gives LONK a unique style in the NEAR ecosystem, making it a project based solely on community participation and entertainment.
For market participants, the existence and operation of LONK provide a window into the diversity of the Meme coin space. It showcases that in the cryptocurrency market, beyond traditional investment and financial return-oriented projects, there are unique projects based on community culture and entertainment. However, investors need to recognize that Meme coins like LONK may bring high volatility and uncertainty, so caution is advised when participating.
Minu: Born in the Manta Pacific ecosystem, the project is still in its early stages
In the Manta Pacific ecosystem, Minu, as the first Meme token, with the token name $MNU, marks a new development phase for the ecosystem. However, as a particularly early-stage project, the specific details and token economics model of Minu have not yet been fully disclosed, making a complete assessment and understanding challenging.
Currently, information about Minu is relatively limited. As an emerging project within the Manta Pacific ecosystem, its launch has piqued the curiosity and attention of the community. Since the project is still in its early stages, many key project details—including its long-term vision, goals, and how it integrates into the existing Manta Pacific ecosystem—have yet to be clarified.
Regarding Minu's economic model and strategy, the known information is that it will not implement any form of transaction tax (No tax). This strategy may indicate that the project team hopes to promote broader participation and liquidity by reducing transaction costs. However, the lack of a transaction tax may also mean that the project needs to find other ways to sustain its long-term operation and development.
Although Minu, as a new project within the Manta Pacific ecosystem, has its development potential and influence difficult to assess accurately at this stage, its emergence undoubtedly brings new vitality and possibilities to the ecosystem. As more information is disclosed, Minu may showcase its unique position and role within the Manta Pacific ecosystem. For observers of the cryptocurrency market and the Meme coin space, Minu's development will be a point worth watching.
AIDOGE: The first Meme asset in the Arbitrum ecosystem, integrating AI technology
ArbDoge AI, as an important project in the Arbitrum ecosystem, is not only the first Meme coin in this ecosystem but also combines artificial intelligence (AI), Arbitrum technology, and popular Doge elements, injecting new vitality into the Arbitrum ecosystem. The project fairly distributed 2.1 trillion AIDOGE tokens to the community between April and May this year, with a current circulating supply of approximately 183.15 trillion tokens and a market cap of about 38.39 million USD. The launch and operation of AIDOGE not only created market FOMO but also opened up new narrative gameplay.
The distribution method of AIDOGE combines a decreasing airdrop with a lucky draw, a strategy that increases market participation while introducing a certain element of gaming. Addresses eligible for ARB token airdrops can claim 95% of the tokens for free, while the remaining 5% is used to reward users who invite new participants. This distribution mechanism not only incentivizes early community participation but also effectively mitigates market selling pressure by gradually reducing the amount of tokens distributed.
Additionally, AIDOGE introduces a transaction burn tax mechanism, meaning that 15% of tokens will be used for various purposes with each on-chain transaction, including ecosystem development, token burning, rewarding liquidity providers, purchasing ARB tokens for subsidizing protocol games and voting, as well as providing staking dividends and lucky drop rewards for AIDOGE holders. This complex tax structure aims to stimulate market activity while supporting the overall development of the ecosystem.
AIDOGE also offers opportunities for mining and providing liquidity, with extremely high annual yields calculated under compound interest conditions. Meanwhile, the project further stimulates user participation enthusiasm by setting up lucky drop activities with specific conditions. After purchasing a certain amount of AIDOGE, users become eligible to participate in a lottery held every half hour, and this frequent reward distribution increases market activity.
These characteristics of ArbDoge AI not only demonstrate the application of innovative strategies in the cryptocurrency market but also reflect the market's acceptance of new incentive mechanisms. Although this strategy may bring high volatility and uncertainty, it also provides new momentum and development direction for the Arbitrum ecosystem and the overall cryptocurrency market.
The prosperity of Meme coins has its underlying logic, but their future still depends on the Web3 ecosystem
As we approach the end of 2023, we observe a shift in trends within the cryptocurrency market: from technology-driven innovation to market speculation more reliant on emotions. This shift reflects the characteristics of the cryptocurrency market at different times and the evolution of investor sentiment.
Looking back at the ICO boom of 2017, most projects at that time provided detailed technical white papers, emphasizing their technological advantages and future visions. These projects typically attracted interest primarily through their technological innovations and potential market applications. In the DeFi wave of 2020, most projects focused on articulating their potential economic benefits and liquidity advantages to attract investors and liquidity providers.
However, by 2023, some emerging trends in the cryptocurrency market, particularly those related to Meme coins, seem to rely more on emotion-driven market hype. These projects may no longer emphasize technological innovation or specific application scenarios but instead drive price increases by capturing community attention and leveraging market hotspots. This phenomenon may reflect a certain fatigue in the market, where investors, after a prolonged period of technology-oriented focus, begin to seek more direct and straightforward ways to participate in the market.
This shift also raises questions about the future development of the cryptocurrency market. While emotion-driven market speculation can lead to significant price volatility and attention in the short term, it lacks a foundation for long-term stability and sustained growth. Without solid technological support and practical applications, such upward trends may quickly fade.
Therefore, for participants in the cryptocurrency market, understanding this change in market dynamics is crucial. While following market hotspots and emotions may yield short-term gains, the long-term health and stability of the market rely more on genuine technological innovation and practical application scenarios. Maintaining attention to the fundamentals of projects and rational analysis of market trends will be key to avoiding risks and achieving long-term value appreciation. The future of the cryptocurrency market, whether it can achieve true prosperity and stability, may depend on finding a balance between technological innovation and market sentiment.