Meme Coin 2023 Annual Research Report
Simple, Resonance, Social, SpeculationOriginal Author: WatchMemeDao
According to the Coingecko 2023 Annual Report, the Meme sector is the third most favored narrative by investors, following AI and GameFi, accounting for 8.3% of interest in crypto narratives. By the end of 2023, the total market capitalization of the Meme sector approached $22 billion, representing about 1.22% of the total crypto market capitalization, surpassing the market values of many mainstream sectors with heavy capital and institutional participation, such as DePIN ($14 billion), Layer2 ($21 billion), Zero-Knowledge ($18 billion), and DEX ($15.7 billion), and also exceeding the total market capitalization of most mainstream public chain ecosystems.
In 2023, the entire crypto industry experienced a series of ups and downs, including a deep bear market, despair, developers and investors fleeing to the AI sector, expectations for ETF spot approvals, rekindled hope, market recovery, and the start of a bull market. Regardless of the market stage, the Meme sector always bursts with infinite possibilities, leading market sentiment and providing endless imaginative space. From the emergence of PePe in May, followed by the attention gained by HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu (BITCOIN) in July, to Bonk's market cap skyrocketing from over a million to a peak of over $2 billion in just over a month, and the two leading projects from the BRC20 ecosystem, Ordi and Sats, landing on Binance and both exceeding a market cap of $1 billion. Meme culture has played a very important role in the mobile internet era, and even more so in the Web3 era, becoming one of the most important components of crypto culture.
The power of memes comes from their unique ability to convey information and ideas in a light-hearted and humorous way. Through creative images, text, and videos, memes have become a powerful tool for users to share opinions, satirize phenomena, and express emotions. They capture current hot topics and social trends in a unique way, parodying, satirizing, or teasing them humorously. However, the influence of memes goes far beyond this. They can break traditional modes of information dissemination, spreading rapidly on social media and sparking widespread discussion and participation. When a meme spreads quickly online, it can gather users' attention and resonance, stimulating discussions and thoughts on specific topics. This collective participation and interaction provide opportunities for forming new consensus and can even drive social change. For the entire crypto industry, memes have become a traffic entry point to attract more crypto users. Users can quickly understand crypto community culture, grasp crypto investment methods, and embrace the crypto ecosystem through meme coins and communities.
For exchanges and public chains, memes have become an important weapon for cold starts and promoting ecological prosperity, such as the recent explosion of meme projects on Solana (e.g., Silly Dragon, Analos, Bork, etc.), COQ on Avalanche, and Pory on Polygon. For users, memes serve as a carrier of anti-VC and unconventional spirit and attitude, a medium for creating new consensus, much like the repeated GameStop defense battles.
For users, memes are not just a carrier of anti-VC and unconventional spirit and attitude; they are also a medium for social expression that can resonate, create new consensus, and become a force for changing the real world. Just like the repeated GameStop defense battles, memes play a key role in this. When a group of ordinary investors collectively act through social media and memes, they can change the market landscape and rules. This display of power triggers a rethinking of the financial system and challenges traditional institutions and authorities.
Therefore, memes are not just a form of entertainment; they have become a symbol of cultural phenomena and social movements. As users, participating in meme creation and sharing means engaging in a decentralized cultural creation process, expressing one's views, shaping public opinion, and influencing society. The power of memes lies in their universality and speed of dissemination, allowing everyone the opportunity to participate and influence social topics. Next, we will review the 5 meme projects worth paying attention to in 2023.
Silly Dragon
Silly X Platform Account
Keywords: Year of the Dragon; Solana founder and official support and interaction
Project Introduction: Silly Dragon: A fun-loving character in the Solana blockchain world, embodying innovation, community, and playfulness.
Basic Data (As of January 25, 2024)
First Mint Time: 12-04-2123
Chain: Solana
FDV/MKT CAP: $68M
ATH: $165M
Supply: 999.97M
Holders: 17600+
Top 10 Holders: 29.68%
Liquidity Pool: $2.2M
Transaction: 15K
24 Hours Trading Volume: $5.5M
24 Hours Traders: 2.5K
X Followers: 22.3K
Telegram Followers: 6.6K
Exchange Listed: Kucoin; LBank; Bitget; HTX; BitMart; CoinW;
Scores
Community Activity Score: 90
Liquidity Pool Score: 92
Information Transparency Score: 90
Trading Activity Score: 80
Contract Security Score: 95
Chip Structure Score: 90
Overall Score: 89
Future Focus Points:
The Year of the Dragon is approaching in China; will it further ferment in the Chinese community?
Community ecological development situation: quality of upcoming NFT releases, community participation and recognition, to evaluate the team's execution and operational capabilities; whether Solana officials and the Solana founder continue to interact with Silly Dragon; focus on Top Tier exchange listing situations; growth of English-speaking followers in the next phase;
COQ
Keywords: Avalanche leading meme; Avalanche established an ecological fund to support meme projects;
Project Introduction: COQ is the #1 meme coin on AVAX. Founded by well-respected members of the community. They took no distribution and put the entire supply of the coin with 150 AVAX in initial liquidity. The contract has been fully renounced and liquidity burned.
Basic Data (As of January 25, 2024)
First Mint Time: 12-08-2023
Chain: Avalanche
FDV/MKT CAP: $76.3M
ATH: $266M
Supply: 69T
Holders: 55K
Top 10 Holders: 26%
Liquidity Pool: $3.3M
24 Hours Trading Volume: $1.4M
24 Hours Traders: 1.2K
X Followers: 42.3K
Telegram Followers: 9.5K
Exchange Listed: KuCoin, Bybit, Bitget, HTX, BitMart, CoinEx
Scores
Community Activity Score: 85
Liquidity Pool Score: 95
Information Transparency Score: 90
Trading Activity Score: 80
Contract Security Score: 95
Chip Structure Score: 95
Overall Score: 90
Future Focus Points: The position of Avalanche's leading meme project is relatively stable; focus on the project's subsequent operational trends and breakout actions; since it is a native meme on Avalanche, the platform's development space must also be considered, i.e., the overall ecological development of Avalanche; Avalanche has gained considerable traffic and attention since embracing the inscription sector; whether it can continue to exert force in the overall ecosystem, create differentiation, and regain glory is worth looking forward to.
TROLL
TROLL X Platform Account
Keywords: Musk concept - Chief Troll Officer; Ethereum ecosystem resurgence, the next PePe on Ethereum;
Project Introduction: Troll is just a meme coin that is run by the community. Troll was created by a group of degens and has slowly worked in building a community.
Basic Data (As of January 25, 2024)
First Mint Time: 03-19-2023
Chain: Ethereum
FDV/MKT CAP: $45M
ATH: $58M
Supply: 960.42T
Holders: 6.21K
Top 10 Holders: 25%
Liquidity Pool: $1.8M
Transaction: 7.8K
24 Hours Trading Volume: $25M
X Followers: 4.45K
Telegram Followers: 4.9K
Exchange Listed: BingX, LBank, XT.COM, Poloniex
Scores
Community Activity Score: 75
Liquidity Pool Score: 95
Information Transparency Score: 90
Trading Activity Score: 98
Contract Security Score: 95
Chip Structure Score: 95
Overall Score: 92
Future Focus Points: The Musk concept is back; the current biggest expectation is whether Musk will retweet and promote it; the Ethereum ecosystem is returning to the hottest market ranks, and there are signs of a resurgence in the meme craze on Ethereum; currently, $TROLL is the hottest and most actively traded one, so pay attention to more community discussion heat and Twitter discussion heat.
Rats Ordinals
RATS X Platform Account
Keywords: The next SATS & ORDI;
Project Introduction: $RATS is an animal meme coin created on the Bitcoin blockchain under the BRC-20 protocol, with a total issuance amount of 1 trillion and it is 100% in circulation. It is named after the most populous mammal on Earth, the rat, and is highly sought after by a large number of users due to its ironic take on the traditional trading market's front running.
Basic Data (As of January 25, 2024)
First Mint Time: 11-21-2023
Chain: BTC
FDV/MKT CAP: $220M
ATH: $62.7M
Supply: 1T
Holders: None
Top 10 Holders: 13.16%
Liquidity Pool: None
Transaction: None
24 Hours Trading Volume: $84.5M
24 Hours Traders: None
X Followers: 35K
Telegram Followers: 18.6K
Exchange Listed: Gate.io, Kucoin, HTX, Bitget, OKX-Ordinals, MEXC, BingX
Scores
Community Activity Score: 98
Liquidity Pool Score: 100
Information Transparency Score: 98
Trading Activity Score: 99
Contract Security Score: 95
Chip Structure Score: 95
Overall Score: 97
Future Focus Points: Although the project party insists that it is not the same as SATS and ORDI, they want to do their own thing, it must be said that if RATS can replicate the development trajectory of SATS and ORDI, such as user volume, listing paths, community consensus, etc., there is still a growth space of 5-8 times, which is also a key point we can focus on; widely recognized as the third horse of the BRC20 ecosystem, belonging to the Beta returns of the BRC20 ecosystem, but has a larger Alpha compared to SATS and ORDI; if Binance wallet supports BRC20, RATS will benefit even more.
LFG
Keywords: Solana founder's clear support; vampire attack on ETH; ETH whales leading the pig's feet rice;
Project Introduction: $LFG Token | Less Fees and Gas for Ethereum users, only possible on SOLANA
Basic Data (As of January 25, 2024)
First Mint Time: 02-01-2023
Chain: Solana
FDV/MKT CAP: $5.9M
ATH: $88M
Supply: 1T
Holders: 21.69K
Top 10 Holders: 78.53%
Liquidity Pool: $750K
Transaction: 1K
24 Hours Trading Volume: $445K
X Followers: 23.6K
Telegram Followers: 2.8K
Exchange Listed: CoinW, LBank, BitMart
Scores
Community Activity Score: 80
Liquidity Pool Score: 70
Information Transparency Score: 90
Trading Activity Score: 68
Contract Security Score: 95
Chip Structure Score: 60
Overall Score: 75
Future Focus Points: LFG belongs to a relatively novel meme concept; emerging public chains can use this model to attract new users, so public chain officials are happy to see it and will provide continuous support. Currently, the overall Solana ecosystem is in a turbulent phase; this type of meme, which only promotes public chain ideology preferences, will have its development trajectory highly bound to ecological development (similar to Analos), so the next opportunity will depend on the resurgence of the Solana ecosystem.
Why Meme?
Do you remember the scene in class when you drew symbols and called yourself part of a faction? Yes, this is the seed of memes that naturally exists in many people's hearts. The cryptocurrency world has provided fertile soil for this seed to take root and flourish. An article released last year about memes, "Meme Coins, Social Infrastructure For Crypto," analyzed and summarized seven characteristics of memes. I have distilled a few of these characteristics as follows: 1. Using easy-to-understand language and images to form cultural resonance and consensus. 2. Simple operation, low threshold, enabling rapid community building and social value. 3. Providing financial attributes and speculative opportunities based on social attributes. In short: simplicity, resonance, social, speculation.
However, what is the true meaning of memes behind these phenomena and characteristics? What do we see when a historical stage or new culture is just beginning? Totems, symbols, flags, badges. Especially after a long-established culture, these simple and distinct symbols bring enlightenment to civilization, breaking and leading new changes with unique styles. This is actually the simplest and most effective way to retell culture. From the Gothic style of the Middle Ages to the Baroque and Rococo styles of the Renaissance, to the transition from academic realism to Impressionism in the mid-19th century, these processes share similar characteristics.
New civilizations and cultural consensus often require breaking inherent ways of thinking, which is inherently a difficult task. Because established cultures often have greater authority, power, discourse, capital, and resources. In this case, humor, relaxation, simplicity, fun, and even some absurd leaps can not only effectively touch everyone's numb nerves but also quickly coalesce energy in a non-verbal way to form new consensus.
This process always exists in the transformation and development of every era and environment. We often need this humorous, relaxed, simple, fun, absurd, and leapfrogging process to break consensus, shape consensus, and rebuild consensus. In the world of cryptocurrency and Web3, this is the role of memes! Besides the simple, resonant, social, and speculative characteristics we can see, the meaning and labels of memes also include: breaking, reshaping, new play, and new hope.
In the world of cryptocurrency and Web3, memes are unique pioneers. They are neither similar to technical tracks like DePIN and ZKP nor to infrastructure and finance. In the process of building bridges, memes break rigid consensus and give more human significance to consensus building. The interaction of communities and the forms of communities are necessary environments for creating consensus, but fundamentally, it is still about creating emotional resonance between people. In this regard, infrastructure cannot achieve it, finance is also limited, while memes can! We are very pleased to see a variety of meme coins blooming in 2023, and we also look forward to 2024, when meme coins can continue to drive the development of cryptocurrency and Web3, bringing us more exciting progress and breakthroughs. Whether in terms of technology, community building, or cultural resonance, meme coins will continue to play a unique and important role.
WatchMemeDao is a community dedicated to promoting interesting, innovative, and social meme culture, playing an important role in advancing the development and application of memes. The team consists of passionate creators, technical experts, and community builders who believe in the power of memes to break rigid consensus, create new cultural resonance, and bring entertainment and inspiration to people. Through WatchMemeDao, they are committed to promoting the innovation and development of meme culture and providing users with a positive, fun, and inclusive community environment.
