Li Jin: Meme coins are changing the world

DAOSquare
2024-03-28 11:24:43
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The next big event may start by "borrowing" a popular meme coin.

Original Title: Memecoins as the new GTM strategy

Author: Jin Li

Published on: MAR 25, 2024

The next big event may start by "borrowing" a popular meme coin.

An emerging listing strategy relies on meme coins that are gaining market recognition and have clear growth momentum. While traditional GTM first builds a product and then constructs a community around it through marketing and memes, the new script is to first establish an active user community around a meme coin and then build a product that includes the token.

By launching a project that is natively integrated with a popular meme coin, new applications and infrastructures can mobilize the community of meme coin holders, who can gain more utility from the tokens they hold.

Here are some examples:

  • BONKbot is a Telegram trading bot on Solana, originating from the $BONK token, a meme coin on Solana that was airdropped to users at the end of 2022. An independent team subsequently launched this trading bot, which uses a portion of the trading fees to buy and burn BONK tokens, thereby aligning interests with the token holders. The trading bot recently surpassed $200 million in daily trading volume (in comparison, the entire Base network's daily trading volume is also about $200 million).
  • This strategy also applies to infrastructure projects. For example, $SHIB launched the Ethereum Layer2 project Shibarium, which uses Layer2 transaction fees to burn SHIB tokens, making SHIB deflationary. By integrating the token into L2, this strategy activated the existing holder community for the cold start of the new L2.
  • Berachain is a bear-themed EVM-compatible chain that launched its testnet in January, initially also originating from a category of NFTs. SmokeyTheBera launched an NFT project called Bong Bears in 2021, which over time built a community and gradually transformed into a group actively participating with developers and users.

Given the high engagement and tribal characteristics of top meme coin communities, I believe this strategy of utilizing meme coins for GTM will become increasingly popular across the Crypto world, helping other projects leverage this new strategy to attract attention. For example, for anyone building Crypto consumer applications, increasing the utility of meme coins can activate token holders, who are naturally more inclined to seek new ways to utilize their tokens. For instance, the current short video app Drakula and the prediction market game Perl both accept payments, trying to leverage the momentum of the DEGEN holder community (as of March, the number of holders has exceeded 44,000). The increase in token usage and potential value appreciation may drive a virtuous cycle, increasing user interest in tokens and applications that integrate tokens.

We also see some projects taking another direction, starting with a product focus and then launching a meme coin (or one closely related), generating more interest for the project. For example, contributors associated with the decentralized exchange aggregator Jupiter on Solana launched a meme coin called $WEN in January 2024 and airdropped it to over 1 million wallets, where the tokens could be traded on Jupiter for a profit of $5. As the first token launched through Jupiter's LFG Launchpad, it also sparked interest in the platform.

For projects exploring this GTM strategy, some considerations include the distribution potential of different meme coin communities, the complementarity between meme coin holders and the project's target audience, and the existing integrations and saturation within the ecosystem. For example, once a given meme coin is adopted by 100 applications, will the 101st application receive the same level of attention?

It is also worth mentioning that all of the above has clear benefits for the meme coins themselves, so for meme coin teams, attempting to incentivize and collaborate with projects to integrate their tokens is beneficial and harmless.

Using meme coins as a GTM strategy shares similarities with other web3 growth strategies involving tokens, including airdropping tokens to specific community members or users of competing products. These strategies become feasible through the open data of blockchains, allowing for precise targeting. This strategy can also be likened to strategies in the web2 world, from community-driven growth and leveraging community branding to cultivate customer bases for word-of-mouth, to cross-promotional brand partnerships that share complementary user bases, such as Lyft and Delta. However, due to the isolation of data and systems, off-chain collaborations are difficult to execute, while Crypto supports permissionless integrations, allowing any developer to build around meme coins. The community of token holders also has economic interests at stake, hoping to see the value of their tokens increase, which may encourage them to be more willing to accept collaborative projects.

While many view meme coin trading as gambling or a strange form of financial entertainment, their growing popularity and the highly active community atmosphere may indicate that they can be a viable GTM strategy. For users, the new development is that as assets, meme coins allow anyone to invest in and own a GTM strategy, grassroots community, internet culture, and community currency.

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