New Trends in Meme Hype: The Case Sensitivity Debate, Donations to Vitalik, Cult Culture Revival

Author: Grapefruit, ChainCatcher

Editor: Nianqing, ChainCatcher

On October 9, on-chain detective ZachXBT disclosed the on-chain address holdings of Meme coin analyst representing Murad, which quickly attracted the attention of the crypto community and sparked a narrative of the revival of old Meme coins. The layout of low market cap MEME coins is becoming an unspoken secret in the crypto community.

In fact, since Binance listed three Meme coins (Neiro, Turbo, and BabyDoge) on the same day on September 15, leading to a capitalization dispute between Neiro and NEIRO tokens, the Meme coin market has already ignited a new wave of speculation. During the National Day holiday, reports related to Meme projects were rampant, and the community was filled with various stories of overnight wealth. Vitalik Buterin sold the MEME coins he was gifted on-chain twice in a row and publicly expressed gratitude to the MEME projects, which led to the remarkable near-hundredfold increase of the zoo coin Hippo MOODENG in a short time, attracting investors eager to capture the next hundredfold MEME coin.

However, unlike the previous irregular and frenzied speculation of Meme coins, this round of Meme coin speculation mainly revolves around: the capitalization dispute of naming letters, donations to Vitalik Buterin and his selling of coins to pump prices, and the revival of Cult (satirical culture) MEME coins.

Meme Coin Speculation Evolving from Public Chain Diversion to Naming Letter Case Dispute

In this round of Meme coin market, the difference in letter case has become a unique factor for speculation, primarily due to Binance simultaneously launching Neiro spot and NEIRO contract.

The token name NEIRO originally stemmed from the prototype of Dogecoin. On May 24 of this year, Kabosu, the Shiba Inu prototype of DOGE, passed away, triggering mourning in the crypto community. In remembrance, Kabosu's owner announced on the X platform that she had adopted a new Shiba Inu, which was translated into English as 'NEIRO'. This led to the emergence of multiple Meme projects with the same name, covering public chains such as Solana and Ethereum, and there were also different MEME projects on the same chain with case distinctions. However, as the MEME market cooled down, many NEIRO projects on various public chains have disappeared into the annals of history, with only the two case-distinguished NEIRO and Neiro remaining in the top two by market cap on the Ethereum chain.

On September 6, Binance announced the launch of the uppercase NEIRO contract trading pair, and on September 15, it announced the listing of the NEIRO token. Due to the official announcement stating that the token ID was also uppercase NEIRO, many people mistakenly believed it was the NEIRO project that had previously completed the contract launch. After the announcement, the NEIRO token surged over 20%. However, while the community was going crazy and many were buying coins on-chain, sharp-eyed users discovered that the NEIRO token contract address launched by Binance was not the uppercase NEIRO but the lowercase Neiro token. Consequently, the uppercase NEIRO token was heavily sold off by community users, dropping over 50% on that day, while the Neiro token began to soar, increasing from about $15 million in market cap at the time of the announcement to now $720 million, a nearly 50-fold increase.

The naming strategy of Neiro and NEIRO was originally intended to distinguish different projects, hoping to attract user attention through case differences. However, Binance's simultaneous launch of NEIRO contracts and Neiro spot trading has turned the case dispute of MEME coins into a new wave of speculation.

The case drama has been played out across major public chains, and recently, the MEME token MOODENG, based on the hippo image from the Pattaya Zoo in Thailand, also has a case dispute: Moo Deng and MOODENG. Unlike NEIRO and Neiro, Moo Deng and MOODENG are built on different public chains, with the lowercase Moo Deng initially established on Solana on September 10, and the uppercase MOODENG launched on Ethereum on September 15, actually being a latercomer.

The case naming differences of these coins were originally meant to distinguish different projects, but now they have become a highlight of MEME coin speculation, even being assigned different meanings and values during the speculation process, such as the uppercase NEIRO being considered a strong whale coin, while the lowercase Neiro represents a community project; Moo Deng on Solana is regarded as the first dragon due to its earlier launch, while Ethereum's MOODENG is seen as the second dragon due to its later issuance.

Regarding the case dispute of Meme coins, the crypto community is more confused, with many users lost in the dilemma of which one to choose, sometimes uppercase and sometimes lowercase, unable to distinguish clearly. Investors have to carefully identify when choosing to avoid missing opportunities due to case confusion. This differentiation strategy brings freshness to the market while also increasing the complexity of speculation.

In this regard, some crypto users lament that previously, the rise of MEME coins on different public chains caused capital diversion, and now, MEME projects on the same chain with the same name due to different letter cases have caused capital diversion, putting the already weak consensus at risk and leading to further market fragmentation and shrinkage.

Currently, Meme projects are not only the main battlefield on Solana; with the rise of projects like Neiro and MOODENG, Ethereum still remains the most anticipated place. Meanwhile, latercomers like Sui are also attracting user attention, such as the recently born MEME project HIPPO, which is also inspired by the hippo Moo Deng from the Thai zoo, and its token market cap once surpassed that of Moo Deng on Solana.

Donating to Vitalik Buterin to Gain Attention, Using Celebrity Effect to Boost Coin Prices

Aside from the naming letter case, donating to Vitalik Buterin has become another hotspot in Meme coin speculation. As the spiritual leader of Ethereum and the crypto world, Vitalik often plays an important role in Meme coin projects. Some MEME coin projects donate the funds raised to Vitalik or his related foundations, hoping to enhance the project's credibility and influence. For example, in 2021, the creators of Shiba Inu (SHIB) airdropped 50% of the total supply of SHIB to Vitalik's wallet address, quickly attracting the attention of the crypto community and sparking a wave of zoo MEME coin speculation; Neiro also made donations to Vitalik.

In fact, many Meme projects mainly hope to gain attention by donating to the Ethereum founder, leveraging the celebrity effect to boost coin prices, attempting to gain the community's attention and trust. This connection with industry bigwigs is a major gimmick for attracting investors to Meme coins, effectively drawing a large number of investors' attention in the short term and becoming a highlight of speculation.

The Ethereum chain's Meme project Hippo MOODENG, which received significant attention during the National Day holiday, gained traction by donating to Vitalik. Since the hippo originally originated from the Solana chain and quickly surpassed a market cap of $100 million, it became well-known in the community, while the uppercase hippo MOODENG on the Ethereum chain is a latercomer, and its market cap has yet to break $10 million, receiving little attention from users.

On October 5, Vitalik sold Meme tokens on-chain, including MOODENG. After the news broke, the market cap of MOODENG surged to $10 million within minutes and began a steady upward trend. Other MEME projects sold in the same batch, ITO and KABOSU, also saw significant increases after being sold, with ITO rising over 222% shortly after the sale and KABOSU increasing over 70%.

On October 7, Vitalik sold MOODENG again and subsequently donated 260 Ether (approximately $642,000) to the charity Kanro, publicly expressing gratitude to MOODENG for bringing positive results to the real world.

Some community users believe this is a rare positive evaluation of MEME tokens by Vitalik, through donations and charity, selling the air coins of the crypto world, and transferring value to solve some real-world problems, it can be seen as a move of Crypto from virtual to real.

Vitalik's selling of coins and public expressions of gratitude have generated immense interest and attention for the hippo MOODENG on Ethereum, driving its price to soar, with its market cap quickly breaking the $100 million level, surpassing the popularity of the hippo on Solana.

With the narrative of Vitalik's association with Neiro and Moodeng gaining traction, direct donations to Vitalik's wallet address have become a new trend in speculation, and Vitalik's selling of coins will attract investors' attention and follow suit, thereby driving the price of the coin up. Currently, every hour, there are MEME coins transferring to Vitalik's wallet address.

Some crypto users have even designed a set of SOP for the success of "MEME coin donations to Vitalik": MEME project donates to Vitalik ------ Vitalik sells coins (attracts attention) ------ Vitalik donates and tweets thanks (drives price up) ------ gets listed on exchanges.

Cult Satirical Culture Meme Coin Revival

Cult Memecoin is a token that combines internet pop culture and cryptocurrency. These coins are usually created around specific communities or pop culture phenomena and often have strong community-driven characteristics. They often present themselves in a humorous or satirical manner, such as Dogecoin, which was initially created as a joke, and Shiba Inu (SHIB), which calls itself the "Dogecoin killer," as well as the once-popular PepeCoin based on the famous Pepe the Frog.

At Token2049, the MEME coin analyst Murad's presentation on the "MEME Coin Super Cycle" sparked widespread discussion in the crypto community. His list of MEME tokens, which he compiled and filtered, circulated widely in the crypto community and became a trading bible for Meme coins.

Murad's selection criteria for the Meme coin list are to pick tokens that have been online for at least six months and have experienced a significant drop, with a market cap between $5 million and $200 million, mostly built on Solana and Ethereum.

Yesterday, on-chain detective ZachXBT disclosed Murad's on-chain address holdings of Meme coins, which are worth approximately $24 million, with the top four being SPX, GIGA, RETARDIO, and POPCAT, and their recent performance has been very promising.

Among them, the top-ranked abstract index token SPX has surged about 20 times in the past half month. This project is a derivative of the story of reversing the S&P 500 index, with the narrative being cute girls saving the crypto world; GIGA is a Meme token on Solana that has increased over 200% in the past seven days. This project originally pays tribute to the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov's Gigachad, while also satirizing societal expectations, sparking discussions about toxic masculinity; the MEME project POPCAT originates from the popular mischievous cat meme on the internet, with a 90% increase in the past seven days; while RETARDIO positions itself as a symbol of courage, rebellion, and community cohesion.

These MEME coins share a common characteristic: they all carry some Cult qualities, draped in a layer of absurd, non-mainstream, and abstract outer elements, usually related to popular internet culture, memes, or specific subcultures, and are referred to as Cult Memecoins.

Because of cultural recognition or a user base, Cult Memecoins are often community-driven, relying on social media and viral marketing for dissemination.

Some crypto users have pointed out that most of the Cult Memecoins currently on the market are older projects that have gone through a round of increases and washouts. Users should look for communities that promote tokens from the bottom rather than the top, with continuously increasing new holders and elements resembling Cult culture.

A Good Meme Needs "Special Narrative and Tone + Strong Spontaneous Community + Strong Whales"

According to data from the Coingecko platform, the total market cap of the Meme coin sector has exceeded $50 billion, with over 2,000 types of assets included, making it the sector with the most types of coins in the crypto market.

Crypto KOL @ririfish has expressed that the MemeCoin market is growing increasingly robust; they are no longer just tools for short-term speculation but represent a new trend of decentralized culture and consensus. The reason these projects possess long-term market resilience is that the community is not just passive investors but the core driving force behind project development. The community gives these tokens lasting vitality through meme dissemination, social interaction, and participation in project development.

Crypto asset player Vincent @thecryptoskanda has repeatedly emphasized that MemeCoin is no longer just a crypto track; it has become a "property." This is reflected in that MemeCoin discussions are no longer solely centered around price fluctuations but are gradually integrating into decentralized culture, representing a form of identity recognition and market consensus. They embody the unique power of decentralized communities and transcend traditional IP-driven models.

Crypto KOL @CXOegg wrote in a recent tweet that a good MEME possesses "special narrative + meme's own tone + strong spontaneous community + strong whales," with none being dispensable.

Ririfish also pointed out that the success of MemeCoin relies not only on IP support but on their ability to create unique narratives through the community. Even projects without strong brand support, such as Shiba Inu and Pepe Coin, have managed to establish a foothold in the crypto market through community power. The growth of these MemeCoins demonstrates the unique cultural symbols they build through community interaction, meme dissemination, and collective creation.

In summary, for MEME coins to succeed, they first need an engaging story. The design of the token and community culture must be unique and attractive to resonate and spark investors' interest, allowing them to stand out among numerous projects. Additionally, a strong spontaneous community is essential; an active and engaged community is key to driving the success of MEME coins, as community power can influence market sentiment and investment decisions. Furthermore, there needs to be strong supporters and operators behind them who can drive the coin price at critical moments.

For instance, before Neiro was listed on Binance, multiple images of community promotions in the Northwest were leaked, with community members marketing in overseas regions such as Turkey and Vietnam, and donations from the CTO team to charitable organizations; the community of the hippo MOODENG project on Ethereum revealed that they had donated to the Thai zoo three times and conducted marketing offline in North America, attracting attention from Neiro's top holders and Pepe developers, as well as Vitalik.

Regarding how to participate in MEME coins, @CXOegg stated that currently, there are tens of thousands of projects emerging daily, with the same narrative existing under different names (Tickers), the same names competing on different chains, and now the same names on the same chain experiencing various dramatic events due to different cases. This makes it quite challenging for users to identify a potentially promising project early on.

Currently, there are three strategies to choose from: first, directly select mature and high market cap old Meme coins that have undergone market fluctuations, such as PEPE, WIF, etc.; second, take over mid-sized MEME coins with market caps in the millions or tens of millions, but this requires strong discernment and project filtering abilities; third, monitor new projects on the primary market chain, although the failure rate is very high.