Comparing the MEME cultivation paths of Solana and BNB Chain: Misaligned competition between community-driven and traffic-driven strategies

Author: Nancy, PANews

Recently, the development of MEME on Solana has increasingly stalled, while BNB Chain has welcomed a wave of strong momentum. The two ecosystems exhibit distinctly different paths and qualities in the development of MEME culture. This article by PANews will analyze the differentiated competition between these two ecosystems from four dimensions: the core of MEME culture, construction logic, infrastructure building, and market timing.

Core of MEME Culture : Wild VS Official

In a sense, Solana's MEME ecosystem leans towards a community-driven "wild" cultural melting pot. The MEME coins on Solana are characterized by strong community spontaneity, which does not rely entirely on the deliberate push of centralized forces but stems from the enthusiasm and creativity of community members.

The diverse types of MEMEs extend from traditional internet culture to crypto technology memes, showcasing the creative breadth and intrinsic depth of its ecosystem, as well as a certain grassroots vitality. Animal themes are the most recognizable MEME types in the Solana ecosystem, quickly capturing community attention by combining animal imagery with humorous or absurd narratives. For example, the dog-themed Bonk community's counterattack against centralized pressure, the community-driven creativity of the Shiba Inu WIF wearing a hat, and POPCAT, which originated from the internet celebrity Oatmeal's cat meme, continue to thrive on-chain due to the viral nature of internet culture; PolitiFi-type MEMEs closely tie to real political hotspots, blending satire and speculative attributes, with the community amplifying their influence through sharing and creating derivative content. For instance, TRUMP, created by Trump supporters, and the MEME coin PNUT, born from the New York squirrel incident, are seen as symbols of resistance against government overregulation; celebrity-endorsed MEME coins like those associated with Musk and Trump form a "celebrity + community co-creation" dissemination model, where the community still amplifies their influence through spontaneous creation while injecting external momentum; technical memes like LLM, Solana Killer, and TPS often attract developers and tech enthusiasts through technical discussions; internet culture memes like Fartcoin, BOME, and Gigachad often feature strong visual impact and simple, easy-to-understand slogans, achieving viral growth through community-driven creation and dissemination.

In contrast to Solana's more "wild" character, BNB Chain's MEME culture relies more on celebrity effects and external pushes from the Binance platform, resembling a "processing factory" where creativity and dissemination paths are highly concentrated around Binance's core figures (mainly CZ and He Yi) and official narratives. While this model can create a surge in the short term, it has a clear gap with Solana in terms of diversity and cultural resilience. For example, TST originated from educational videos by the BNB Chain team, and its explosive popularity is closely tied to the Binance brand's halo and the indirect influence of founder CZ; Mubarak benefited from the investment enthusiasm of the UAE sovereign fund MGX and CZ's boost; BROCCOLI revolves around CZ's pet dog; Binance Card comes from Binance's early construction of cards, etc.

Of course, although Solana co-founder Toly has also supported some MEMEs through retweeting and liking, his personal influence is still inferior to CZ, and the projects he favors represent a relatively small proportion of the overall MEME ecosystem on Solana. In contrast, the CZ effect on BNB Chain is very evident; with his strong appeal in the crypto circle, every statement he makes can trigger a concentrated influx of funds and attention.

Although this top-down model can quickly ignite interest through Binance's traffic base, it also limits the community's freedom of creative expression, falling short of Solana in terms of cultural diversity and resilience. Of course, there are also some community-driven MEMEs on BNB Chain, such as Cheems, Floki, and Babydoge, which all attempt to replicate the successful path of the classic MEME coin DOGE.

MEME Construction Logic : Everyone Minting VS Selected Alpha

Solana's MEME culture benefits from platforms like Pump.fun's "everyone minting" model, significantly lowering the barriers to token creation, allowing any idea to quickly transform into on-chain assets. This low-cost, high-efficiency mechanism greatly stimulates community creativity, further enriching the experimental nature and activity of the Solana MEME ecosystem.

However, the side effects of this model are also evident—project quality varies widely, with most MEMEs quickly returning to zero after short-term speculation, lacking long-term vitality. The market is flooded with speculators chasing quick profits, while projects with genuine cultural value or community foundations often get drowned out in the noise, making it difficult to nurture a sustainable community ecosystem. Solana's MEMEs resemble an open creative market where anyone can set up a stall, but the quality of the stalls is inconsistent.

In contrast, BNB Chain's strategy in the MEME ecosystem is more cautious. For example, Four.meme provides low-threshold startup opportunities while establishing an ecological fund to support potential projects financially. Although this "selected rather than flooded" model somewhat limits grassroots creativity, it significantly enhances the stability and development potential of the ecosystem. Relatively speaking, BNB Chain resembles a selective incubator, filtering out low-quality projects to provide a more reliable growth environment for the MEME ecosystem. This is also reflected in the rarity of rapid MEME scripts.

The substantial resource support from the Binance platform and the financial backing of BNB Chain are significant advantages for its MEME ecosystem. Binance has hundreds of millions of users globally, and this traffic base provides greater exposure opportunities for MEME tokens, which can be quickly pushed to a wide audience through Binance's marketing capabilities (such as the Alpha program and official announcements). Recent innovative initiatives launched by Binance further strengthen this advantage. For example, the Binance Alpha 2.0 beta, launched for certain countries/regions, is directly integrated into the Binance exchange, bridging the gap between CEX and DEX, providing higher liquidity, capital efficiency, and accessibility for MEME and other tokens; a "full loss compensation" activity for users trading on Binance Alpha; and the Binance wallet's six-month zero-fee trading activity further lowers participation costs, attracting more users to try Meme projects. Additionally, BNB Chain's $4.4 million permanent liquidity support plan launched in early 2025 provides financial security for early projects. This dual support of funding and traffic is currently difficult for Solana's MEME ecosystem to match.

Infrastructure Building : Diverse Choices VS Ongoing Construction

The rise of Solana as a core hub for MEME is closely tied to its efficient infrastructure. First, Solana has become the preferred platform for MEME development due to its excellent transaction processing speed and extremely low transaction costs. This characteristic not only perfectly fits the viral nature of MEME dissemination but also naturally suits the "quick in and out" speculative culture of Meme coins, meeting the demand for high-frequency speculative trading. At the same time, Solana has built a full-chain ecosystem that provides seamless support for the creation and promotion of MEME projects, from DEXs (such as Raydium, Jupiter, and Orca) to user-friendly wallets (such as Phantom, Solflare, and OKX Wallet) to convenient launch and trading tools (such as Pump.fun and Moonshot). Additionally, third-party tools further enrich its ecosystem, such as GMGN, Dexscreener, trading bots, and RugCheck, which significantly lower the participation threshold for users, allowing ordinary users to quickly engage with the MEME ecosystem.

In contrast, BNB Chain also has competitive technical performance, with gas fees significantly lower than Ethereum's high-cost environment, providing an economic foundation for the development and trading of MEME projects. However, BNB Chain's innovation and diversity of tool ecosystems are somewhat lacking, and its infrastructure development is relatively conservative. Currently, BNB Chain's DEX trading ecosystem heavily relies on PancakeSwap as a single platform, lacking the diversified choices seen in Solana. Additionally, the recent surge in trading activity has provided a breeding ground for "sandwich" attacks on BNB Chain, particularly affecting newly launched MEMEs with low liquidity, leading to losses for retail investors. Furthermore, the completeness of its supporting facilities is insufficient, and the overall richness of the ecosystem and user experience still need improvement. Notably, the DEX trading security on BNB Chain has exposed certain risks, such as the recent incident where attackers exploited vulnerabilities in Four.meme to steal liquidity pool funds, which may undermine user confidence in its ecosystem.

Market Timing : Bottom Rebound VS Large Drop and Fluctuation

Solana, with its high performance and low costs, early on became a hotbed for MEME experimentation. Starting from the end of 2023, during a critical phase of the last bear market's bottom rebound, market sentiment gradually warmed from the trough, and the phenomenal MEME projects that emerged early on Solana (such as Silly, BOME, etc.) created a strong demonstration effect, igniting community sentiment and attracting more developers, investors, and community members to join. At the same time, Solana fostered a community-driven culture, which not only enhanced user stickiness but also formed a strong sense of identity, solidifying its market position. Although MEME ecosystems on other blockchains also developed during the same period, they failed to capture the rising phase of the trend as precisely as Solana and lacked similar cultural cohesion, making it difficult to compete.

In contrast, BNB Chain's trajectory in MEME development is constrained by both market timing and the broader environment. Its rise occurred more during the later stages of the Meme coin bubble burst, when market enthusiasm had significantly cooled, and investors' interest in high-risk projects gradually waned. Although BNB Chain attracted a certain level of development activity due to support from the Binance ecosystem and the cooling of Solana and the suspension of OKX DEX aggregator trading services, its MEME coin projects have not produced as many phenomenal success stories as Solana, nor does it have many representative projects with large market capitalizations. This misalignment in timing makes it difficult for BNB Chain to replicate Solana's brilliance during the MEME boom. Furthermore, the weakness of the broader market environment exacerbates this disadvantage, leading to its community culture and market influence consistently lagging behind Solana.

Overall, while Solana has established a "moat" through its technological advantages and cultural core, it faces the risk of burnout due to excessive speculation and stability issues; BNB Chain, on the other hand, demonstrates the potential for a latecomer advantage through steady layout and external support, but its cultural depth and long-term appeal remain to be tested.