Unveiling the Crypto Craze: Meme Coins vs. Shit Coins-Understanding the Differences and Identifying Opportunities

Memes, Dreams, and Get-Rich-Quick Schemes Introduction It’s hard to have missed epic saga of Pepecoin over the past two months, and along with it, a resurgence of memecoin hype. Indeed, on May 5, Pepecoin broke through the stunning $1B market cap to become a Top 50 cryptocurrency [1]. In many respects, Pepecoin’s rise calls to mind the famously stunning rise of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, two of the most famous memecoins in history. In fact, Pepecoin itself even pays homage to the long tradition of memecoins it descends from, writing that it will “make memecoins great again” [2]. So what makes a memecoin “great”? And why do they exist (and even thrive) in the crypto ecosystem, in spite of their evident lack of utility? Know Your Memecoins Memecoins have always been a crypto novelty and oddity. Their most characteristic trait is in fact their own self-professed lack of any utility, something they wear around with a semi-sarcastic sense of pride. Even though almost anyone can create a memecoin today just with a few clicks of a button, not all memecoins are created equal. After all, a lot more people hold Dogecoin than say, “HarryPotterObamaSonicInu” (this is an actual real coin on CoinMarketCap) [3]. Indeed, the most successful memecoins never come from humble backgrounds: they are warriors. These are memes that have fought in ferocious battles on the turbulent seas of Internet meme culture, where any cultural sensation or anything that grabs people’s attention, ranging from Elon Musk references (Tweelon), sex jokes (CumRocket), literal poop (PooCoin), GPT-references (PepeGPT) can all be turned into memecoins [4]. In these epic battles, only those memes that have proven their demonstrated approachability, relatability, persistence can survive. For those that do, they are rewarded with boundless glory, with glamour from the crowds, homage from the powerful, and a memecoin that will wear through even the toughest of crypto storms. And amidst all of this, perhaps Pepe does actually stand a chance of surviving, prevailing, and thriving. Pepe the Meme Royalty The Original Pepe meme of “Feels Good Man.” Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog Pepecoin was born with a silver spoon in its mouth, as the meme of Pepe belongs (along with Doge) to a class of Internet meme royalty. Born in 2008 out of the hand of cartoonist Matt Furie, the green frog with a bulging green eyes was depicted literally urinating (pee-pee-ing) while commenting “feels good man” [5]. And since then, Pepe has taken off in all shapes and forms, including a sad version, a smirk version, and so many more [6]. Since its inception, the Pepe meme and the corresponding image of an ugly frog has had a distinctly counterculture and subversive connotation, in particular when contrasted with the much more sanguine Doge meme. While most usage of Pepe is very benign, this ugly frog also has a distinctly “ugly side.” On 4chan and other more fringe social media platforms, the frog meme is often twisted and modified to take darker turns and sometimes embody extremist political symbols. And gradually, variants of the Pepe family of memes became staples on alt-right groups and other darker, more subversive corners of the Internet [7]. Thus, the Pepe meme exists in a massive duality: on the one hand, it exists in the mainstream as a benign counterculture image of an ugly frog with a happy or sad or smirky expression on its face. On the other, this counterculture symbol has been coopted for extremist political movements that actively cause societal instability. This duality is what has made Pepecoin so controversial, and why it landed Coinbase in hot water after Coinbase accused the Pepe meme of being “co-opted as an alt-right hate symbol,” before later being forced to apologize and acknowledge that most mainstream uses of Pepe are non-bigoted [8]. But in the context of memecoins, they thrive on controversy and continued media attention. After all, it is precisely Pepe’s status as a longstanding meme royalty and one of the undisputed hallmarks of Internet meme culture that underwrites the value proposition for Pepecoin, and explains its eye-watering ascent to a $1 billion market cap, with a $1.87 billion trading volume at its peak. Pepecoin Price, CoinMarketCap. Data as of May 24: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/pepe/ In this respect of leveraging its power as an undisputed Internet meme royalty to underwrite its value as a cryptocurrency, Pepecoin greatly resembles Dogecoin. And one could argue that there is a kernel of truth in the Pepecoin slogan of “make memecoins great again” and its self-proclamation of being fueled solely by “pure memetic power.” After all, as Pepe is such an important meme royalty, it is certainly conceivable that Pepecoin could stick around for quite some time, just like Dogecoin [9]. Pumps, Dumps, and the Power of FOMO Memecoins such as Dogecoin and Pepecoin, along with their self-processed lack of any utility, are of course ripe targets for pump and dump schemes and regulations. And in many cases, “shilling shitcoins” is a favorite pastime for the rich. One need to look no further to see how Elon Musk has been instrumental in shaping the fortunes of Dogecoin to see the influence of how key opinion leaders can send prices soaring to the moon [10]. After simply Tweeting “Doge” and writing that “Dogecoin is the people’s crypto”, Dogecoin prices soared 40%, and in the massive bull run of 2021, Dogecoin did a phenomenal 147.6x price increase in just over five months. Elon Musk calling Dogecoin “the people’s crypto”. Source. Arguably, this ability to be pump and dumped at will by key opinion leaders is in-baked into the economic logic of memecoins. As mentioned before, memecoins monetize and gain according to how much attention and cultural capital the underlying meme (or cultural phenomenon) is able to accrue and sustain over a long period of time. Key opinion leaders such as Musk have by definition the power to single-handedly create and sustain cultural phenomenon, and thereby allow these cultural derivatives (i.e. memecoins) to gain immensely in value, and in turn, kickstart a cycle of fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) for retail investors, who want to hop aboard the get-rich-quick crypto ride. This same logic that applies to Pepecoin’s rapid ascent over the past month or so. Although there isn’t a clear single celebrity pushing Pepecoin on Twitter (as in the case of Musk and Dogecoin), from on-chain data it seems as if there have been some outsized winners with the Pepecoin hype. For example, a wallet labelled blackrock3.eth bought $244 worth of Pepecoin on April 21, and sold all of them on May 5 at its peak for $2.63 million [11]. And of course, with a pump inevitably comes a dump. Today (May 25th), exactly 20 days from its peak, Pepecoin is down 70% from its all-time-high [12]. As the attention of the memecoin inevitably dissipates and the frenzy of FOMO subsides, the price (a function of this attention) naturally also decreases. But that’s simply the virtue or characteristic of memecoins. For a memecoin, Pepecoin’s -70% can already be considered tame and “benign.” At least Pepecoin hasn’t mimicked the fate of the “Squid Game token,” a memecoin which rode on the wave of the Netflix TV show “Squid Game’s” massive success in 2021. The “Squid Game token” jumped from 1 cent to $2856 in a week, before plummeting to zero after its creators essentially ran away with the money earned and did a classic “rug pull” [13] But this volatility coming from memecoins, who self-profess that their only value comes from their memetic power, one really shouldn’t be surprised — after all, they literally say “useless” on the label. From the Pepecoin Website Memechains and the Question of Utility But what does the future of memecoins look like? Will they ever only really be objects of pure speculative bubbles? The answer actually is a bit more complicated than a simple yes or no. Memecoins by design are backed up by the potency of their underlying meme. The problem is that you can never really quantitatively measure the economic value of a meme. These, after all, are simply free JPEGs widely accessible and distributed on the Internet, and as such, obviously generate no monetary value. After all, why pay for a meme I can see, copy, and create for free? But just because a meme does not have a price tag on it does not mean that it lacks intrinsic value. If Pepe the meme did not have any value, why would people continue to use it to this day, as a symbol for resistance, counterculture, and digital identity? This is the paradox at the center of all art, but particularly digital mementos that can be freely copy-pasted: no one doubts that they are valuable, yet there is no way to measure that value. Memecoins, to some extent, may in fact be one way out of this problem. If a meme is a some “unquantifiable value,” a memecoin is in essence a “quantifiable un-value.” The two therefore fit together hand-in-glove, and attaches some quantifiable representation to the value of the meme behind the coin. Therefore, even if much of the memecoin mania is fuelled by speculation, I don’t expect the memecoins of mainstream memes such as Pepe and Doge to ever go to zero, so long as the memes themselves still exist. Nevertheless, there has been a frenzy in memecoin communities to add on so-called “utility” to these originally supposedly “useless” coins. This notably includes the Dogecoin community’s Dogechain, a smart-contract executing PoS built using Polygon Edge where gas fees can be paid in Dogecoin [14], as well as the Shiba Inu community’s Shibarium, a L2 scaling solution that recently just announced its public beta [15]. Most of these “added utility functions” are centered around the classic playbook of getting a chain in order to nominally “have utility.” But the crypto industry is already strewn with the corpses of failed chains, and today there are already too many L1 and L2 chains that are able to match and surpass the proposed functionality of something like Dogechain and Shibarium. The central problem of building a chain to inject so-called “utility” into these tokens is this: why should I use Shibarium and Dogechain to execute smart contracts, over say Arbitrum, Optimism, or Polygon? Any satisfactory answer to these questions must go back to where memecoins started from in the first place — the original meme underwriting the whole memecoin, such as Doge in the case of Dogecoin, or Pepe in the case of Pepecoin. In fact, if any of these memecoin powered memechains do succeed, they likely will be some sort of a meme-focused chain, where the design of the chain leverages and magnifies the iconographic power of the meme, which in turn adds value to the memechain. Viewed through this lens, one could argue that a memechain’s long-run potential is in becoming a special sort of appchain, one that specializes in operating the underlying meme. In the long-run, the successful operation of a memechain would likely be more similar to the operation of a successful NFT community, such as BAYC, Azuki, Nouns or Doodles, rather than the operation of an actual L1 or L2 chain like Ethereum, Arbitrum or Polygon. The focus needs to be on the underlying asset backing the memecoin in the first place — the meme — rather than the functionality of the chain itself. This convergence and triangulation between memes, coins, and tech is arguably the most innovative and inspiring aspect of memecoins. If Pepecoin, Dogechain, and Shibarium are able to innovate out a novel governance structure that perpetuates the longevity of the underlying meme, they will undoubtedly leave a significant mark on the cultural legacy of web3. And then, perhaps, we will truly be able to “make memes great again.” Pepecoin making memes great again. Source. References [1] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/what-is-pepecoin-pepe-memecoins-dogecoin-shiba-inu-crypto-news-2023-5 [2] See Pepecoin’s Website: https://www.pepe.vip/ [3] https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/9-funniest-memecoin-names [4] What are Memecoins: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/what-is-a-meme-coin-how-do-they-work [5] https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-the-frog [6] Derivative memes of Pepe the Frog: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/pepe-the-frog/children [7] https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-pepe-the-frog-became-a-nazi-trump-supporter-and-alt-right-symbol [8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/antoniopequenoiv/2023/05/11/coinbase-apologizes-for-tying-meme-token-pepecoin-to-racist-symbols/?sh=37957e942419 [9] https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/cryptocurrency/what-is-dogecoin/ [10] Elon Musk and Dogecoin: https://coincodex.com/article/21927/elon-musk-dogecoin/ [11] See https://coinmarketcap.com/headlines/news/blackrock-labeled-wallet-nets-2-4m-from-pepe/. Note that while some have speculated this wallet may belong to BlackRock fund, there is no concrete evidence suggesting this to be the case. [12] Data from CoinMarketCap, as of May 25: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/pepe/ [13] About the Squid Game Token Collapse: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-59129466 [14] About Dogechain: https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/article/what-is-dogechain-the-smart-contract-platform-for-doge [15] About Shibarium: https://blog.shibaswap.com/introduction-to-shibarium/ [16] See the importance of community building in NFT circles such as NounsDAO: https://review.stanfordblockchain.xyz/p/nouns-dao-and-the-philosophy-of-governance Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly suggested that BlackRock was an institutional holder of Pepecoin based on on-chain data. The Stanford Blockchain Review regrets this error. Edited by XWORLD: Pioneering Web3 Games & Apps Store. 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Theme of Next Bull Market In the ever-evolving sphere of digital technology, the next bull market trend is clear — the large-scale incremental entry of users into Web3, the decentralized future of the Internet. On November 8, 2021, the total market value of the global cryptocurrency market reached an all-time high of $2.9T. Like the dot-com bubble, cryptocurrencies also grew a staggering 6x during this crypto bubble, but this miracle was achieved not in 5 years, but in just 1 year. This is equivalent to the crypto industry going through the entire dotcom bubble in just 12 months. In the following 2022, the cryptocurrency bubble continued to burst, causing the market value of cryptocurrency to plummet by two-thirds to less than $1T, and triggering industry catastrophic events such as the collapse of Terra stablecoin, the bankruptcy of Three Arrows Capital hedge fund, and the bankruptcy and liquidation of FTX. Overall, all major Layer 1 blockchains have seen significant price drops from their November 2021 highs: Bitcoin fell from $68,700 to $20,000, Ethereum fell from $49,000 to $15,000, Solana From $260 to $30, etc. Historical marketcap of the global cryptocurrency industry But as the crypto bubble burst, the use of the underlying technology, blockchain, has undergone some interesting changes. As the price of blockchain technology (as measured by cryptocurrency market capitalization) drops, is the use of blockchain technology also declining? Let’s see again. First, we look at the usage of the Bitcoin blockchain, which accounts for 50% of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization. During the crypto bubble of 2019–2021, the volume of daily Bitcoin payments (which is a measure of Bitcoin usage) was directly related to the price of Bitcoin — as the price rose and fell, so did the number of payments. It will change accordingly. But starting from the bear market in 2022, as the price of Bitcoin fell by half, the number of Bitcoin payments has remained stable, that is, the price of Bitcoin and the amount of Bitcoin usage have become no longer strongly correlated. Compare daily Bitcoin payments with daily Bitcoin prices A similar trend is occurring on Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain accounting for nearly 20% of the entire cryptocurrency market capitalization. Prior to 2022, Ethereum price and Ethereum usage (this time measured by active addresses, similar to Ethereum’s active users) were directly correlated. But despite the Ethereum price collapse in 2022, the number of active addresses has not declined this year. Likewise, usage becomes uncorrelated with price. Compare daily active Ethereum addresses with daily Ethereum price Leading Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden has seen rapid growth in transaction volume this year, from an average of 230,000 transactions per day in January to a current average of more than 880,000 transactions per day, according to DappRadar. With the price of Solana falling by more than 80% in 2022, Solana usage (measured by NFT trading activity on Magic Eden) has grown by 280%, another sign that blockchain pricing and usage are becoming irrelevant. Leading the charge in this digital revolution is XWORLD, with an impressive cohort of 1 million active users ready to usher in a new era of online interaction. The same was true for the Internet in 2000, when after a price collapse, Internet usage that had nothing to do with Internet pricing rebounded and continued to grow. Compare monthly Internet users to Nasdaq Composite Index price XWORLD: The Pump for the Next Bull Market XWORLD, a pioneering games and apps monetization platform, stands at the forefront of the Web3 movement. With its one million strong user base, it’s not just prepared for the upcoming bull market; it’s set to fuel it. For those unfamiliar with the term, a “bull market” represents a period of rising prices, increased investor confidence, and strong demand. In the context of Web3, this bullish trend signifies a surge of interest and participation in decentralized platforms and applications. And at the heart of this seismic shift lies XWORLD. The platform’s 1 million active users aren’t just numbers; they are the engine that drives XWORLD’s innovative ecosystem. Each user represents a unique interaction, a unique contribution to the platform’s economy. Together, they form a vibrant community that embodies the very essence of Web3 — decentralization, transparency, and user empowerment. But how does this translate into a bull market? The answer lies in the power of numbers. As more and more people flock to XWORLD, they bring with them their unique skills, interests, and economic potential. They interact with the platform, use its features, contribute to its growth. This influx of users and activities fuels demand, propelling the value of the platform and its assets. In other words, it creates a bull market. This trend is not just a testament to XWORLD’s appeal but also a manifestation of the growing interest in Web3. As digital citizens become more aware of the benefits of decentralized platforms — from transparency and security to the potential for earning and ownership — they are gravitating towards platforms like XWORLD. This mass migration of users is a clear indicator of the impending bull market in Web3. However, XWORLD isn’t just riding this wave; it’s steering it. Through its innovative “use to earn” and “use to own” models, XWORLD is showing users the true potential of Web3. It’s proving that Web3 isn’t just a concept; it works, and it can change lives. As we stand on the cusp of a new digital era, XWORLD is ready to lead the charge. With its 1 million active users and its commitment to Web3 principles, it’s poised to drive the next bull market, transforming the digital landscape in the process. So, are you ready to be part of this revolution? Are you ready to embrace the future of the internet, to be part of a community that’s reshaping the digital world? If the answer is yes, then join the XWORLD revolution. To stay updated on all things XWORLD and to be part of this exciting journey, follow XWORLD on Twitter at https://twitter.com/xworld_pro. Join the 1 million active users who are not just witnessing the future of the internet; they’re creating it. Welcome to XWORLD, the platform that’s powering the Web3 bull market. 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