According to the data from Coinmarketcap, the current total market value of cryptocurrencies is $1.17 trillion, while the total market value of the meme sector has reached over $180 billion, accounting for 1.5%. The meme coin sector's total market value has even surpassed that of ADA, SOL, TRX, LTC, MATIC, and other public chains.
Compared to other sectors in the crypto market, the Memecoin sector clearly exhibits a strong "get rich quick" effect. For example, Shib has increased by 500,000 times, and Doge has increased by 400 times. These wealth creation myths have also added a lot of new traffic to the crypto market.
Furthermore, the wealth creation myths of Memecoins are still ongoing, such as Unisat in the BRC-20 this year, and the popular PEPE this year.
After the last bull and bear cycle, the leaders in the meme coin sector, Doge and Shib, not only survived but also have market values in the TOP15, and their price performance even exceeds many so-called value investment projects. Why do the market values of these projects without utility surpass many Layer1, Layer2 public chains with fairly good ecological development?
Now let's talk about Meme culture.
I. Meme Culture and Meme Coin
What is a meme?
Meme is a widely spread cultural element on the Internet, usually expressed in the form of images, videos, animations, text, or other forms, commonly known as "memes."
The concept of "meme" originated in 1976. At that time, popular science writer Richard Dawkins described and defined memes in his work "The Selfish Gene," attempting to explain the way cultural information is transmitted. It refers to "a role transmitted in thought, belief, behavior, and biological evolution, similar to genes."
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a meme is defined as "a basic unit of culture transmitted by non-genetic means, especially imitation."
Today, the word "meme" has become widely known for two main reasons: first, memes often have humorous, satirical, exaggerated, or resonant characteristics, and they can spread rapidly through social media, online forums, instant messaging, and other channels; second, the popularity of the Internet and social media has made it easy for people to create, share, and disseminate content, making information dissemination increasingly convenient and cost-effective.
In summary, a meme is a popular cultural expression on the Internet, widely welcomed for its humor, satire, and resonance.
What is a MemeCoin?
A MemeCoin is a cryptocurrency based on Internet memes. It is usually created by developers or enthusiasts, inspired by popular memes or Internet culture, and widely circulated through social media and online forums.
Unlike other crypto assets, MemeCoins may be created for the purpose of humor and entertainment. These MemeCoins do not have specific uses or practical applications, but they inadvertently provide investment opportunities related to consensus while inspiring people's sense of humor.
As a result, some MemeCoins have gained a large following and even appreciated, making them a viable investment choice for those willing to take risks. For example, the astonishing rise in the value of meme coins such as Shib and PEPE has spread widely on the Internet. Today, Meme culture has become part of the Crypto world.
Among the many meme coins, in addition to the well-established Doge and Shib, the explosive rise of PEPE this year is worth paying attention to. PEPE surged nearly 7000% within 17 days after its launch on April 16, with an extremely exaggerated increase, attracting more users to enter the market.
II. What is PEPE
PEPE is a Memecoin developed by an anonymous team based on the meme "Pepe the Frog."
According to the introduction on the PEPE official website, Pepe is here to make meme coins great again. The token has no presale, zero tax, the LP has been burned, and the contract has been renounced.
III. The Origin of PEPE
The origin of Meme coins can be traced back to Dogecoin (DOGE) at the end of 2013, which peaked during the bull market in 2021.
In 2021, DOGE gained mainstream popularity, with its market value increasing from $700 million on January 1 to $88 billion in early May, a more than 100-fold increase in market value in four months.
Following the market performance of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu (SHIB) reached a market value of $42 billion at the end of October, while its market value was less than $1 million at the beginning of the year. These dog-themed assets have no intrinsic value, but their connection to viral Internet memes has driven their popularity among cryptocurrency users and retail users.
Currently, DOGE has a market value of around $11.2 billion. Of course, the surge in the value of DOGE tokens is also closely related to the world's richest person, Musk. He has mentioned his fondness for DOGE several times on Twitter and even recently changed his Twitter account's positioning to XD (X for Twitter's new logo, D for Doge). The promotion by such an influential world-class tech celebrity has had a significant impact on the development of DOGE.
The popularity of the PEPE token stems from the character Pepe the Frog created by Matt Furie in the cartoon "Boys Club" in 2005.
After the original Pepe artwork and subsequent variations went viral on Internet platforms such as 4chan and Tumblr in the 2010s, Pepe was embraced by the cryptocurrency community and quickly became part of the legend of cryptocurrency culture.
The anonymous team that released PEPE leveraged the existing popularity of Pepe the Frog on Twitter and created a meme campaign to drive early adoption. This strategy has achieved unexpected success.
The PEPE token was launched on April 14 this year, and by May 5, the number of token holders' addresses had reached 100,000, achieving unprecedented rapid growth in the history of cryptocurrency.
In addition, the market value of PEPE reached over $1 billion within just 23 days after the token was launched, with an increase of 120,000 times in less than a month, causing great attention in the market.
IV. PEPE Token
According to the official website, the total supply of PEPE tokens is 420,690,000,000,000 (420 trillion), with 93.1% of PEPE tokens sent to the liquidity pool, and the remaining 6.9% of tokens stored in a multi-signature wallet, only used for future centralized exchange listings, bridging, and liquidity pools.
Currently, PEPE does not have token utility, which is also a characteristic of many MEME tokens. In the future, it may also be given some use cases, as new narratives will be needed to support it.
V. Development Stage
According to the roadmap published on the PEPE official website (https://www.pepe.vip/), its future plans are mainly divided into three steps.
The first step is to list the meme coin on CoinGecko and CoinMarketCap, have 1,000 holding addresses, and be mentioned by more people on Twitter.
The second step is to create a vibe and HODL, maintain community partnerships through the Pepe Times newsletter, provide holders with a proprietary Discord channel, list on centralized exchanges, and have 10,000 holding addresses.
The third step is to develop the token economy, create Pepe-themed merchandise that customers can purchase using PEPE tokens, with a portion of the proceeds being burned. It will also launch the PEPE Academy and Pepe Tools, while listing on a first-tier centralized exchange and having 100,000 holding addresses. At the same time, it proposes to surpass Bitcoin's gimmick.
The first and second steps have already been achieved, and the development speed of PEPE has far exceeded the team's expectations. After the token was issued on April 14, the growth rate was relatively slow on the first and second days. By the third day, the number of PEPE holding addresses had reached over 2,700, and by the fifth day, it had exceeded 16,000. By May 5, the number of PEPE holding addresses had surpassed 100,000, achieving this milestone in just over 20 days.
Comparing this to Shib, we can feel the rapid growth of PEPE. When SHIB entered a period of rapid growth in 2021, it took 90 days to reach 100,000 holding addresses. In comparison, the development speed of PEPE is much faster.
Observing the development patterns of other meme coins, we can see that meme coins in the early stages generally use cultural narratives and speculation to ignite the market and build consensus. However, once the consensus narrative of meme coins reaches saturation, there is a need to pursue substantive functional exploration to expand users and support market value.
In other words, the first stage is the financial wheel running first, and then the second stage is the narrative landing.
For example, after Doge achieved great success, it began to explore payment and tipping scenarios to realize functional value. Similarly, after Shib's success, it also announced the launch of ecosystems such as ShibaSwap and NFTs.
Based on the same logic, PEPE coins will continue to explore new application scenarios in the later stages to support their market value.
VI. Driving Forces
What exactly is driving the meteoric rise of PEPE coins?
Of course, there are many influencing factors, and the rapid rise of PEPE is the result of the comprehensive interaction of many factors. It is difficult to summarize an exact model for a detailed explanation. For the sake of understanding, let's try to interpret it from three perspectives.
1. FOMO
After witnessing the massive wealth effect brought about by the crazy surge of Dogecoin and SHIB, people have been looking for the next MEME coin.
The emergence of PEPE and its rapid growth has triggered people's FOMO (fear of missing out) emotions, as they are afraid of missing another opportunity like hundredfold or thousandfold MEME coins. Therefore, the faster the early growth, the more people buy in, creating a self-reinforcing process. From the issuance of the token to the number of holding addresses exceeding 100,000, it took less than a month.
Furthermore, like other MEME coins, PEPE has an extremely high total supply, with many decimal places in the secondary market price. From a personal perspective, buying mainstream coins with $100, whether it's BTC or ETH, is not enough to buy even one token. This does not have any impact on the individual's perception, and it discourages small investments.
Imagine, would we buy Bitcoin with $100? From the perspective of expected returns and personal perception, the motivation to buy is not strong. After all, Bitcoin's price is already so high, even if it doubles, $100 would only become $1,000.
But MEME coins are different. Their increases can be thousands or even millions of times. If $100 increases by 1,000 times, it becomes $100,000, and the quantity of tokens that can be purchased with $100 is huge.
According to the current price, buying 100 million PEPE tokens costs only a little over $100, and $1,000 can buy 1 billion. The quantity of tokens that can be purchased is in the billions, which has a strong impact on users or investors. It caters to the psychological needs of investors, and buying PEPE and other MEME tokens is incomparable to buying other mainstream coins.
Moreover, $100 is an amount that most people can afford to lose. Even if the PEPE token eventually goes to zero, the maximum loss would be a little over $100, which is very common in the highly volatile crypto market and is a loss that everyone can afford. But in the event of a surge, the potential gains could be astonishing. This asymmetry between returns and risks prompts a large number of people to buy. Like other MEME coins, PEPE is a game suitable for small bets with the potential for big wins.
2. Promotion by Top Exchanges
In addition to triggering people's FOMO emotions, exchanges have played a significant role in the development of PEPE.
For example, it took only 6 days for the PEPE token to be listed on the MEXC exchange, making it the first centralized exchange to list it. From the issuance of the token, it took a total of 22 days to be listed on the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance. This is a treatment that many other mainstream tokens do not receive, as listing on Binance has certain barriers to entry.
Of course, for exchanges, they aim to earn trading fees, so they will choose to list tokens with high popularity. For a token that reached over 100,000 holding addresses in just over 20 days, such high popularity is an opportunity that exchanges will not miss. In addition to Binance, it has also been listed on exchanges such as OKX and Huobi.
The listing on these top exchanges not only lowers the threshold for user speculation but also, with the user base of exchanges like Binance, brings more users and funds to the PEPE token.
3. Spread of Wealth Stories
Furthermore, the wealth stories of early holding users continue to attract more users, as the huge price increase of PEPE has indeed made a group of early users wealthy. These stories of wealth will continue to drive more users to join.
VII. Future Potential
In the Memecoin sector, PEPE ranks third in terms of market value, only behind Dogecoin and SHIB.
Let's compare the market value TOP3 of Meme sector coins:
Dogecoin market value: $10.3 billion, ranking 7th in the entire crypto market.
SHIB market value: $6 billion, ranking 14th in the entire crypto market.
PEPE market value: $500 million, ranking 75th in the entire crypto market.
Currently, the market value of PEPE is only one-twelfth of SHIB's and one-twentieth of Dogecoin's.
Let's compare the number of holding addresses of Shib and PEPE tokens:
According to data from the Dune platform, the current number of SHIB token holding addresses is over 1.4 million, while the number of PEPE token holding addresses is over 130,000, almost a tenfold difference. The number of PEPE token holding addresses cannot even be compared to DOGE.
Let's look at the social media data comparison:
SHIB's Twitter account has 3.72 million followers, DOGE's Twitter account has reached 3.84 million followers, while PEPE's Twitter account has 430,000 followers, a difference of more than nine times.
Moreover, it is currently a bear market, and once a major bull market arrives, the price increase of MEME coins will be very exaggerated, and of course, it will also benefit PEPE.
Therefore, compared to these top MEME coins, PEPE still has considerable room for development. After all, compared to DOGE and SHIB, PEPE was only launched in April this year, and it has only been a few months. Achieving such results is already quite good.
Of course, as for how much PEPE's future market value can reach and whether it can surpass top MEME coins like SHIB and DOGE, everything is unknown and will depend on PEPE's future layout. HotairballoonCN will continue to monitor the development of PEPE and other MEME coins.
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