Success belongs to those who pay attention to everything but are not attached to anything.
Author: tradinghoe
Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow
Are Memecoins a Scam?
Everyone says so, but in reality, memecoins are the most honest part of the crypto space. They persist in every market narrative, revealing a disturbing fact: perhaps they are the signal, and everything else is noise.
Cryptocurrency promises to achieve financial democratization. This goal has indeed been realized, but the means have exceeded everyone's expectations.
The so-called "democratization" is not about everyone having access to decentralized finance (DeFi) primitives or participating in governance, but rather that anyone can issue a token with just a few SOL (depending on the specific blockchain) and a bit of irony, following the current popular narrative, and potentially earn more than those engineers who are actually building the infrastructure.
In the speculation around memecoins—filled with scams and bets for hundredfold returns—this all survives every bear market, every regulatory crackdown, and every in-depth analysis article proclaiming "this is the peak." Why? Because they decode the essence of cryptocurrency: a global casino that is always open, and the narrative is the product.
And the product has a formula.
When you observe specific cases, this formula becomes self-evident. Three narratives, three waves of memecoins, each following the same script.
- @Plasma launched in September 2025, a high-speed, EVM-compatible L1 blockchain designed for stablecoins, offering zero-fee transfers and Bitcoin-backed security. They raised over $70 million through public sales and multiple rounds of financing.
In just one week, Plasma attracted $5.5 billion in total locked value (TVL), and its XPL token market cap soared to $2.3 billion. By all metrics, this was a successful launch.
But speculation does not care about your roadmap.
This is where memecoin traders have the advantage: they are not analyzing Plasma's technology; they are counting word frequencies.
In the week Plasma launched, the word "trillions" appeared countless times in team accounts, articles, announcements, and KOL reports. "Trillion-level stablecoin trading volume." "Trillions of transactions."
Image: The word "trillions" became synonymous with the Plasma narrative.
Memecoin traders saw a simple equation: high narrative velocity (stablecoins) + repeated popular memes + fresh liquidity = attention arbitrage.
Within days, $TRILLIONS was launched. It is a memecoin that does nothing but exist on Plasma and carries the most frequently repeated vocabulary of that chain.
Image: This is how narrative velocity translates into a token symbol.
Their advantage lies not in technical analysis but in pattern recognition: discovering narratives, capturing popular memes, and deploying before the hype cycle peaks.
This is attention arbitrage; trading narrative velocity rather than technical fundamentals.
The Battle of Decentralized Exchanges (DEX): Three Competitors, One Memecoin
Before Plasma launched, three perpetual contract DEXs emerged in succession, each backed by major exchanges:
- @avantisfi (Base/Coinbase ecosystem)
Launched on Coinbase's Base L2
Backed by Pantera Capital
Dubbed "the top perpetual contract DEX on Base"
Total locked value (TVL) reached $23 million at launch
Image: Coinbase founder Jesse tweeted praising AVNT as the top perpetual contract DEX on Base.
- @Aster_DEX (BNB Chain / Binance ecosystem)
Supported by Yzi Labs
Developed by former Binance team, with Binance founder CZ as an advisor
Trading volume reached $46 billion, briefly surpassing Hyperliquid
- (Bybit ecosystem)
Supported by Bybit
Token buyback program
Narrative: Exchanges compete for DEX dominance, each trying to replicate Hyperliquid's success within their ecosystem.
Memecoin traders see: "Hyperliquid competitors" everywhere. Three similar projects, the same positioning, all competing to be the "Hyperliquid killer."
Traders grow weary of the endless comparisons of Hyperliquid competitors and the constant rotation of attention among the three.
Within days, @niggaliquidx launched on Solana.
Image: This is NiggaLiquid: a joke is a product.
With no support, it is not a competitor to Hyperliquid. It is merely a memecoin on Solana that capitalizes on the current attention economy surrounding the DEX war.
This is the purest form of attention arbitrage: the DEX war attracts attention through real development activity; AVNT builds on Base, Aster reaches $46 billion in trading volume (due to liquidity mining), and Apex integrates with Bybit.
Meanwhile, NiggaLiquid simply exists as a memecoin during the peak discussion of the DEX war, attracting the same attention within hours. It is just a token symbol that happened to appear at the peak of "Hyperliquid competitor" fatigue.
Conclusion
Advantage: Playing both sides of the casino simultaneously.
The advantage of attention arbitrage traders is that they do not choose between fundamentals and memecoins; they operate both simultaneously.
The best memecoins traders are not oblivious to events in DeFi or the crypto space; they understand them more deeply than most. They read Plasma's documentation, follow partnership announcements, and monitor team accounts. Not because they are investing in infrastructure, but to determine where attention will specifically focus and when it will peak.
This is the attention asymmetry that many traders overlook:
DeFi Fundamental Analysts: Spend months researching new technologies, analyzing token economics, and waiting for the right entry point. But by the time they invest, the attention window has already opened and closed. Their goal is to achieve 2-5x returns over a few years, which is certainly good for some scale platforms.
Memecoins Enthusiasts: Chase price increases without understanding the reasons behind them. No narrative background, no pattern recognition, just blind speculation. They sometimes achieve 100x returns, but most of the time they give profits back to the market.
Attention Arbitrage Traders possess both: they have the information advantage of researchers while also having the execution speed of memecoins enthusiasts.
They can analyze Plasma's $5.5 billion TVL growth while deploying $TRILLIONS or trading ahead of other traders.
Image: An early buyer of $trillions.
They can compare Hyperliquid's competitors while launching NiggaLiquid.
Their understanding of the narrative is deep enough to know when "trillions" will become the hot word for Plasma. They closely monitor the DEX war, able to identify when "Hyperliquid competitor" fatigue reaches its peak. They do not wait for fundamentals to take effect; instead, they act before attention generated by fundamentals shifts.
Speculation will not die because they are no different from "serious crypto"; they are the same group of people playing different games.
The formula is simple: discover narratives → identify opportunities → preempt before the hype peaks → exit before attention shifts → repeat.
Success belongs to those who pay attention to everything but are not attached to anything.
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