"Forking" has always been a topic of debate within meme coins and even the entire cryptocurrency market.

Players are deeply frustrated by this phenomenon for the following main reasons:

- It is not easy to produce a narrative perspective large enough, especially in a market environment where liquidity is poor and no meme coins with a market value of over one billion dollars have appeared for a long time. Forking makes the market more chaotic and trading more difficult.

- In most cases, forking is caused by the calls from certain influential figures. To retail players, these influencers have advantages in terms of funding and trading and should consolidate efforts to elevate projects already on an upward trend, rather than refusing to "carry the sedan" simply because their position is high.

- During the forking process, the statements from influential individuals almost inevitably lead to "pulling down" actions, which not only withdraw liquidity but also further harm the original project.

People die for wealth, birds die for food. For a long time, the controversy surrounding "forking" has been logical, yet the final output often turns into a form of "logical emotional output." Retail players, who are already in a passive position, suffer profit withdrawals or even losses due to forking; it is neither excessive nor unreasonable for them to vent their frustrations. However, when we calm down to think, is there any way to overcome the phenomenon of "forking"? Will this never-ending debate in the crypto circle ever come to a conclusion?

How to Define "Orthodoxy"?

If we hope for a day where "forking" no longer exists, we need to first address a question—how do we determine if a token has "orthodoxy"?

Let’s start with the recent "Asteroid Dog Forking." This topic has been viewed as one of the biggest meme coin opportunities lately due to Musk's agreement to make "Asteroid" the mascot of SpaceX, causing forking around the corresponding $ASTEROID meme coins on ETH and SOL:

- $ASTEROID ETH: The $ASTEROID on the ETH mainnet started operations in September 2024, but after March 2025, its official Twitter account became less active, with updates only occurring every few months, and the official website link in the profile is no longer accessible. They once donated 0.5% of tokens to St. Jude's hospital, similar to the beneficiary of the income from the sale of Asteroid Shiba plush toys by creator Liv Perrotto, to fund children's cancer treatments. However, that was back in 2024. Nonetheless, their past goodwill cannot be erased, and funding acknowledged the community's previous efforts—before Musk tweeted about making Asteroid SpaceX's new mascot, it had already broken a market cap of 160 million dollars.

- $ASTEROID SOL: Liv Perrotto's mother, Rebecca Perrotto, received approximately 2013 SOL in transaction fees from $ASTEROID on SOL. This coin was launched through the Bags platform, and the total fee income has reached 2291 SOL. Rebecca Perrotto has clearly stated that all income from the Bags platform will be used to establish a foundation in memory of Liv Perrotto.

From the perspective of coin speculation, both sides have their merits, particularly the $ASTEROID on ETH, which aligns more closely with a long-standing informal rule recognized by players in the community—recognizing OGs and the community.

However, when we analyze calmly, the root of forking actually lies in Rebecca Perrotto receiving SOL $ASTEROID transaction fees and claiming to use them to establish a foundation in memory of Liv Perrotto, thus providing a perspective on "forking."

After Liv Perrotto passed away, Rebecca Perrotto, as the current owner of the IP, defines the limit of this perspective. Her attitude towards $ASTEROID on ETH, she once expressed in a tweet under the launch of ETH $ASTEROID on Aster:

@AJamesMcCarthy stated that profiting from the creative design of a deceased little girl is a terrible act. Rebecca Perrotto replied, "This is really frustrating."

The author does not make any subjective or emotional judgments about this attitude itself. I can only think that, in Rebecca Perrotto's unfamiliarity with cryptocurrency, she may not fully understand the good deeds that $ASTEROID on ETH has accomplished.

As for $ASTEROID on SOL, she can directly receive fee income from it, and there might have been some communication. When her Bags account was hacked, the Bags team responded quickly:

Early on when $ASTEROID on SOL launched back in August last year, it already caught the attention of Rebecca Perrotto. At that time, her attitude was to clarify her relationship with it and did not make any further comments on the transaction fees:

You might ask, what does Rebecca Perrotto's attitude matter? Our funds on-chain have already chosen $ASTEROID on ETH. She can express her opinions, but why can't we unite to avoid forking?

For short-term price fluctuations, it really does not matter. If SpaceX does not officially announce on social media that Asteroid has become the new mascot, whether on ETH or SOL, $ASTEROID is likely to not reach a higher ceiling.

But if an official announcement is made and this coin does get listed, it will be very important who Rebecca Perrotto authorizes as the IP owner.

Let’s review the final outcome of the case regarding uppercase and lowercase Neiro (quoted from @0xVeil):

"In April 2025, the Neiro CTO project experienced the most significant milestone in its development history: Through cooperation with OwnTheDoge’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), it officially obtained the global exclusive intellectual property (IP) license for the name and image of Neiro from Kabosu Mama herself, becoming the only legal successor of the legendary meme, Doge.

The most direct impact of this matter was that the legal team of the Neiro CTO project issued copyright infringement notices to major trading platforms, requesting the removal of all unauthorized 'Neiro' token contracts, with the actual target being only NEIRO ETH. Although it was not listed on Binance spot, there were still various secondary exchanges, including Binance contracts.

Major trading platforms responded quickly, announcing the removal of the infringing Neiro perpetual contracts or spot trading pairs one after another. Thus, NEIRO ETH was completely terminated."

Whoever holds the copyright can not only list in good faith but also justifiably restrict other coins with the same name and concept from listing. Therefore, our discussion of "how to determine orthodoxy" is not attempting to rank $ASTEROID on ETH and SOL but rather addressing a potential reality problem that may arise if a ceiling actually opens up.

Whether it is $ASTEROID on ETH or SOL, both should quickly establish good communication with Rebecca Perrotto, clarifying their operational ideas and philosophies. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they should really purchase authorization; at least, they should establish a sort of “tacit approval” like $PEPE—yes, $PEPE has not yet obtained authorization from the original creator of Pepe, Matt Furie, but Matt has earned approximately $600,000 by selling the $PEPE given to him by the community. He has never made a statement regarding $PEPE but has also not taken any legal actions. It is essential to know that for some other Pepe-related crypto assets, he has successfully used DMCA to have multiple unauthorized Pepe NFT projects (such as the Sad Frogs District from 2021, which had a trading volume of up to $4 million) removed from OpenSea.

Former Sad Frogs District

Returning to the title of this section, how to define "orthodoxy"? Here, the first answer I would give is not a definition but a suggestion—if there are memes with a clear IP ownership, and you genuinely wish to create a meme coin at the level of a billion-dollar market cap listed on Binance, please call for and assist the token community you support to negotiate issues related to IP.

How to Define "Orthodoxy" for Unowned IP?

Many memes are actually "unowned."

For example, Wojak is a classic anonymous internet meme, with no single verifiable creator or legal copyright holder. Its origin can be traced back to around 2009 on the Polish imageboard Vichan, where it first appeared under the filename "ciepłatwarz.jpg" (Warm Face.jpg). It gained popularity on platforms like 4chan after being promoted by an anonymous user on Krautchan (now closed) named "Wojak" in 2010.

Since it was born from the culture of anonymous/nickname imageboards, the image itself is a product of rapid community sharing and modification, without formal authorship, copyright registration, or public declaration. Wikipedia, KnowYourMeme, and related analysis articles clearly state: the original author is unknown, and it is hard to trace a definite copyright holder; essentially, it belongs to the public domain, a public cultural heritage of collective internet creation.

Another example is NEET, a typical descriptive term in social policy/sociology, which was first introduced in 1996 by a senior civil servant in the UK Home Office to replace a previously contentious term. Copyright laws in various countries explicitly exclude "idea/fact/short phrase," with no individual, company, or institution able to claim exclusive intellectual property rights (copyrights, trademarks, etc.); it also essentially belongs to the public domain.

In such cases, let the market decide who is "orthodox." In fact, if we shift our focus beyond meme coins, truly powerful crypto assets have never feared "forking":

- In the big and small block debate, the "OG" Bitcoin still laughs last.

- Ethereum's rollback and transition to PoS, the "OG" Ethereum still laughs last.

- Milday not only does not restrict derivatives on various chains but also encourages such creativity to "stake a flag" on other chains beyond ETH mainnet.

At this point, we still have a question—how to establish a winning standard that is recognized by the market?

Only by solving this problem can we fundamentally eradicate "forking."

Exploration to Eradicate "Forking"

Meme coins are not without value. Here, we will not elaborate on what specific value meme coins hold but rather think about another question—why has there always been someone claiming that meme coins have no value?

Because for so many years, we have yet to establish a value judgment system for meme coins.

Although retail players have some unwritten rules, such as recognizing OG coins, observing community activity, and cultural influence, these rules themselves are scattered. After pump.fun significantly reduced the launch costs of meme coins, everyone has become more accustomed to quick entries and exits, and these unwritten rules are on the brink of failure.

Murad has proposed a great theory of the "meme coin supercycle," but unfortunately, this theory now appears to be only a short-term "perspective," rather than a trading logic consensus based on PE ratios or industry outlooks like stocks.

Some launchpads have also taken corresponding measures to solve the "forking" problem, such as prohibiting the deployment of new tokens with the same ticker for a certain period, but this itself is hard to promote as it neither aligns with the demand for bundlers to launch new projects with controlled supply nor benefits the platform's profitability.

As the largest liquidity hubs in the crypto space, CEXs are best positioned to guide the market in establishing a value judgment system for meme coins. We have seen some attempts to vote on listings, but these measures encounter too many varying factors of interference.

By creating a strict listing mechanism for meme coins, CEXs are capable of leading meme coins toward a serious market development, exerting cultural influence to manifest their positive externalities from a consensus level.

Measures I can think of include:

- For meme coins with clear IP ownership, CEXs should use the resolution of IP ownership as a critical basis for listings, especially in cases of forking.

- For meme coins without IP ownership, set a sufficiently long observation period before listing, taking into account cultural themes, social media data, community activity, and other multi-dimensional factors for long-term tracking and observation.

- For all meme coins being listed, publicize complete research reports on the listing.

Establishing a value judgment system for meme coins that can gain recognition is the starting point for meme coins to develop into a serious track within the crypto space and even the cultural industry.

免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。