Authored by: Zen

At the roundtable conference "The Virality of Value: Memecoins in the Attention Economy" at TOKEN2049 on September 19th, two celebrities who have gained attention and income in the meme field this year—renowned meme trader Ansem and rapper Iggy Azalea—received widespread attention.

During the event, the two discussed the value and influence of meme tokens, the key attributes of building community culture, and future prospects. PANews has summarized and organized some of their viewpoints, as follows.

Ansem: Four Key Attributes of Meme Token Community

"Meme tokens have many different attributes and factors, and I believe the most important one is their community." Ansem believes that the success of meme tokens is inseparable from their community, especially in the early stages, where these communities often exhibit a cult-like closeness. He stated that looking back at the early stages of Bitcoin, it initially had no actual value, and what truly gave Bitcoin value was the group of people running network validators and holding Bitcoin. At that time, despite the lack of regulation and pricing, these people still maintained a firm belief, giving it "romantic value."

Ansem also mentioned that when he discusses these meme tokens now, he mainly focuses on four key attributes: relatability, distribution, virality, and scalability.

"I think relatability is very important, which means that even people who don't know what cryptocurrency is can easily understand them. You don't need to know what L1 is or all the technical details, but you will understand that it's a very simple concept."

"The second thing I want to say is that distribution is very important. The problem we need to solve is that when some tokens are issued, there are a large number of speculators involved in the early stage, but they do not intend to hold for the long term." Ansem believes that the project's team structure and a more decentralized model are crucial. He stated that this approach is beneficial for the project to achieve widespread distribution in the early stages, attract more people to participate in discussions, and drive the project's dissemination through different platforms and social networks. "In the early stages, this model often allows the project to spread rapidly like wildfire."

Virality is the third point Ansem mentioned. He continued to use Dogecoin as an example, stating that the success of the token is not only due to its strong community, but also because its founder, Billy Markus, knows many people, and everyone knows who he is, which rapidly spread Dogecoin, with celebrity effects being part of it.

The last point is scalability. He stated that the success of Shiba Inu (SHIB) lies in its concept of "shiba"—it can be added to other non-crypto-related things, giving them new meanings. This is also one of the ways it has been widely disseminated. Anyone who sees an item with a "shiba" will associate it with the token.

Consumer applications will be the core of this cycle

"Each cryptocurrency cycle brings a new paradigm, and the core focus of this cycle is consumer adoption and consumer applications." Ansem stated that looking back at the past few cycles, the first cycle was the rise of Bitcoin as a store of value and hedging tool; the second cycle saw Ethereum providing the foundation for a large number of applications through a globally decentralized secure platform. Now, with the maturity of these applications, the current cycle is driving widespread consumer participation.

"In the previous cycle, NFTs became a 'Trojan horse' for retail investors to enter the crypto market. Many people did not understand what NFTs were, but suddenly found a lot of resources and attention directed towards the NFT market. A similar situation is replayed in the meme coin market of this cycle, with many people directly entering the meme coin market and then beginning to understand the technology behind it."

In addition, Ansem also pointed out that these cultural tokens have yet to prove that they can truly create value in the long term. He used NFT brand Yuga Labs as an example, stating that meme coins should also start moving towards branding, spreading the brand through products and stories, making people feel that they are holding a part of the brand. This phenomenon is entirely consumer-centric and gradually permeates into daily life.

In this cycle, retail investment methods are also changing. People used to be more inclined to invest in mainstream tokens, but now this speculative value seems to be gradually flowing out of mainstream tokens. Ansem expressed that whenever a technology or application is first iterated, due to the lack of comparability, speculative fervor is often very high. The previous cycle's L1 public chain is a typical example, and as user growth and actual applications arrive, we are re-evaluating the pricing of infrastructure. He also stated, "From a macro perspective, this cycle is still closely related to meme coins, and smart money will gradually flow into infrastructure projects, DeFi, and other areas."

Empowering celebrity branding with cryptocurrency

At the event, another focus—renowned rapper and $MOTHER token founder Iggy Azalea also expressed her views on the value and future prospects of cryptocurrency.

Iggy stated, "In an increasingly competitive environment, a digital community must develop in an innovative way to maintain its competitive advantage." She believes that as cryptocurrency gradually enters the retail market, simple token integration is no longer enough to attract users. "We can use Solana or Bitcoin for payments, so why join a meme coin community?" Therefore, token integration must transform into a more attractive and valuable experience for holders, just like building an exclusive social network.

People often express, "I like rap music" or "I like this artist," which influences their clothing style and lifestyle. Therefore, brand association plays an important role in music and entertainment culture. As a well-known artist in the entertainment industry, Iggy also fully affirmed the potential of cryptocurrency for personal branding. She believes that token integration is not just a benefit, but can also add value to brand identity.

"As cryptocurrency increasingly integrates into the retail sector, we will see the significance of tokens surpassing wallets; they will become larger brands or personalized symbols." Iggy stated that people will be able to identify with these brands and say, "Yes, this is me, these brands are part of me."

"This is not only personal identity, but also a broader cultural phenomenon. Other members in the community will also have similar feelings, and this resonance will encourage people to be more willing to join." Iggy added.

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