#335: The Memecoin Super(onboarding)cycle

🙅 You may not like how we onboard the next million, but it will happen

A couple weeks ago, one presentation from Token2049 made its rounds on X, reaching over 1.4 million views and tens of thousands of engagements: Murad’s Memecoin Supercycle presentation.

Note the like-to-bookmark ratio, wild!

TLDR on Murad’s talk

• Memecoins, both old and new, are outperforming all other tokens

• Tokens are overvalued due to all the parties involved prior to listing (founders, VCs, angels, centralized exchanges, market makers, KOLs, etc.), leading to retail being exit liquidity

• Memecoins have already proven they can ‘work’ with DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, and WIF. I’m absolutely not a memecoin caller, but I documented PEPE and WIF in their earlier days and why they were interesting.

• Crypto is a token-production industry masquerading as a software-production industry 🌶️

• Memecoin distribution is more organic, distributed, and equitable. Poor hodlers become unpaid full-time evangelists

• Retail ultimately cares about making money, having fun, and belonging

• All tokens (tech and meme) are tables at the casino. “Why should we play at your tables when we can have our own tables?”

• There are external reasons for the memecoin supercycle as well: inflation, AI coming for jobs, income inequality, loneliness, mental health issues, more time spent online, and fewer ways to ‘make it’. Aka: financial nihilism

• Altcoins aren’t primarily about tech. Memecoins aren’t primarily about memes. Both are tokenized communities using different narratives and techniques to recruit people and get the price to go up.

• The best memes become cults, and even mini-religions with shared values, lifestyles principles, ideals, ideology, artwork, activities, hopes, and aspirations

Whether you like them or not, this talk provides a helpful framework for understanding why memecoins have become a major theme, and one that probably hasn’t come close to peaking yet. So place your preconceived notions aside and watch it if you haven’t already.

On top of that, Murad’s rapid speaking style and quick flipping through the slides almost makes you feel like you’re trading a memecoin and watching the candles rapidly go up and down 😂

Where are memecoins going next?

Memes ex-tokenization have already established themselves as a medium of communication, a unit of culture, and composable pieces of content. They dominate social media feeds, create overnight celebrities (eg: Hawk Tuah girl pivoting to Haliey Welch), and make it to mainstream media.

So the tokenization of memes is a natural evolution. After all, all types of content and assets are being tokenized ranging from written content, car titles, treasuries/commodities, all the way to the usual suspects like digital collectibles and art.

But…what else is interesting about memecoins beyond the usual?

Memecoins for good

Vitalik Buterin

One strategy memecoins employ to gain recognition is by sending a portion of their token supply to notable figures. And if a memecoin is launched on Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin is at the top of the list.

Yesterday, Vitalik converted his holdings of several tokens to ETH and donated $642k to charity, calling out the opportunity memecoins have to make a positive impact beyond making holders rich and speculation.

This isn’t his first rodeo as he donated $1B of SHIB back 2021 to support India’s COVID relief efforts.

Pump.science

pump.science is a platform developed by Molecule, a platform that funds early-stage research in desci (decentralized science), and incorporates memecoin and prediction market mechanics.

Pump.science is focused on longevity research through low-cost, rapid-testing methods on worms (more info on the testing methodology here)

How does it work?

• Researchers can submit drug strategies to be listed on pump.fun, a memecoin launchpad

• The live stream documenting the experiment begins when token reaches a market cap of $10k

• Users can buy or sell the token to speculate on the efficacy of the compound being tested

Although pump.science doesn’t have the same type of appeal as your standard memecoin, the 3-week-old platform is bringing new interactive mechanics that bring attention to their space, has a clear positive societal benefit, and will likely create some reward system to create mutually aligned incentives.

Memecoin marketing and sponsorships

Crypto is no stranger to making splashy marketing campaigns and sponsorships (mostly in the sports realm), and some of them are still going on today.

• Coinbase signed a 4 year sponsorship deal with the NBA in 2021 worth $192M

• Crypto.com signed a 20 year contract worth $700M for naming rights to the arena of the LA Lakers

• Multiple F1 teams are sponsored by various crypto companies including ApeCoin, Binance, OKX, Bybit, Sui, and Kraken

• Before collapsing, FTX had naming rights to the arena for the Miami Heat and was a F1 sponsor

• VeChain is the official blockchain partner of the UFC and you can’t miss their logo displayed in the Octagon during fights

These sponsorships make sense as the above examples are multibillion companies advertising to large audiences. But a memecoin?

Earlier today, the APU memecoin community announced a partnership with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), with the APU (a derivative Pepe character) logo displayed in the fight ring and other locations.

What’s notable about this is that one individual from the APU community paid for the sponsorship by themselves, suggesting they have a lot to gain from the additional attention the sponsorship would bring.

Separately, Emily Lai pointed out the proliferation of guerilla-style wildposting marketing tactics from memecoin communities upon arriving in London.

If you thought seeing NFTs painted onto murals or stickers plastered on street poles was annoying I’m sorry to break it to you but it’s probably only starting (eg: there’s still a wallet holding $650k with plans to put WIF on the Las Vegas Sphere).

What can non-speculative folks do about this?

Memecoins can trigger certain knee-jerk reactions from folks in our industry, which is sorta ironic considering people outside of this industry have that type of reaction to this space in general 😉

The short answer to what you can do about this is nothing. Take a deep breath, let it happen, accept the fact that memes have and will continue to reach into the billions and possibly higher. Let them do their thing since there’s no point in fighting it or hating on it.

The longer answer is be thankful. Why?

NBA Top Shot brought in a lot of new users, with over 80,000 unique buyers in February 2021 alone. Many of these users eventually migrated into NFTs, with some of them eventually becoming entrepreneurs, creators, or contributors to the ecosystem. I’m one of these people brought here by speculation and the potential of making it big. So are many others I’ve met over the years.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, memecoins are bringing in a new cohort and class of users into our world, potentially confirming the Memecoin Supercycle hypothesis.

Some of them are using a crypto wallet for the first time (fortunately with a much better onboarding experience). Some of them are learning about slippage and swapping. Some of them are going to lose their money and confirm that crypto is indeed a scam.

And some of them will stick around, wondering what else is happening in this wacky corner of the universe. And that’s when the Memecoin Super(onboarding)cycle begins.

See you Thursday!