Don't urge the project party anymore! The real market maker behind the big pump of the Meme coin is you yourself.

When the Shiba Inu Avatar Coin burst into the top ten by market capitalization, everyone was stunned.

Do you remember that surreal reality in May 2021? A “joke coin” born in 2013 with a Shiba Inu avatar suddenly squeezed into the top ten of the cryptocurrency market capitalization ranking. The surge of Dogecoin left the old-timers on Wall Street in collective silence—how could this thing be worth hundreds of billions of dollars?

The answer is actually quite shallow: within every forwarded meme, beneath each comment “To the Moon”, and amidst the cultural identity formed by millions of coin holders. Today, let's peel back the true face of Meme coins and see why spreading memes is more effective than staring at the K-line.

From a Parody Experiment to a Cultural Miracle that Survives for Ten Years

The story dates back to 2013. Programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer wanted to satirize the speculative chaos of the coin world, so they casually created a logo using the popular Shiba Inu meme and set the supply to unlimited – this was undoubtedly an act of “anti-cryptocurrency” performance art at the time.

So what happened? The first batch of players actually got hyped. People on Reddit started tipping interesting posts with DOGE, the community spontaneously engaged in charity work and crowdfunded sponsorships for NASCAR drivers and the Jamaican bobsled team. There was no technical white paper, no innovative consensus algorithm; it was purely based on community enthusiasm that it surged to a price of $0.74 in 2021, with a market capitalization peak surpassing 85 billion.

Indeed, Musk's tweets have indeed fueled DOGE. But what truly helped it survive the ten-year bear market is that group of die-hard fans who have been creating memes and organizing online events. While other altcoins fade into the annals of history, the DOGE community is still having fun with memes—this cultural stickiness is the core asset.

SHIB and PEPE: Turning Memes into a Billion Dollar Business

If DOGE was an unexpected success, then the Shiba Inu of 2020 was a well-prepared cultural experiment. It directly proclaimed the slogan “DOGE killer,” replicating the same successful formula—using the cute dog image to consolidate the “SHIB Army,” making every coin holder feel like they are participating in a revolution.

Data doesn't lie: In 2021, the price of SHIB skyrocketed 120,000 times, with a market capitalization peaking at 36 billion USD. Even more absurd is the PEPE coin of 2023, a token based on the “Sad Frog” meme, which has no institutional endorsement and relies solely on organic spread by netizens, reaching a market capitalization of 7 billion USD in just two weeks.

What do these cases prove? The price of Meme coins does not come from the elegance of the code, but from the spread radius of cultural symbols. Just as Disney makes money from Mickey Mouse, Meme coins essentially turn memes into tradable cultural assets. The more people recognize, use, and create derivatives of a symbol, the more valuable it becomes—this is the most basic attention economics.

Don't urge the project party to pump the price, you are the real whale.

What is the most common misconception among novices? After buying coins, they rush to the community to urge: “When will the project team pump?” But if you understand the underlying logic of Meme coins, you will find that this is completely counterproductive.

Behind stocks are company financial reports, behind Bitcoin is blockchain technology, while the only fundamental for Meme coins is community consensus and cultural dissemination. The project team is at most a igniter; the true “market makers” are actually every holder.

Look at the wild growth of PEPE: it has no founding team, no roadmap, and relies entirely on netizens spontaneously creating meme images and spreading jokes on Twitter and Telegram. When you share PEPE memes, when you tell your friends how captivating this frog is, you are actually doing “market capitalization management” for it — each time you spread it, you are recharging this cultural symbol.

Conversely, if the community just waits for the project party to pump the price, it's like a group of people staring blankly at a fish pond that can't reproduce by itself; eventually, they will sit and eat the mountain empty. Recently, hundreds of new meme coins have emerged daily on Pump.fun, but 99% don't survive a week because they only have contract code without a cultural core, and even less have a community willing to spread the word voluntarily.

Attention is the ultimate currency

In this era of information overload, attention is the most scarce resource. Meme coins are essentially “securitization of attention” — packaging the attention, discussions, and shares of netizens into tradable financial products.

The platform's algorithm naturally favors engaging content, and Meme coins are tailor-made for social media. A funny meme spreads more effectively than a technical whitepaper, and a phrase like “To the Moon” can evoke FOMO emotions better than on-chain data. When you share a SHIB meme in your social circle, you are actually helping it capture others' attention, and that attention will ultimately convert into buying power.

Meme coins on Solana and Base chains are particularly active because these platforms offer fast transactions and low Gas fees, making them more suitable for retail high-frequency trading and viral spread. Technology is just the highway; the real fuel is the “social currency” created by the community.

Three Survival Rules for Beginners

If you decide to participate in this cultural game, remember that these points are more critical than watching the market:

Only buy the memes you truly resonate with.

Don't touch the Meme coins you don't understand. If you find a meme boring to death, don't expect others to help you spread it. Most holders of PEPE grew up with the sad frog meme as part of Generation Z; they spread it out of true love, not just to make quick money. Cultural identity is the strongest moat.

Be a propagator, not a leek.

Instead of asking “When are we taking off?” every day, why not think about how to let more people know about this meme? Create an interesting meme, write a funny caption, or engage in relevant topics to increase your presence. Every creative effort you make is a value-added service for the tokens you hold — this is much more useful than staring at candlestick charts.

Treat investment with a playful mindset

Meme coins are essentially “cultural lotteries”. Although they have more cultural value than pure gambling, they remain highly speculative. Never invest more than you can afford to lose; think of it as buying a ticket to an amusement park – having fun is the most important part, making money is just a bonus. If you lose, consider it as paying for a cultural tuition fee.

IPO for Internet Culture

When we turn memes into cryptocurrencies, we are essentially “listing” internet culture. The surge of each Meme coin is an assault and rewrite of grassroots culture against the traditional financial system.

But remember the core logic: no spread means no value. The promises made by the project team and the calls from influencers are not as impactful as that meme in your phone's photo album that you're ready to post on your social media. Rather than waiting for others to pump, why not open Photoshop now and create a financial cultural symbol belonging to this era.

After all, in the era of attention economy, everyone is their own market maker. Every meme you post, every tweet you retweet, and every like you give is casting a vote for this cultural experiment — and the market will ultimately respond to your choices with real money.