On January 11, the BTC ETF finally passed SEC approval. Today, 11 BTC ETFs were officially launched for trading on the US stock market. These two days can be described as a milestone moment in the history of cryptography.

With ETFs bringing BTC to the larger mainstream world, and the upcoming BTC halving event at the end of March, 2024 will undoubtedly be a very important year for the crypto track.

So in 2024, are there any tracks that we should pay attention to? In this issue, we bring you an analysis and outlook of the seven major tracks in 2024 co-written by Biteye community partners.

BTC Ecosystem

Looking back at 2023, the main narrative of the BTC ecosystem is very obvious. After domodata proposed the BRC20 standard on March 8, a series of inscriptions quickly prospered on the BTC main chain. The narrative of new assets is superimposed on the narrative of BTC, allowing ORDI, the first inscribed asset within a year, to exceed $1000M in market capitalization.

As the number of transactions on the chain increased, the problems of network congestion and high transaction fees began to appear. When the popular inscription was mint, the gas fee of BTC was too high to be accepted by ordinary users. The expansion demand of BTC also stood at the forefront of the future narrative. stage, so what are the directions we can focus on in the future of the BTC ecosystem?

1. BTC New Asset Issuance Protocol

Atomics, an optimization project for Ordinals and BRC20, solves the problem of BRC20’s over-reliance on centralized off-chain indexing. It leverages and extends Bitcoin’s UTXO model, treating each Satoshi’s UTXO as a specific Atomic token or digital object. $ATOM is the first token of Atomicals. It is minted using the POW method. It is considered by the community to be more decentralized and in line with BTC fundamentalism. Due to its technical superiority, its current community consensus is strong.

SRC-20, a token standard developed based on the Stamps protocol, BTC Stamps was invented by @mikeinspace. The biggest difference between it and Ordinals is that the picture/text information of Ordinals is stored in the witness data, while the Stamps data is stored in the transaction output. This difference results in an important feature of Stamps, that is, it can always exist on the BTC chain, and all nodes must synchronize the data.

Bitmap, Bitmap is the first metaverse project in the BTC ecosystem. It forms a block or area by mapping each transaction input in the Bitcoin block into a parcel (Parcel). Bitmap also proposed the BRC-420 protocol. BRC420 is an asset protocol based on Bitmap. By combining multiple inscriptions together to form a complex inscription, you can create a variety of assets from small characters to pets.

Other new protocols including CBRC, Veda, Rune, and Sat which are worth paying attention to.

1. BTC infrastructure

The current mainstream BTC infrastructure projects are as follows. It can be seen that the future BTC infrastructure will be mainly divided into the following general directions:

• Cross-chain bridge
• IDO platform
• DEX exchange
• Lending platform
• Marketplace

1. BTC Scaling Solution

There are two main solutions to scale the BTC chain, one is the Lightning network and the other is the sidechain.

1) Lightning Network

The Lightning Network, proposed by Joseph Poon and Tadge Dryja in 2016, is one of the Layer 2 solutions for Bitcoin.

The Lightning Network consists of payment channels aimed at achieving fast and low-cost transactions, allowing users to make off-chain payments without confirmation, with final settlement on the main chain. In theory, the Lightning Network can achieve a processing speed of millions of transactions per second.

The Taproot Asset protocol is an asset issuance protocol proposed by Lightning Labs, the development team of the Lightning Network, on October 19, 2023. The current mainstream platform for issuing and trading Taproot Assets is Nostr Aeest, with its tokens T($TREAT & $TRICK) mainly used for staking.

2) Sidechains

Stacks ($STX): Stacks is the most well-developed L2 solution in the BTC ecosystem. Stacks uses the Proof of Transfer (POX) consensus algorithm for validation.

By anchoring transactions, the block information of Stacks transactions is broadcasted to the Bitcoin network to ensure transaction security.

Stacks has a complete execution environment, allowing any application built on chains like Ethereum to be built on the Stacks layer.

Validators and miners in Stacks can stake $STX and $BTC respectively to mine $BTC and $STX tokens, thus maintaining network security.

From Stacks’ roadmap, the release of the Nakamoto network and the launch of SBTC in Q1 of this year will be important milestones in Stacks’ development and deserve special attention.

3) Others

In addition to the mentioned protocols, other BTC scaling solutions worth mentioning include the RGB protocol, Bitcoin sidechain project Rootstock ($RIF), BitVM, BEVM, and more.

Modular Blockchain and Data Availability (DA)

1. Modular blockchain

Modular blockchain is a type of blockchain that specializes in specific functions such as execution, consensus, settlement, or data availability (DA), and relies on other blockchains or services to perform the remaining tasks.

This design enhances the security of projects and allows project teams to save energy and focus on developing core features.

Modular blockchain solves the performance bottleneck of traditional monolithic chains by decoupling the functions and components of the blockchain. Each module adopts a professional provider to provide possibilities for customized blockchains in a combined form.

There are several notable projects in the direction of modular blockchain:

• Celestia（$TIA）

Celestia uses off-chain methods to achieve DA, specifically using Reed-Solomon erasure codes and a specialized Namespaced Merkle Trees structure to ensure data availability, making DA cheaper and more efficient.

Although Celestia has already been released, indirect participation in all modular projects that use Celestia can still be achieved through staking in an account. Many recent projects in the Cosmos ecosystem have included Celestia staking accounts in their airdrop scope.

• Manta

Manta Network is a modular blockchain for zero-knowledge (ZK) applications and the first to transition the data availability layer from the ETH mainnet to Celestia’s Layer2.

Since December last year, when Manta transitioned DA from the ETH mainnet to Celestia, its transaction fees have decreased by 99.8%. Currently, Manta has a total value locked (TVL) of over $800 million, second only to OP and Arb.

• AltLayer

AltLayer is a decentralized Rollup-As-A-Service protocol that adopts a modular design throughout its stack, allowing end users to choose rollups based on their own needs.

Rollup SDKs support Arbitrum Orbit, OP Stack, and more. The data availability layer supports Eigenlayer, Celestia, Astria.

AltLayer has already released the first phase of testnet tasks and OAT on Galaxy. You can pay attention to the subsequent testnet tasks, which may empower OAT in the future. At the same time, Altlayer has previously released the Ottie NFT series, which will have the opportunity to receive token airdrops in the future.

• Cevmos

Cevmos is a rollup stack developed in collaboration between Evmos, a Cosmos EVM application chain, and Celestia. Its goal is to become the best settlement layer for EVM rollups built on Celestia.

Cevmos is an abbreviation for Celestia, Evmos, and Cosmos.

1. Data availability layer

The data availability layer is one of the main directions of development for modular blockchains, and Celestia is a modular blockchain specifically designed for the data availability layer.

Data availability refers to the provision of verification services for the public storage of transaction data. The data availability layer ensures that data is correct, secure, and easy to verify. In the current scenario, the most direct benefit is that the data availability layer can greatly reduce Gas Fees for project developers and users.

Currently, ETH L2 needs to upload Calldata to the ETH mainnet, which means the ETH mainnet is responsible for data availability. This incurs a huge cost.

As we mentioned earlier, the significant reduction in Manta transaction fees shows that, in addition to the cost-saving advantages, data availability has become a real need for Web3 projects due to the current market trend. The market prospects are very broad.

However, challenges also arise. The larger the cake, the more competition among data availability providers, resulting in a “DA War.” In the near future, many new DA projects will be launched successively (the following are DA service providers, not users of the DA service):

• Avail, a modular blockchain project led by the Polygon team, is the main competitor of Celestia. Currently in the testnet phase, Avail can be considered a benchmark for Celestia. They have already launched an incentive testnet for “node conflicts” where users can participate in running nodes to earn rewards.
• Fuel, unlike Celestia, is a modular blockchain that focuses on the execution layer and uses the SwayLang language. Currently, it is possible to obtain the corresponding Zealy identity.
• EigenDA, provided by Eigenlayer, offers low-cost and large-scale data availability with security protected by ETH Restaking. You can try participating in Eigenlayer to get involved in this project.

At the same time, some older projects will also support their own exclusive DAs. Choosing which DA to use will become a key point in the market competition.

For example, ETH’s Danksharding is essentially a DA, and its verification technology is more complex than Celestia.

The founder of Ethereum, Vitalik, has repeatedly advocated for his own DA technology. He has stated multiple times on social media that using third-party DA services cannot be considered as Ethereum’s second layer and setting up barriers for his own DA.

In essence, DA is a business aimed at project parties, and it has little impact on user perception. Therefore, the project party’s soft power, such as first-mover advantage, network relationships, and influence, may be more important than the technical details themselves. This year, the DA War will be very exciting.

DePIN

As expected in Biteye’s 2023 Outlook Report, DePIN has become a hot track, and the crypto community seems to have found large-scale practical use cases beyond finance.

DePIN stands for Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network, which uses cryptocurrency incentives and coordination to facilitate the launch and ongoing operation of decentralized infrastructure.

DePIN serves as an important link between the virtual crypto world and the real world, promoting data security and efficient coordination of idle resources. It not only makes our lives better but also showcases the practical value and charm of cryptocurrencies to a wider audience.

During the initial stages of the project, DePIN incentivizes user participation in ecosystem development through token rewards or airdrops, attracting strong developers to provide more cost-effective products.

As more users adopt the products or services, the project’s revenue increases. This revenue can be used for market management and further marketing efforts, rewarding both the demand and supply sides of the product, incentivizing more participants, and attracting attention from market funds to build a thriving ecosystem.

DePIN benefits from the positive flywheel effect during the bull market. It has recently attracted the attention of Binance and OKX and produced an introductory video on the DePIN theme.

In a joint research report by Messari and Escape Velocity, the DePIN track is divided into computing, wireless, energy, artificial intelligence, services, and sensors.

Below, we will introduce notable representative projects in each sub-track. Please note that this is not investment advice. Readers are encouraged to continue exploring and discovering more interesting projects that have practical benefits for society.

• Computing

With the promotion of machine learning and AIGC, the amount of data generated is growing exponentially, which also drives the need for more secure decentralized storage. Filecoin ($FIL) is the leader in the storage field and ranks among the top in terms of revenue in the DePIN track.

• Wireless

Helium ($HNT) is a decentralized wireless network protocol and one of the earliest and most famous DePIN projects, ranking first in the DePIN financing list alongside Filecoin with a financing amount of 250 million US dollars.

Sub DAO Helium Mobile ($MOBILE) provides users with discounted phone plans and has recently become a shining star due to the rapid rise in coin prices.

• Energy

Arkreen is a global decentralized renewable energy data network that tokenizes trusted and verifiable data from renewable energy devices to promote carbon neutrality.

• AI

Render Network ($RNDR) is a decentralized GPU rendering network that connects idle GPUs to assist in film and animation rendering, and collaborates with well-known companies such as Stable Diffusion and Netflix.

• Serve

Braintrust ($BTRST) is the first decentralized talent network that matches top freelance technical talents with the needs of large companies.

• Sensors

Hivemapper ($HONEY) is a map network where contributors collect street view images through Hivemapper’s dashcams to create the latest maps.

There are two main ways for investors to participate in the DePIN track investment.

• One is to purchase related products and equipment as suppliers to provide services, and recover costs and make profits through token rewards.
• Another way is to purchase related tokens, as project parties will stimulate demand by using the revenue from the sale of equipment, thus promoting continued purchase of products and equipment and rapidly advancing the construction of the ecological network during a bull market.

However, it is important to note that the market-making willingness in the DePIN track is stronger, and the observed token prices often experience volatile fluctuations. Investors can consider short-term trading, phased entry, or grid trading.

In addition, we can also consider enjoying more cost-effective services in the DePIN track from the perspective of demand.

New Public Chain and Ethereum Ecosystem

Public chains are the backbone of the encryption industry and the largest infrastructure. With the development of blockchain technology, we believe that high-performance single chains (parallel EVM), Ethereum re-staking, Cancun upgrade, and modular blockchains will be the four major directions to focus on in 2024. (We have already introduced modular blockchains in the first section.)

1. Parallel EVM public chain

Recently, Paradigm’s CTO Georgios proposed that 2024 will be the “year of parallel EVM,” and Paradigm is also actively exploring this technology internally.

One of the performance bottlenecks of EVM is that it processes transactions sequentially, which can lead to network congestion and delays during peak periods. The auction mechanism for gas can also cause high gas fees, which is the most troublesome issue for users when using Ethereum.

If EVM can achieve parallel computing, it will greatly improve network processing speed and system throughput, enhancing the performance and efficiency of EVM. Currently, there are two main solutions:

1) Designing a parallel EVM public chain independently and

2) Using the parallel processing layer as Layer2 to execute transactions.

Projects Worth Paying Attention To:

• Sei ($SEI)

Sei is a Layer1 optimized for trading, using an optimistic parallel scheme, and is expected to achieve parallel EVM in its latest V2 version. Additionally, Sei allows for interaction between Cosmwasm smart contracts and EVM smart contracts, providing a more diverse execution environment.

• Eclipse

Eclipse is a modular rollup platform that brings Solana to Ethereum. It uses the parallel computing Solana virtual machine as the execution layer and Ethereum as the settlement layer, with Celestia implementing the DA layer and Risk Zero for fraud proofs, creating a parallel EVM public chain.

Eclipse is currently running on the testnet and can be accessed by applying on the official website for testing.

• Lumio

Lumio is an OP rollup-based Layer2 that aims to use Aptos as a Layer2 execution layer. The Move-based Aptos once had its moment of glory and hopes to shine again in the parallel EVM track.

Lumio is currently in closed testing on Ethereum and will gradually open up to NFT holders and Liquidswap users. Users can follow the testing qualifications and participate in the testnet early.

1. Ethereum Ecosystem

The Ethereum Layer2 experienced explosive development in 2023, with over ten Layer2 mainnets launched. According to L2Beat statistics, the total TVL (Total Value Locked) of Ethereum Layer2 has reached $19.35B. OP Stack and Polygon CDK have further reduced the difficulty of launching a Layer2 public chain, therefore, it is predicted that the total TVL will continue to increase in 2024 as more Layer2 solutions are implemented.

1) Re-staking narrative

In addition to utilizing Ethereum’s security, EigenLayer also leverages Ethereum nodes to provide convenience for building new public chains.

EigenLayer is an Ethereum-based middleware protocol that introduces the concept of re-staking, allowing Ethereum nodes to re-stake their staked ETH or LSD tokens into other oracles, bridges, and public chains. This enables them to enjoy Ethereum-level security at a lower cost, while users can receive multiple rewards.

Recently, there have been developments in the market where liquidity pledged in Eigenlayer is exchanged for a new layer of liquidity token called LRT, creating a gameplay called LRTfi. Some projects worth paying attention to are:

• Pendle ($PENDLE)

Pendle is about to launch eETH, a liquidity staking token from ether.fi. Users can deposit eETH into Pendle’s LP to earn EigenLayer points, EtherFi points, and multiple staking rewards.

• Swell

Swell is an LSDfi protocol where users can stake ETH to earn pearls and staking rewards. Pearls are tied to airdropped tokens. Swell plans to add the functionality of re-staking swETH, allowing users to stake ETH and earn rswETH, thereby unlocking liquidity and additional rewards.

• Puffer Finance

Puffer is a liquidity staking protocol based on Eigenlayer. It solves the confiscation problem in the Ethereum and Eigenlayer networks through its proprietary Secure-Signer tool and RAV technology, providing participants with low-risk dual rewards. The mainnet is planned to be launched in 2024.

2) Cancun Upgrade

On the evening of January 4th, the 178th Ethereum core developer meeting confirmed the final schedule for the testnet activation of the Cancun upgrade, which will start on January 17th.

The core content of this Cancun upgrade is the implementation of EIP-4844 proposal, which aims to increase the total number of transactions Ethereum can handle.

Before the Cancun upgrade, L2 transactions were stored in L1 transaction Dalldata. This method is costly and Calldata space is limited.

After the Cancun upgrade, L1 will store the data submitted by L2 in a new location called “blob”. Storing data in blob is cheaper and provides more space.

It is important to note that the revenue source for L2 is essentially the gas fees collected from users minus the gas fees paid to Ethereum. After the Cancun upgrade, the fees paid by L2 to Ethereum will significantly decrease, allowing the revenue level of L2 to increase significantly.

Therefore, the Cancun upgrade is essentially beneficial for all Layer2 solutions that use Ethereum as a data availability layer, including Optimistic rollup, ZK rollup, and other related Layer2 solutions.

In the next quarter, projects related to the Cancun upgrade will have certain fundamental advantages.

The most obvious beneficiaries are OP and ARB, and there will also be some synergistic effects between the two native protocols in the ecosystem. For example, the largest DEX in OP, Velodrome ($VELO), and GMX ($GMX) on ARB, and so on.

Secondly, smaller Optimistic rollups such as MetisDAO ($METIS) and Boba ($BOBA) are also beneficiaries. MetisDAO plans to become a Layer2 with a decentralized sequencer, which adds another layer of narrative and is worth paying attention to.

In addition, due to the temporary storage solution introduced by EIP-4844, data stored in Blob will be deleted approximately one month later.

If L2 wants to retain the relevant data in the long term, it will need other storage service providers to store it according to actual needs. This indirectly increases the demand for decentralized storage, which is also a positive development for the decentralized storage sector.

GameFi

Gamefi track currently has two classifications of games:

1. Fully On-Chain Game (FOCG)

2. Not-fully on-chain games (nft assets + off-chain games)

3. Fully On-Chain Game (FOCG)

Fully on-chain gaming refers to games where not only assets are on the blockchain, but also the storage of game state and execution logic are on the blockchain. Therefore, compared to not-fully-on-chain games, FOCGs are more decentralized and have greater composability.

However, fully on-chain gaming is still in its early stages, and the barrier to entry for users is relatively high. As a result, holding relevant tokens or NFTs for a long period of time may be required to obtain returns.

The two main game engines on the Full Chain Game (FOCG) track are:

1、MUD

2、Dojo

The former belongs to Op-stack and the latter is in Starknet.

The MUD game engine is released by Lattice, which is a sub-project of 0xPARC. 0xPARC was formed by the Dark Forest team, the originator of full-chain games, and they received donations from the Ethereum Foundation and Gitcoin.

The game currently running on MUD, Sky Stife, is worth paying attention to. Those who did not get the Pass last season should not miss the new season this time. The new season starts on January 8th.

Dojo was proposed by a core member of Loot Realms, the founder of Cartridge and the founder of Briq to develop a full-chain game engine on the Starknet network.

Cairo has higher efficiency and scalability than Solidity, which is why Starknet was chosen instead of Op-stack for Dojo core development.

Projects worthy of attention include the Loot Realms series:

1. Realms: Eternum (sandbox strategy game). To participate in the game, you need to purchase Realms NFT. You can get tokens $Lords by playing the game or staking Realms. The game is not yet fully open.

2. Loot Survivor (text-based Roguelike game) and Shoshin launched by Topology. The game has been launched on the main network and can be tried on the test network. Playing the game requires spending at least 25 $Lords.

3. Non-fully-on-chain games

Non-fully-on-chain games refer to games in which some game assets are on the chain. Currently, most NFT-related games fall into this category.

Although the NFT market has been cold this year, NFT in the game sector is very hot. A project is generally analyzed from three perspectives:

1. Technology

2. Operation (breadth)

3. Community (depth)

The most important ones are 2 and 3, with 1 being less important.

Projects worth attention: Matr1x

Matr1x aims to create a web3 premium gaming platform, with the first shooting game already available for experience. The related community is also very active, making it one of the few gaming products with high community engagement.

However, the game also faces challenges: how to attract web2 users? Because the number of web3 users is limited, and most of them are only concerned about profits rather than the game itself, the project needs to attract web2 players to make the game more sustainable.

Matr1x’s approach is to use platforms like Douyin and Bilibili for livestreaming and hosting esports competitions. Based on game data, their web2 player base is considerable.

There are two ways to participate in Matr1x:

1) Staking NFTs to obtain tokens.

2) Participating in subsequent game activities or public testing.

If the Gamefi trend arrives, non-full-chain games will receive attention first. When the entire ecosystem’s funds overflow, full-chain games will be lifted up.

AI&Crypto

According to a report from Binance Research, the financing of Web3 projects related to artificial intelligence is expected to grow strongly in 2023, reaching $298 million. This amount far exceeds the total financing of AI-related projects from 2016 to 2022.

At the same time, AI-related tokens outperformed BTC and ETH in 2023 overall. 2023 can be considered the AI era for the whole world. As the importance of AI in the Web2 world continues to grow, we should also consider how AI and blockchain can be combined and what directions this combination can take. Finally, we can focus on which projects.

1. Decentralized computing power network

With the increasing demand for AI models, whether it is large language models or AI models customized for specific scenarios, the intelligent improvement of AI cannot be separated from a fundamental aspect.

A large amount of training is required, and the essence behind this training is computational power. In traditional large model training, the training environment for large models is centralized in data centers, using high-performance computing devices as clusters and connecting them through high-speed networks to share computing tasks.

In the Crypto environment, AI model training can benefit from shared computing power and idle bandwidth, which is one of the exploration directions for the combination of AI & Crypto.

The decentralized mechanism of Web3 allows AI to become more democratic from the bottom up. By deploying, training, and using AI in a decentralized manner, users’ data privacy can be better protected, and there is also an opportunity to receive rewards through data sharing.

However, it should be noted that decentralized computational power networks are not suitable for model training due to the communication delays caused by distributed distances. Nodes need to spend more time waiting for data transmission, which is not suitable for models that prioritize training efficiency.

1. AI&Crypto Applications

In Web2, well-known applications of AI include chatbot Chat GPT, AI search engine New bing, image generation tool Midjourney, virtual character Character AI, and more. In the Crypto world, if AI wants to integrate with Crypto at the application level, there are several possible directions:

1) Similar to RSS3, adding on-chain data and data sources such as Twitter, Reddit, Lens, Farcaster, Mastodon, etc. to the ChatGPT model for training, in order to build a more Crypto Native chatbot or AI assistant that caters to the needs of Crypto players.

Or, similar to 0xScope, building an AI cognitive model based on a knowledge graph where users can use the AI trading assistant Scopechat to obtain and understand on-chain data for investment and trading analysis.

2) In addition, generative AI can bring new narratives to Web3 applications. For example, by embedding virtual people, character AI, and other cutting-edge elements into gaming and social ecosystems, new gameplay can be developed.

From the recent launch of two AI-related projects by Binance, it is evident that the world’s largest exchange has high expectations for the future of the AI track. The two projects launched are AI image generation and AI virtual idols, which are explorations of AI’s integration at the application layer in the Crypto world.

In addition to the mentioned projects, other projects worth mentioning are:

1) Bittensor ($TAO): A blockchain-based decentralized machine learning network that coordinates the collaboration of AI models using blockchain and mining incentive mechanisms.

2) FetchAI ($FET): A blockchain-based machine learning platform aimed at enabling traditional products to access AI through Fetch.ai tokens without changing the underlying business applications.

3) Dynex ($DNX): A neural-morphological supercomputing blockchain based on the DynexSolve chip algorithm. It proposes the Proof of Useful Work (PoUW) method to improve the speed and efficiency of decentralized networks, aiming to provide computational power for machine learning, fintech, biopharmaceuticals, etc.

4) Grass: A decentralized incentivized network crawling network where users sell their unused network resources to companies, laboratories, and other institutions through Wynd Network. The buying companies of Grass seek unused network resources to access more diverse IP addresses for market research, network crawling, AI training, and other tasks.

5) Clore.ai ($CLORE): A platform that provides GPU computing power rental services based on PoW. Users can rent out their GPUs for tasks such as AI training, video rendering, and cryptocurrency mining, and provide computing power services to individuals and organizations in need.

If users want to participate deeply in the aforementioned project, the main ways to get involved are renting out computing power or mining. For example, Grass currently offers a Chrome browser plugin account for desktop computers. Users can download and register for the account, then earn points by leaving their computers connected to WiFi. After the project launches its own cryptocurrency, users can use the accumulated points to obtain tokens.

(Note: Currently, most AI & Crypto projects are in the exploratory stage. There are projects that combine with various application scenarios, but it is necessary to carefully discern whether the projects themselves have real demand.)

Meme

Meme Track, as a unique branch in the field of cryptocurrency, has attracted widespread attention in recent years.

A meme can be a spelling mistake (HODL), a catchphrase (GM, LFG);

A meme can be a form of counterculture (Doge, RFD);

A meme can also be a “arbitrage” of liquidity overflow (Aidoge, Stark Inu, which appeared on Starknet due to airdrop expectations).

The characteristic of this track is that it does not rely on traditional business models or specific technological applications, but rather on the consensus and cultural attributes of the community. The value of MEME track tokens depends to a large extent on community recognition and emotional connection, rather than traditional asset valuation models.

From the rise of $PEPE in the bear market, the meme-heavy $BITCOIN, the newly-emerged $BONK, and the call made by the founder of Solana for $Silly, we can see that strong MEME coins often have the following characteristics:

1. Cultural resonance and community-driven

Meme track tokens are usually combined with popular internet culture. For example, Dogecoin ($DOGE) and Shiba Inu coin ($SHIB) originated from popular internet memes or cultural symbols.

This cultural resonance is easy to spread in internet communities, attracting a large number of followers and supporters, generating lively discussions on social media, and increasing the visibility and attractiveness of these tokens.

1. Social media and celebrity effects

Social media has a huge influence on Meme coins, and endorsements from celebrities like the founder of Solana can significantly boost the market value of Silly Dragon ($SILLY). This celebrity effect and the power of social media can greatly enhance the visibility of a token and create FOMO (fear of missing out) among investors in a short period of time.

1. News coverage and media attention

Meme coins often become the focus of news coverage due to their unique images and sometimes bizarre stories, further increasing public attention to these tokens.

One thing we need to understand about memes is how to judge the strength of consensus for a meme, that is, how many people are willing to buy into a meme in the market.

In the early stages of a meme, we often have to rely on “intangible” factors such as community activity, IP concepts (riding on popularity), the strength of the project team, and cultural background to judge its investment value. This is the biggest risk of early meme investments, either going to zero or rug pulling.

When a meme successfully “survives” for a period of time, we can try to judge its investment worthiness from multiple dimensions such as the number of holders, trading volume, and support from the price chart (e.g., more and more mentions of the meme on Twitter).

As memes become more widely known, their consensus strengthens, and the risk of going to zero or rug pulling gradually decreases. However, at this point, the potential returns from memes may also be reduced. As the saying goes, risks and returns coexist.

Overall, the Meme track represents a new direction in the diversification and cultural integration of the cryptocurrency market. It is not just a speculative direction, but also a medium for cultural expression and community consensus. With more cultural elements and creativity joining in, the Meme track is expected to continue to develop, but the risks it brings should not be ignored.

Therefore, for ordinary investors, understanding the cultural attributes of Meme coins, getting early chips, and most importantly, cultivating a familiar logic and judgment, and executing it, are key to participating in the Meme track.

Conclusion

Finally, 2023 was a year of change and innovation in the blockchain and cryptocurrency field. From the launch of the first modular blockchain to the rise of the BTC inscription ecosystem, and the combination of AI and encryption, each step has injected new vitality into this industry.

As we enter 2024, we believe that these developments will continue to influence the direction of the industry. It is essential for everyone to stay informed and continue learning, analyze market trends rationally, and explore new opportunities. This may be a mandatory course for everyone in 2024.

In 2024, Biteye will stay true to its original intention, continue to select high-quality projects, and explore the secrets of wealth with our partners!

Disclaimer：

1. This article is reprinted from [Why?]. All copyrights belong to the original author [Biteye core contributors @0xdddd111, @lviswang, @FINT1121, @Jesse_meta, @pikpika6, @shouyi16, @0x_Way]. If there are objections to this reprint, please contact the Gate Learn team, and they will handle it promptly.
2. Liability Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not constitute any investment advice.
3. Translations of the article into other languages are done by the Gate Learn team. Unless mentioned, copying, distributing, or plagiarizing the translated articles is prohibited.