Introduction

With the popularity of cryptocurrencies, a burgeoning new MEME culture is rapidly emerging, but for many, understanding MEME coins and the broader crypto culture may be somewhat challenging.

Tokenized as a sloth, $SLERF has soared in market capitalization since its inception, at one point nearing $600 million. Achieving in just three hours what took BOME three days, it briefly surpassed BOME’s market cap to become the eighth-largest MEME coin.

Source: coingecko

MEME coins attract attention for several reasons. On one hand, they typically have low prices, offering a chance for widespread investor participation. On the other hand, their humor and entertainment value provide investors with a unique experience. Despite the uncertainty surrounding the future of MEME coins, they have established a distinct position within the cryptocurrency realm.

MEME

What is MEME？

MEME is a widely circulated cultural element on the internet, typically expressed through images, videos, animations, text, or other forms. For example, SLERF is a MEME coin featuring a cute and lazy sloth as its characteristic. Memes act as units for spreading cultural ideas and symbols, continuously disseminating and proliferating in people’s consciousness. Some memes have strong dissemination power, enduring for a long time, while others with less influence are quickly forgotten. Today, the term “MEME” has become widely known for two main reasons: first, because memes often exhibit traits of humor, irony, exaggeration, or relatability, facilitating rapid dissemination through social media, online forums, instant messaging, and other channels; second, due to the prevalence of the internet and social media, enabling people to easily create, share, and disseminate content.

MEME Track Data

According to Coingecko’s data, the current market capitalization of MEME is $54.7 billion, while the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has reached $11.8 trillion. MEME tokens hold a 1.48% share in the cryptocurrency domain.

In the first quarter of 2024, the top 10 MEME coins on Solana (SOL) witnessed astounding growth, reaching +801.5%, with a market capitalization surpassing $8.32 billion. By the end of the quarter, their total market capitalization had reached $9.36 billion.

Source: CoinGecko 2024 Q1 Crypto Industry Report

The Story of SLERF

Source: slerf

$SLERF is a MEME coin featuring a cute and lazy sloth as its characteristic, sparking widespread attention and discussion within the community since its inception. From birth to “death,” and then to “resurrection,” its entire journey seems to awaken the most dormant sloth.

On the morning of March 17, SLERF posted a fundraising tweet on Twitter, noteworthy as the project’s Twitter account was just created that month. Within a mere 13 hours, SLERF reached its maximum fundraising goal, collecting over 50,000 SOL tokens. According to SLERF’s announcement, 50% of the raised funds were allocated for presale, while the remaining 50% were injected into the LP pool, a strategy similar to previous MEME project fundraising methods.

On March 18, the founder of $SLERF admitted to an operational mistake on Twitter, accidentally destroying the tokens reserved for airdrops in the wallet, as well as the SOL tokens raised during the presale, resulting in the loss of LP and minting rights. This unexpected event led to a rapid decline in the value of $SLERF tokens. Despite the significant developer error, it did not dampen the project’s popularity. Instead, its market cap skyrocketed to over $500 million within just three hours, making it one of the fastest-growing MEME tokens. The founder maintained community engagement by hosting events on Twitter Space and humorously addressing the situation. Subsequently, $SLERF initiated a rescue mission, aiming to raise $10 million to compensate presale participants. This initiative received support from Sun Yuchen, LBank, and multiple exchanges. This ongoing tale of reversal has kept SLERF in the spotlight, with its ecosystem continuing to evolve.

SLERF’s Successes

Community

The key to SLERF’s success lies in its community. An active, sincere, and culturally unique community is crucial for the success of a project.

Under the combined impact of various events, SLERF attracted significant funding and experienced a period of intense ups and downs. However, even when the price plummeted to its lowest point, the token’s popularity did not diminish. The Space event hosted by the founder of SLERF attracted thousands of participants, and some even went as far as creating false images linking the token to prison concepts, falsely claiming that the SEC had formed a task force to investigate the SLERF incident on X.

SLERF values community engagement and user-friendly interaction. Unlike some MEME tokens that only chase popularity without substantive content, SLERF is committed to establishing effective connections with users and providing them with a smooth interactive experience.

Furthermore, SLERF stands out for its innovation and development potential. With its ecosystem and dramatic MEME token development concept, SLERF has attracted different types of investors and supporters, many of whom are confident in its future prospects.

Public Chain Background

Solana Chain provides a fertile ground for the development of MEME culture, both in its product features and cultural background. Thanks to the rapid rise of the SOL token in the early stages of this bull market, Solana Chain has attracted the first wave of users in the current MEME frenzy.

Additionally, DEX products on Solana offer many advantages in terms of speed, ease of use, and on-chain data. Solana boasts a transaction speed of approximately 1300 TPS and transaction fees of around $0.0029. The Total Value Locked (TVL) on Solana Chain is approximately $3.9 billion, with approximately 800,000 daily active users.

Source: dune

SLERF’s Data Performance

According to Coingecko data, on the day of its launch, the price of $SLERF tokens briefly reached $1.1. However, after the founder announced the operational mistake, the price of $SLERF experienced a significant short-term decline, dropping to a low of $0.3 USDT. Following the market’s attention and hype, the price of $SLERF tokens quickly rebounded, reaching as high as $1.2 USDT.

Source: coingecko

According to the MVRV indicator on the DUNE panel (MVRV ratio is defined as the token’s market capitalization divided by realized capitalization), it can be observed that in the two days leading up to the launch of the $SLERF token, this value was above the average line. However, thereafter, it remained below 1, indicating that the average holding cost across the network was at a loss.

Source: dune

According to DUNE’s data, as of May 11, 2024, the total network trading volume for $SLERF is 6.359 billion, and the total value of $SLERF burned is $7.058 million. The daily buy and sell volume only showed a relatively high level in the two days before the token’s launch, after which it remained subdued, possibly related to the overall downtrend in the cryptocurrency market.

Source: dune

Source: dune

Examining MEME Spread Mechanisms Through SLERF

Social Media and Community Interaction

MEME coin projects primarily rely on social media platforms such as Twitter, Reddit, and Telegram to directly interact with users, share updates, host events, and promptly respond to community feedback. This interaction enhances the project’s visibility, strengthens community cohesion, and accelerates information dissemination.

Viral Marketing

MEME coins employ viral marketing by leveraging highly shareable content such as catchy slogans, amusing images, or unique concepts to promote projects cost-effectively yet efficiently, swiftly gaining widespread attention. For example, $SLERF cleverly utilizes the visual elements of a sloth, quickly spreading across social media platforms. $SLERF further enhances its viral marketing effect by organizing community engagement activities, such as NFT sales.

Utilizing Celebrity Endorsements

Harnessing the Celebrity Effect to spread MEME coins involves collaborating with influential public figures to share information about the MEME coin on their social media platforms, attracting the attention of their followers. Creating highly interactive content, such as challenges and live streams, increases user engagement. For example, much of the popularity of $SLERF is attributed to the hype and influence generated by tweets from its founder.

The Wealth Effect

The price volatility of MEME coins is accompanied by a strong wealth effect. Rising prices attract new investors into the market, further driving up prices and expanding the cultural reach of MEME coins. For example, $SLERF’s market capitalization surpassed $600 million in a short period.

Incentive Mechanism

Incentive mechanisms are one of the key strategies for promoting MEME coins. Project teams encourage users to hold and trade tokens through methods such as airdrops, transaction burning taxes, and lucky draws. This increases market activity and user engagement, attracting more attention and discussion.

Unique Concepts and Designs

The design of MEME coins is closely related to their concepts, with unique visual elements and cultural significance setting them apart from numerous other cryptocurrencies.

Innovative and Easily Shareable Topics

MEME coin projects typically enhance their visibility by combining innovative or easily shareable topics. For example, the unique narrative and community engagement of $SLERF has propelled its success in the market.

Risks of MEME Tokens

• High Market Volatility: The market volatility of MEME tokens exposes investors to significant financial risks. Some projects experience drastic price surges and crashes, often influenced by individual core figures, news, or online trends.
• Overreliance on Emotions: Many new MEME coins lack fundamental technology or practical use cases, leading to their value being entirely dependent on market sentiment.
• Market Manipulation: The concept-driven nature of MEME coins attracts some fraudsters who may deliberately create false market news to inflate prices, and then sell their holdings when prices reach a peak, resulting in substantial losses for investors.
• Fraudulent Activities: Many MEME projects are launched by anonymous or pseudonymous developers, making it challenging to assess the credibility and intentions behind the tokens. There is a certain risk associated with presale MEME projects, as once a certain amount is reached, the development team may abscond with the funds.

Conclusion

The performance of MEME coins highlights their unique position and influence in the cryptocurrency market. These coins attract widespread attention with their rapid fluctuations, narrative-driven development, and community-driven characteristics. However, investors need to be particularly cautious when participating in MEME coins, as they exhibit significant price volatility and lack the practicality and community support of traditional cryptocurrencies. Although the future development path of MEME coins is unclear, they undeniably have an impact on the crypto world and will continue to be a unique investment area.