A new trend in the cryptocurrency market is the emergence of “culture coins”, a new class of meme coins centered around cultural values such as politics, lifestyle, and religion. According to Andrew Kang, co-founder of Mechanism Capital, culture coins could potentially achieve greater growth in this cycle than traditional meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Kang believes that meme coins focusing on deeper cultural themes could offer greater profit potential than those centered around animals and simple jokes. He pointed out specific examples like Jeo Boden (BODEN) and Donald Trump (TREMP), Solana-based meme coins that have rapidly gained traction within communities holding specific values and ideologies.
These culture coins have the potential to go viral due to the strong values and identities of their communities. For example, BODEN, launched on March 9, has seen remarkable growth, with gains exceeding 700,000% since its inception and a market capitalization of $473 million. TREMP, a Donald Trump parody coin launched on February 27, has also experienced significant gains, with a market cap of $73 million. Kang stated that assets that “pump the hardest,” such as stocks, real estate, metals, and coins, are simply assets that people can best believe in. This makes them somewhat similar to meme coins, whose values are mainly driven by a pool of investors who rally together behind a project.
In addition to political ideologies, Kang suggested that meme coins inspired by successful consumer brands could leverage the associated lifestyle of those brands for added virality. He pointed to coins like $ZYN and $MOUTAI as examples, which cater to specific demographics. $MOUTAI represents a potential “meme coin of China and Asia” inspired by the renowned liquor brand Moutai, popular among the Chinese and Chinese diaspora. $ZYN, on the other hand, caters to a demographic of “bro” culture, including athletes and finance professionals, who may have disposable income for investment. Kang emphasized the importance of investing in culture coins that appeal to large real-world communities with strong teams, token communities, and compelling marketing campaigns.
While some view meme coins as a positive force for blockchain networks, others criticize them as speculative and potentially harmful to the industry’s founding principles. A recent report by CoinGecko highlighted the memecoin sector as the most profitable narrative in the cryptocurrency market, surpassing trends like tokenized real-world assets and layer 2 solutions in terms of profitability. Meme coins recorded the highest returns of 1,312.6% on average across the top tokens by market capitalization, with coins like Book of Meme (BOME), Brett, and Cat in a Dogs World (MEW) making it to the top 10 list by market value by the end of the quarter. BRETT recorded the highest returns of 7,727.6% by the end of Q1 2024, followed by Dogwifhat (WIF), which witnessed a 2,721.2% growth year-to-date after going viral amid the Solana-based meme coin frenzy.
At the time of publication, the total market cap of the memecoin sector is $64.8 billion, accounting for approximately 2.32% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization. This marks a 176.9% increase quarter-on-quarter, indicating the growing popularity and profitability of meme coins in the cryptocurrency market. The debate over the sustainability and value of meme coins continues as the sector continues to attract attention from investors and critics alike. The emergence of culture coins as a new trend within the meme coin sector highlights the potential for growth and innovation within the cryptocurrency market, as investors seek to capitalize on the values and identities of specific communities through meme coins.
