Looking at the evolution of Meme from DOGE: from "joking the Internet" to Web3 trend

On November 12, 2024, Trump, who won the US presidential election, announced that he would establish the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) after taking office. The department will be headed by Elon Musk and Co-managed by Indian-born entrepreneur and former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, it aims to provide advice and guidance from outside the government, promote large-scale structural reforms, and create unprecedented ways of entrepreneurship in government .

Although this news is not directly related to encryption, because the abbreviation of the department "DOGE" has the same name as a digital asset supported by Elon Musk, it has pushed the market price of this digital asset (i.e. Dogecoin) to soar to the highest level in 2024. , and its market value reached its highest value recently on November 23, 2024. Compared with the market value the day before the announcement of the "Establishment of the Government Efficiency Department", the increase reached approximately 56%.

About Dogecoin

Dogecoin (DOGE) was developed and created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in December 2013. It was initially just a product to tease the BTC market. Its name comes from the English word "dog" misspelled on the Internet, and its image is based on the popular Shiba Inu emoticon Kabosu.

In 2021, thanks to Elon Musk's promotion on social platforms, the price of Dogecoin reached a historic peak. It once became a representative of Internet culture on social media platforms such as Reddit and Twitter, and led to the development of many similar products. Born, therefore, they are also given a common and interesting name called Meme Coins .

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Review the development history of Meme Coins

1.Origin ​

• 2013: Dogecoin becomes the first Meme Coin.

• 2014 ~ 2019: Meme Coins began to be active in the crypto community and were often used in scenarios such as rewards and donations.

2. detonate

• After 2020: With the growth of social media influence, Meme Coins have been supported and promoted by many opinion leaders on social media.

• 2021: Elon Musk frequently publicly expressed his support for Dogecoin on the Twitter platform, causing its price to skyrocket, finally officially detonating the trend of Meme Coins. At the same time, Meme Coins such as Shiba Inu have also risen rapidly, competing with Dogecoin.

3. Prosperity

• From 2022 to 2023, theme-based Meme Coins will appear at an accelerated pace (such as Baby Doge, Floki Inu, etc.) and begin to integrate with DeFi projects.

• Since 2024, with the launch of the Layer 2 project Base, Meme Coins has ushered in an era of prosperity. The market value of the new Meme Coins has grown extremely fast, almost increasing by more than a hundred times in less than half a year.

• Today, among the top ten Meme Coins by market capitalization, three were newly launched in 2024, such as Brett (BRETT), BOOK OF MEME (BOME) and DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (Runes) DOG. Among them, BRETT on the Base chain has performed particularly well, with its market value increasing more than 177 times since its release, becoming a new highlight in the Meme Coins market.

△ Popular Meme Coins

Image source: coingecko.com / Screenshot on December 19, 2024

Cultural Identity of Meme Coins

Meme is a trend culture whose essence emphasizes equal participation, self- expression, and wide dissemination. It is usually spread with cultural symbols such as interesting, imitative, or ironic pictures, videos, or emoticons. When Meme culture was introduced into the Web3 world, it echoed with the decentralized model and community enthusiasm of the Web3 world. A large number of personalized and interesting Meme Coins were born, and a unique decentralized cultural identity of Meme Coins was formed. Therefore, it was favored by users. Sought after, this cultural identity includes:

● Creativity and entertainment: For example, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu use cute images such as Shiba Inu to lower the psychological threshold through humorous packaging, making more people willing to try it.

● Decentralization and community creation: Meme Coins are usually combined with popular Internet culture, are highly creative, and can make holders feel more interesting and belonging than traditional digital assets.

● Low threshold for participation and collective resonance: Meme Coins have a low threshold for holding, but because they are often associated with specific events or cultural symbols, they can quickly arouse group resonance. Therefore, the market value soars rapidly and the community promotion power is strong.

The other side of Meme culture that we need to be wary of

Creativity, individuality, and humorous presentation are the essence of Meme culture. However, as a kind of trend culture, Meme culture also has common problems of trend culture, such as being superficial, amplifying prejudice, creating discrimination or misinformation. etc. questions.

As for Meme Coins, because they need to rely on trendy culture to release value, they are highly dependent on market sentiment, have greater market value volatility, and are more risky in speculation. If the popularity of the trendy culture on which it relies fades, Meme Coins will easily experience sharp rises and falls. For example, in 2021, the price of Meme Coins SQUID, which was themed after the popular Korean drama "Squidward Game", soared thousands of times in just a few days, but then the price instantly returned to zero, causing heavy losses to the holders.