Many people are still waiting for an altcoin season, but memes are the main plays of this cycle.
If you don't embrace what the market is telling you, you'll still be waiting on the sidelines when the bull market ends.
Does this mean that altcoins are dead? No!
We are bullish on altcoins. They are crucial for making decentralisation a reality, and they'll get their day in the limelight.
But inasmuch as the 2024/25 bull run is concerned, there's only one question.
Do you want to be right or do you want to be rich?
Why you should read this report
- You will uncover why memecoins are the unexpected stars of the 2024/25 crypto bull run and how they are outshining traditional altcoins in every aspect.
- You will explore the fascinating origins and explosive growth of memecoins, from Dogecoin's humorous beginnings to the rise of third-generation tokens on new blockchain platforms.
- You will dive into the surprising utilities of memecoins and understand why their speculative nature can level the playing field for retail investors.
- You will understand the powerful cultural and community-driven forces behind memecoins, making them more than just a passing trend.
- You will learn why venture capitalists are flocking to memecoins and what this means for the future of these digital assets.
- You will discover the secrets to identifying high-potential memecoins and how to strategically position your investments for maximum gains.
Disclaimer: This is not financial or investment advice. You are responsible for any capital-related decisions you make, and only you are accountable for the results. "One Glance" by Cryptonary sometimes uses the RR trading tool to help you quickly understand our analysis. These are not signals, and they are not financial advice.
What is the memecoin supercycle?
The memecoin supercycle is a crypto bull market in which memecoins increasingly dominate the crypto market in terms of capitalisation, price performance and cultural impact.The concept of the memecoin supercycle is a whirlwind reshaping the crypto market as attention, viral content, and community engagement determine the flow of funds.
In this bull market, the memecoin segment is where you have the highest chance of making life-changing money.
No, we are not making it up. Winning the lottery can change your life, but the probability of winning a significant lottery prize is approximately 1 in 300 million. However, the chances of realising substantial gains from memecoins, though still a long shot, are estimated to be around 1 in 700, and the initial investment needed to make it happen is ridiculously low.
If you will make life-changing money from crypto with minimal investments today, it won't be BTC. The time to make life-changing money from BTC with minimal investments was ten years ago. Today, BTC is the foundational crypto asset where you store your wealth after making it in other parts of crypto.
However, the memecoin market is also where you can lose it all if you go in mindlessly, listen to paid shills, or let greed get the better part of you.
But the fact that you are reading this suggests that you want to give yourself the best shot at winning, and we will be here to guide you through the memecoin supercycle.
Historical background of memecoins
The origins: Dogecoin
Memecoins began in 2013 with Dogecoin, a memecoin created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke. Inspired by the "Doge" meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog, it was meant to satirise the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Despite its humorous origin, Dogecoin's value soared nearly 300% in 72 hours, and Dogecoin.com attracted over 1 million visitors in the first 30 days.
Second-generation memecoins
The launch of Ethereum in 2015 introduced smart contracts and the ERC-20 token standard. This development enabled the creation of custom tokens without the need to build a blockchain from scratch. As a result, new memecoins like Shiba Inu, Floki, SafeMoon, and Pepe emerged, predominantly on Ethereum, due to its dominance among smart contract platforms.
Third-generation memecoins
Ethereum's scalability issues led to the rise of alternative smart contract platforms such as Solana, Avalanche, and Binance Smart Chain (BSC). These new platforms attracted communities eager to compete with Ethereum technologically and socially. Consequently, new memecoins have emerged on these third-generation blockchains to serve as a form of social currency.
Utility vs speculation in memecoins
While critics will argue that memes lack utility and functionality, they are wrong – memes serve a different purpose, especially when considered against the backdrop of the Lottery effect, as discussed in our State of Memecoins report.The supposed distinction between "good" utility tokens and "bad" memecoins often hinges on their perceived inherent value and utility. However, this distinction is increasingly blurred for the following reasons:
1. Both memecoins and tech tokens can exhibit utility
Memecoins can develop utilities similar to traditional tokens, such as staking mechanisms, community building, and project-specific integrations.For instance, platforms like Sanctum allow users to stake SOL and earn memecoins through wifSOL, which automatically swaps SOL rewards for WIF every Solana epoch (2-3 days). Other memecoin projects like Bonk have developed DeFi integrations through dApps, such as Bonkbot, Bonkswap, BonkRewards, and OpenBonk.
2. The universal nature of speculation in crypto
Money is only money because we all accept that it is money. No token has inherent value, and all tokens function primarily as speculative instruments, suggesting that the distinction between memecoins and utility tokens is superficial.Memecoins are more transparent about their speculative nature, allowing a more level playing field than the opaque promises of tech-driven growth by traditional utility tokens.
3. Accessibility and fairness to retail investors
Many traditional utility tokens are structured in ways that do not favour retail buyers due to issues like low float/high FDV shenanigans and team/investor allocations. Memecoins, on the other hand, often present a more accessible and fair opportunity for retail investors, which can explain their demand despite the availability of technologically superior tokens.The best part is that memecoins play a significant role in fostering community engagement and cross-community interactions. For instance, Swaye's Memecoin Madness tournament leverages memecoins to unite communities, enhancing engagement and collaboration.
Memecoins are the shiny new coins
The 2017 bull market was the bull run for ICOs; 2021 was an extravaganza for NFTs; and 2024/2025 cycle is shaping up as the run for memecoins.The reason is simple. In every new crypto bull run, new shiny coins always replace older coins from the last cycle.
Let's look at the top 10 coins at the peak of the 2017 bull run.
2017's shiny new crypto coins
In 2017, the crypto market experienced a massive surge in interest and investment, with numerous coins emerging and promising to revolutionise various sectors.
At the peak of that bull run, coins like IOTA, NEM, and Stellar were hot and delivered outstanding returns. The narrative and novelty of these coins were exciting, and people were optimistic about the future of these projects.
While these showed great promise in 2017, they have struggled to keep up with the pace of innovation and have failed to deliver on their promises. This has led to a significant decline in investor's interest and the value of these coins.
As a result, only a few of them could maintain leading positions when the 2021 cycle rolled around.
2021's shiny new crypto coins
The snapshot below shows how the crypto market's makeup evolved between 2017 and 2021, with new players challenging the established order.
While Bitcoin, Ethereum, Cardano, and XRP managed to maintain prominence, other coins from the previous cycle, like Dash and Bitcoin Cash, have seen their positions challenged by newer, more innovative projects.
Solana, for instance, has garnered significant attention due to its high-performance blockchain, which can process thousands of transactions per second. Its innovative technology has attracted developers and investors, positioning it as a potential competitor to Ethereum.
BNB, the native token of the Binance exchange, has also risen to prominence. As the world's largest centralised exchange, Binance has a massive user base, which has helped to drive up the value of BNB.
2021 also laid the foundation for memecoins as a rewarding sub-culture in crypto as Dogecoin broke into the top 10 positions. Once seen as a joke, Dogecoin has become a serious contender, and endorsements from high-profile figures like Elon Musk boosted its popularity.
Long story short, many shiny new coins from the previous cycle that failed to deliver on their promises will be replaced by new, more compelling coins.
2024's shiny new crypto coins
Similarly, we have the same market dynamics during this cycle. Older coins are struggling, and new narratives are emerging.While the previous cycle was dominated by DeFi, NFTs, and major altcoins, we confidently refer to this bull run as the "memecoin supercycle."
So far, we have observed capital rotating from Bitcoin to large-cap altcoins like Solana and then to memecoins, with a final rotation and settlement into Bitcoin. We predicted this emerging trend accurately in December 2023.
We called WIF in our community channels at $0.004 on December 14 and wrote about it on December 15. If you were in the Cryptonary community and bought WIF when we called it on Discord, you would have made a 120,650% gain at its ATH of $4.83 on March 31.
We called POPCAT at $0.003 in our community channels on December 19 and wrote about it on December 22. If you were in the Cryptonary community and bought POPCAT when we called it on Discord, you would have made a 33,233% gain at its ATH of $1 on July 21.
Memecoins are the main coins of this cycle; don't fumble the bag!
Why memecoins are more than just a fad
We have already established that memecoins are the main plays of this bull run, but we understand that many people are still hesitant to participate in memecoin investing. The main reason for this hesitation is the prevailing idea that memecoins are a fad. However, such a position fails to factor in the realities of the catalyst behind the memecoin supercycle.1. Memecoins as a cultural phenomenon
Memecoins can be seen as a manifestation of internet-native culture, injecting entertainment and financialisation into digital communities. This cultural utility allows memecoins to flourish, enabling unique forms of community interaction and engagement, distinct from traditional financial instruments. The value of memecoins lies in their ability to foster a certain type of online culture that is both engaging and financially stimulating.2. The rise of multicycle memecoins
Memecoins often start as jokes or social experiments but can evolve into substantial financial instruments with a dedicated user base. One significant development that underscores the lasting nature of memecoins is the rise of multicycle memecoins. Unlike short-lived trends, these tokens have demonstrated resilience and the ability to maintain relevance across multiple market cycles. Dogecoin (DOGE) is a prime example, having survived several market booms and busts since its inception in 2013.3. VC interest in memecoins
Two months ago, we published our organic memecons vs. corporate memecoins report, highlighting VCs' involvement in memecoins. While that report focused on calling out VCs to act as cabals who use retail investors for exit liquidity, it also shows VCs' growing interest and participation in the memecoin market.VCs are smart money; their goal is to profit; we dare say they don't care much about the tech. And if VCs who are supposed to be serious-minded people are getting involved in memecoins, that's enough reason to take memecoins seriously.
The increasing involvement of VCs in the memecoin already legitimises their status beyond mere fads. VCs traditionally invest in projects with significant growth potential and long-term viability. The entrance of these investors into the memecoin market signifies a recognition of the unique value these tokens bring to the table.
Recent discussions among industry leaders, such as the contrasting views of A16z's CTO Eddy Lazzarin and Chris Dixon, highlight the complex dynamics at play.
Three reasons the 24/25 bull run is a Memecoin Supercycle
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Memecoins are the fastest-growing narrative
In crypto, attention and interest are crucial factors that drive investment decisions. Narratives capture the imagination of investors, drawing their attention and encouraging them to invest. The trio of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), media and social media influence and network effects are working together to accelerate the mindshare that memecoins have in the market. As more investors buy into a narrative, the coin's visibility and credibility increase, attracting even more investors and creating a positive feedback loop.
Sentiment analysis shows us that memecoins, as a narrative, have been gaining traction over the last 12 months.
Twelve months ago, DeFi was the most prominent crypto narrative, with 24.96% mindshare, while memecoins came a distant 5th with only 6.94%.
Today, memecoins have overtaken DeFi, accounting for 11.57% of the crypto mindshare. It only comes second to the ETF narrative, and the explanation for that is based on the outsized influence and dominance that Bitcoin (in this case, Bitcoin ETFs) has on the market, as well as the recently launched Ethereum ETF and the rumours of a Solana ETF.
And no, the growing popularity of memecoins among the top 10 narratives is not a fluke.
Over the last 12 months, memecoins as a narrative have been trending up, AI has a narrative that has mostly stayed flat, and DeFi has been trending down. Other narratives, such as GameFi, L2s, and LSDs, are in the red.
In the last six months, memecoins have been among the top four positive narratives among the top 10 narratives in the market. Again, the ETF narrative has stayed flat, DeFi is trending down, and memecoins are trending up.
However, the last three months show the accelerated traction of the memecoin narrative, which is among the top 10 crypto narratives. The chart below shows that only DeFi and memcoins have gained mindshare in the last three months. And while DeFi seems to have more significant mindshare than memecoins, it is trending down.
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Impact of rising global liquidity
We saw an increase in liquidity in Q4 of 2023, which helped to push crypto substantially higher. This was also helped and fuelled by the Bitcoin ETF narrative and the fact that prices were recovering from a long and drawn-out bear market.
Liquidity began declining in mid-Q1 2024, which led to a price peak in crypto not long after. Since then, the majors have stayed range-bound, but riskier crypto assets (alts and memes) have struggled - bar a few bluechip memes.
However, US Net Liquidity is increasing again and has recently turned positive over a 90-day change. The effects of this should be felt in markets in the months to come, meaning there is likely to be a shift to riskier assets (alts and memes), assuming we continue to see liquidity conditions improve, which we expect we will.
Therefore, alts and memes may have room to outperform in the months ahead. Because of the relationship between liquidity and market depth, coins associated with popular narratives tend to have higher liquidity and market depth, making them more attractive to retail and institutional investors.
And as we've established that memecoins are the winning narrative, you can reasonably expect them to benefit from an uptick in crypto liquidity.
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Ease of retail participation
For starters, buying and selling crypto is now much easier than it was at any time in the previous bull runs. However, the App Store and Playstore are filled with apps through which people can trade crypto. Many of these apps even allow users to buy crypto using traditional fiat on-ramps.
Beyond mobile apps, the rise of Telegram trading bots like BonkBot and Unibot and other sniping bots have also made it easier for retail participants to buy memecoins.
However, perhaps the most significant trend hinting at an upcoming retail boom is the presence of how-to-buy memecoin content on TikTok, with some of them getting over 300k views.
Before now, crypto investment used to have a pseudo-intellectual framing because users needed to read through whitepapers and tech papers to understand stuff like "consensus mechanisms" and "zero-knowledge proofs". The conversations happened on "serious-minded" gated forums, subreddits, and Discord (with its complicated UI).
Only recently did Crypto Twitter emerge, but we are now seeing that the democratisation of information extends to seemingly flippant platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
Top crypto memes vs other narratives
Narratives matter in crypto because they inform momentum, and momentum drives price action. Comparing the market cap of the top 10 crypto memes YTD with the top 10 biggest coins in market cap from different narratives, here is what we got:
Memecoins vs AI
Since last year, AI has been one of the most powerful narratives and should continue to be relevant in the coming years.
The market cap for the top 10 AI coins currently sits at $12.43B, down from its year-high of more than $20B at the beginning of March. On the other hand, the market cap for the top 10 memecoins currently sits at $42.95B. This shows that, even with all the hype around AI coins, the top 10 memes market cap is roughly 3.5x bigger than the top 10 AI coins.
Comparing the volume of the top 10 coins on these narratives shows a similar picture. USD volume of the top 10 AI coins is currently at $270M, from an all-time high of almost $4B in March. That's about 8x less than the current top 10 memecoins volume, which reached $2.2B on July 25.
And how about price action?
AI coins show a bittersweet return. AIOZ is an outlier, with an almost 200% return. Other coins, like GLM, TFUEL, RENDER, and AKT, are returning around 30% this year. Two out of the ten biggest AI coins are currently negative this year.
When we analysed the return of the top 10 memecoins, it shows that all of them are returning positive, with 6 returning at least 500% this year. POPCAT returned more than 9,000%, and MOG, more than 3,600%.
Memecoins vs DePIN
Another massive narrative in 2023, DePIN, brings the promise of decentralisation to physical infrastructures. But how does this narrative compare with memecoins?The top 10 biggest DePIN coins have a market cap of $17.7B, down from its all-time high of more than $30B in March. Although this is impressive, it's still less than half of the current market cap of the top 10 memecoins ($42.95B).
Top DePIN coins have a volume of $293M, way less than the current volume of more than $2.2B for the top 10 memecoins.
And what about returns?
Top 10 DePIN coins delivered great returns on AR and AIOZ. However, 3 out of the ten are currently negative, which is way worse than the returns of the top 10 memecoins and their returns.
Memecoins vs DeFi
DeFi, one of the most traditional narratives in crypto, had great years from 2017 to 2020. However, other narratives are overtaking it.
The top 10 DeFi coins currently have a market cap of $28.46B, almost $20 billion less than the top 10 memecoins. Top DeFi volume, although bigger than DePIN and AI combined, is still about 2x smaller than top memecoins volume.
And on returns, things don't look good for DeFi coins. Among the top 10, 6 have negative returns in 2024. Even among the positive ones, returns are not great, with MAKER leading with 62.29%, which is way less than the returns of some of the biggest memecoins.
Memecoins were not here before. And now they are dominating.
Among the top 10 biggest memecoins in the market today, only three (DOGE, BONK, and SHIB) existed in January 2023. And only two (DOGE and SHIB) existed in 2021. This shows how memecoins became one of the most powerful narratives in crypto.
The top 10 coins in the memecoin narrative are outperforming the top 10 coins in traditional narratives (like DeFi) and more recent ones (like AI and DePIN) in many relevant metrics, like market cap, volume, and price growth.
How to participate in the memecoin supercycle
There are thousands of memecoins in the market, and thousands more will be launched, especially with the low barriers to creating a memecoin on platforms like pump.fun.While it might be tempting to buy new low mcap memecoins, we believe that the winners for this cycle are already established. Inasmuch as memecoin investing is concerned, your allocations should be in OG memecoins and 2024/25 bluechip memes.
Regarding newer memecoins, you should be playing them as moonshot bets, where you make short-term trades to build up a larger bag of our high-conviction memecoin picks.
Leverage Cryptonary
We've been actively telling our members to explore opportunities in the memecoin sector and have had some incredible wins.We called WIF in our community channels at $0.004 on December 14 and wrote about it on December 15. If you were in the Cryptonary community and bought WIF when we called it on Discord, you would have made a 120,650% gain at its ATH of $4.83 on March 31.
We called POPCAT at $0.003 in our community channels on December 19 and wrote about it on December 22. If you were in the Cryptonary community and bought POPCAT when we called it on Discord, you would have made a 33,233% gain at its ATH of $1 on July 21.
We've also covered PolitiFi coins and NationFi coins, noting that many of the latter lack the potential to be long-term winners.
While we love the Solana ecosystem, we've also covered memecoins on Bitcoin and memecoins on Avalanche, among others.
We've also published a Memecoin Masterclass, addressed the emergence of cabal coins, and published a State of the Memecoin Market report.
Cryptonary's take
However, contrary to the winner-takes-all mentality of many people in the memecoin market, we don't think there'll be just one dog or cat coin to rule them all.This is why it is the memecoin supercycle!
This is your opportunity to make life-changing money. All you need to do is to know who the winners are, build a firm conviction in them, and then size your bets based on that conviction and give your bags the breathing space to moon! WAGMI
Over the next few months, we will dive into our high-conviction memecoins and discover how big they can get.
Future topics in the memecoin supercycle series
- WIF's journey to $100: how is that even possible?
- How big can cat coins get? $1 is barely scratching the surface
- OG memecoin will reclaim its all-time high and then some more
- Not a cat or dog, but don't underestimate this memecoin
- This memecoin has found the sweet spot between virality and utility
Cryptonary, OUT!
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