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During this cycle, Memecoins, especially those based on Solana, became the leading narrative of the cryptocurrency market. These tokens have eclipsed investor attention and overshadowed the performance of many large-cap altcoins.
Some experts weighed in on the market's performance over the past year, discussing what made meme-based tokens the primary narrative of the cycle and what could be next for the industry.
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The value of Solana's 'interjective cultural currencies'
Qiao Wang, co-founder of Alliance DAO, x.com/QwQiao/status/1843253138259595371″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>shared his thoughts on the market dynamics that led to the main narrative of each cycle. In Post x, he noted that there is “an opportunity for retail to outperform professionals” in every cycle.
The alpha is for retail to get involved at a time when there is too much professional risk for professionals to get involved.
Retail investors outperformed professionals during the first cycle with “simply” bitcoin, Wang explained. In the second cycle, investors took advantage of the ethereum narrative, while decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (nft) became the main retail opportunities during the third.
Solana and “intersubjective cultural currencies,” as Wang called memecoins, have dominated the ongoing cycle. The popularity of meme-based tokens has often been criticized for their lack of utility and “substance”, frequently resulting in a “quick buck” for their creators and some early buyers.
However, Wang apparently suggests that the value of these tokens depends on the shared culture behind them, an argument that experts and industry figures have discussed before.
As NewsBTC reported, cryptocurrency traders Ansem and Kel debated the value of memecoins on the Unchained podcast. In the interview, the traders explained that memes and internet culture have value, making the comparison with other altcoins “useless.”
They added that the crypto community is “very internet-centric” as its members understand the financial aspect and are very knowledgeable about online culture. As such, cryptocurrency investors realized that there is an opportunity to “fund” meme virality in the industry.
Additionally, they noted that the “shared experience of relating” is another crucial factor driving the meme-based token craze, as seen in Solana-based memecoin communities like dogwifhat (WIF) and Popcat (POPCAT).
Memecoins 'absorbed' market energy
On Sunday, Chris Burniske, co-founder of Placeholder, also x.com/cburniske/status/1842979350104445242″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>took x to comment on the memecoin frenzy. For him, “the tendency of Memecoins to activate is all you have to look at to know that they will be bigger than we expect in the next expansion.”
In the post, Burniske revealed that he believes the “trend is clear,” as the cultural relevance that nft collections had in 2021 will be surpassed by some of the memecoin sensations of this cycle.
It is worth noting that, on October 7, the total market capitalization of Solana memecoins exceeded $10 billion, as SolanaFloor x.com/SolanaFloor/status/1843214623849562565″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>reported.
Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana x.com/aeyakovenko/status/1842986798265631096″ target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”>responded to Burniske, sharing his theory of why memecoins became the main narrative. Yakovenko considers that previous cycles “were also 90% memes and 10% products.”
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However, he suggests that today the sector has monopolized the energy that drove different narratives during other cycles: “My theory is that today's memecoins have completely absorbed the meme energy that drove other cycles, like the summer of DeFi,” said the co-founder of Solana.
Based on this, Yakovenko believes that products should now be “based solely on their value,” which could be a positive thing for the industry as a whole.
At the time of writing, Solana (SOL) is trading at $151, up 4% in the last 24 hours.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com
