The "local dog" in the cryptocurrency circle is celebrating with a 10,000-fold increase: on one hand, it gets rich, on the other hand, it goes to zero

In the cryptocurrency circle, there is a kind of weird virtual token project that is quite popular, and people usually call it "Tugou". These projects are generally anonymous, have little technical content, emphasize grassroots culture, and even say "tokens have no value". They have a strong meme gene, and the project logo is sometimes an emoticon package.

Dogecoin is the originator of this type of project. At first, people just thought it was fun and bought it. As more people bought it , a community was formed and a collective resonance was generated (recognition). Recently, the "Dogecoin" craze has come again. The PEPE coin, whose logo is taken from the famous Internet IP "Sad Frog", has suddenly become popular and has increased 270,000 times in half a month. After PEPE, a large number of "Dogecoin" meme coins appeared. Speculators experienced huge price fluctuations in fast in and out, and the thickness of their wallets also changed.

In the face of the myth of getting rich quickly, only a very small number of people are lucky. Looking back at each wave of meme digital currency craze in history, most projects ended up going to zero, and this round has already caused heavy losses for some people. In fact, the cost of issuing tokens on the chain is as low as 100 yuan, and even ChatGPT can be used to write software for batch issuance of tokens. The threshold for the sickle is getting lower and lower.

PEPE coin increased 270,000 times in half a month, and the "earth dog" became a "gold dog"

When it comes to the digital currency market, Bitcoin and Ethereum are the most well-known. The former is a "digital gold" with stronger asset attributes, while the latter, as the underlying network resource, has spawned a large number of blockchain applications.

What many people don’t know is that among the tens of thousands of digital cryptocurrencies, there is a special type of project, which is figuratively called “dog money” by people in the industry. As the name implies, this type of project has neither the support of a big technical team nor the favor of investment institutions. The labels attached to them are often “grassroots”, “copycat” and “scam”. This type of project has recently set off a wave of speculation in the currency circle. The typical representative is PEPE coin, which has doubled 270,000 times in half a month. I wrote it correctly, and you read it correctly. It’s not “times”, but “10,000 times”, and a small group of people made a lot of money because they bet on this “dog money”.

Strictly speaking, PEPE is a meme coin. "Meme" is an Internet culture that is popular in the same cultural atmosphere or copied and spread in a derivative way. It can be a popular phrase, such as "Your uncle is always your uncle" and "Oli Gei", or a popular emoticon package, such as the sad frog named "pepe" in the picture below. I believe you have seen it countless times when surfing the Internet. PEPE coin was born by capturing the globally popular meme element of the sad frog.

The sad frog Pepe that has become popular all over the Internet

As for why PEPE became popular in the cryptocurrency circle, no one can explain it clearly. It's just that this project appeared, some cryptocurrency celebrities started talking about it, some people bought it, the popularity increased, and more and more people bought it. As for value, the official website said that PEPE is completely useless and is only for entertainment. There is no formal team or project development roadmap, and it has no connection with the creator of Sad Frog. It is just a tribute to the meme that everyone likes and recognizes.

This is the typical feature of "Tugou". It doesn't matter who the initiator is. There is no roadmap. It blatantly emphasizes that "the value is 0", just like a joke. Public chain tokens can be used as network resources, and decentralized application tokens still have user voting functions, but the "Tugou Coin" project is useless and is only supported by popularity and entertainment. As a big V said, the reason for the surge in PEPE is very simple, that is, the popularity and emotions are in place.

PEPE's official statement is very entertaining and provocative. It says that it was created to make meme coins great again. It's time for the world's most famous emoticon to become the king of meme coins. Therefore, according to the data of the cryptocurrency data statistics platform Feixiaohao, since its launch on April 15, PEPE has risen 274,000 times, and its circulating market value has jumped from 0 to more than 1 billion US dollars.

PEPE coin official website introduction

On-chain analyst Yu Jin observed that a whale once spent $1.08 million to buy PEPE coins, and a few days later it rose to $16 million, and a "small goal" was easily achieved.

After PEPE coin became popular, its identity was also upgraded. According to people in the currency circle, the "local dog" became a "golden dog", attracting many "local dogs" to follow suit, including Hasaki (HAHA) coin, which was taken from the skill voice of "Yasuo" character in the "League of Legends" game, POGAI coin, which originated from the panda head spoof emoticon package, and WOJAK coin, which was derived from the familiar emoticon package of a frustrated bald man with forehead wrinkles.

This year's wave of speculation also coincided with the BRC-20 token standard developed by the Bitcoin network in March. Many projects began to issue meme coins on the Bitcoin network, providing a good excuse for this "local dog" speculation craze.

A meme project based on popular emoticons

For a time, in the context of a lack of new narratives in the cryptocurrency circle, a group of "local dogs" took the main stage, with their momentum far exceeding that of mainstream cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, leaving value investors confused.

The cost of issuing coins is as low as 100 yuan. After the craze, only "packaging" remains.

In the cryptocurrency world, there is a meme coin carnival almost every once in a while. Why the carnival? Because this is a speculative market where coins can increase by 100 times, 1,000 times, or even 10,000 times under the catalysis of emotions. It is full of legends of "getting rich overnight" and also inspires people's FOMO (fear of missing out) mentality.

Meme coins have even formed a sector. Dogecoin (DOGE) is recognized as the originator. It uses the cute Shiba Inu image as its logo. Its initial issuance started as a joke. It was created by two people, one is an Australian brand and marketing practitioner, and the other is an American programmer. The two met online in 2013 and hit it off on the idea of ​​creating a satire on Bitcoin and other copycat digital currencies. Dogecoin was born.

Because Dogecoin is not expensive, people in the community initially used it to tip each other and send red envelopes. Later, some people used it for charitable donations. In the following years, its popularity gradually increased, and a Dogecoin subculture was formed in the currency circle. Later, Tesla founder Elon Musk got involved and frequently published content about Dogecoin. In the end, the market value of this digital currency that started as a joke grew by more than $10 billion, ranking in the top ten of the cryptocurrency market value rankings.

Later, another Shiba Inu project Shiba (SHIB), known as the "Dogecoin killer", appeared. It was not satisfied with being just a meme coin, but also wanted to create decentralized cryptocurrency trading markets, metaverse and other applications. Under the cheering of early participants, people who missed Dogecoin began to join the "Shiba Corps", and the project suddenly became popular. Currently, SHIB's market value exceeds US$5.8 billion, ranking 16th in the crypto asset market rankings.

Why people are willing to buy "dog" meme coins that have no value is thought-provoking. Some big Vs in the circle believe that meme coins often represent grassroots culture and entertainment spirit, and are more likely to gain emotional recognition from retail investors, and emotional factors often drive prices up.

For example, in the last round of cryptocurrency bull market, a project called Loser Coin was born, and the abbreviation of the token was directly displayed as "LOWB". The "diaosi" feeling is not only reflected in the name. The creator of it wrote a short Chinese essay, claiming that he was a poor young man from a fourth-tier city in China. Because of the huge losses in cryptocurrency speculation, he felt that he was a loser, so he established Loser Coin with a zero-based mentality and offered the slogan "no support, no running away, and no responsibility". This "broken jar" attitude resonated with many retail investors in the cryptocurrency circle, and turned into purchasing power, and LOWB rose rapidly. After the heat faded, LOWB ended with a 99% drop.

Loser Coin's promotional poster at the time

Recently, a project called "Turbo" has also become popular. Its logo is a toad, and what attracts people's attention is the story circulating in the community: Turbo was initiated by an NFT artist, who was living in poverty due to the bad market. Recently, he thought of asking ChatGPT to help him do a blockchain project, including formulating the project name, logo, and deploying on-chain token contracts. With the help of ChatGPT, this artist with only $69 obtained financial support through crowdfunding. The project is thriving and has been recognized by his daughter. The initial success of the project finally gave him a valuable opportunity to move closer to his daughter's school. Some investors claim to be moved by this story and are ready to buy some tokens. According to Feixiaohao data, Turbo has risen 824% since its release.

After reading this, you can probably understand why meme coins are so popular. Compared with application-based tokens, storytelling and narrative speculation are the spiritual core of meme coins, but they only have a spiritual core. Looking back, every round of meme coin carnival in history will eventually turn into a "run fast" game. The other side of betting on the "golden dog" to get rich is to lose a lot of money and go back to zero.

In May 2021, after a surge in SHIB, countless meme coins emerged. Most of them were named after cute pet images such as Akita Dog, Pikachu, Pig, Ant, etc. They were all anonymous teams, had no long-term development plans, and many did not even have official websites. Under the FOMO sentiment, many investors rushed to these tokens, pushing up prices in a short period of time, but the crash came quickly. In less than a month, 99% of the "animal coins" were close to zero, reaping a lot of people who wanted to get rich quickly.

In this wave of meme coin craze, a large number of tokens have plummeted or are close to zero, including XIRTAM, ROPE, etc. According to statistics from chain analyst Yu Jin, a large crypto asset investor recently invested in 9 meme coins, 8 of which suffered heavy losses, and the only profitable one had a floating profit of only 13%.

In fact, the cost of issuing tokens on the chain is very low. Anyone can issue unlimited tokens by paying the chain and storage fees. The cost of issuing tokens is as low as about 100 yuan. Recently, someone has developed a batch issuance software through ChatGPT, issuing a large number of meme coins and creating an artificial intelligence "leek harvester". The threshold for issuing tokens is getting lower and lower.

Whether it is Dogecoin or SHIB, they are only a few projects left after the great waves, and the consensus of the crypto community has become their value support. Most of the "local dogs" ended up dead. After the popularity faded, only a "package" was left, which contained not the code of wealth, but the blood and tears of countless investors.