Memes coin is more than just speculation! Experts reveal 5 major applications, but still need to be careful drop to zero

Meme coins are not useless: they circumvent securities laws, don't generate profits for investors, and are also very interesting.

Memes are the essence of cryptocurrency: social trends, satirical humor, and the temptation of absurd profits, all wrapped up in a token with no real function. They may not be for Warren Buffett, but they are for the masses seeking fun, community, and an escape from their marginal environments in a lottery-like manner.

"Meme is a leading indicator," said Danny Yang, founder of OnChainMonkey, referring to the crazy returns relative to other indicators. Meme coins gamify the investment process, attracting investors to follow intangible trends from election results or join the latest coin issuance within 10 minutes of the arrest of the suspect in the UnitedHealthcare CEO shooting. This is very similar to the style of 4Chan.

Building communities, social connections, and enjoying fun are all part of the appeal of meme coins. "Humans are social creatures, and memes are about people finding entertainment in the same thing," Yang said.

Memes themselves are not important. This is a social game that requires a large number of players, and the judgment of memes is based on how many people may want to participate in this game.

But apart from the foolish fun and money-making opportunities, what is the real application of useless meme coins?

Image source: cointelegraph$PNUT is suppressed, but it becomes stronger as a meme coin. (Musk, X)

Application 1: Circumventing US Securities Laws

First of all, let's clarify one thing - the uselessness of meme coins is a special kind of application in itself. They bypass the US securities regulations that suppress the ICO frenzy. In addition, meme coins are not covered by the expanded cryptographic powers proposed by the Australian Securities and Investment Commission. Why is that? Because they do nothing.

"In fact, issuing a meme coin without a use is safer than issuing a useful token today," wrote Chris Dixon, managing partner of a16z Crypto.

The US Securities Act focuses on the Howey Test to determine what constitutes an investment contract. Meme coins only represent a concept and do not promise any return based on the efforts of others, so they are not bound by this test. This regulatory friendliness has allowed meme coins to spread like wildfire during the crypto boom period (2022-2024).

Meme coin is the biggest cryptocurrency narrative of 2024, accounting for 14.3% of CoinGecko's market share in the second quarter. Now, with Trump becoming the president-elect, it is expected that the new chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Paul Atkins, may allow 'genuine' projects to raise funds again through a proposal similar to Hester Peirce's 2020 'safe harbor.' Will they gradually disappear?

Application 2: Political Speculation

In a world where people use technology to create social ties to their past experiences, meme coins allow holders to participate in and capture the political zeitgeist. Meme coins have been created to support and oppose candidates in the US presidential election.

Image Source: cointelegraph Meme Coin is for everyone, including Gary Gensler. (X)

Argentine liberal president Javier Milei also has a meme coin dedicated to his reforms. The social utility of allowing people to express political views in a monetary manner can be seen as parallel to the text donation efforts running in major campaign activities.

However, social engagement or utility should be better understood as capturing the 'spirit of the times', according to Daniel Drescher, VP of Business Development at Sal'Ad Labs, who cited Trump's new friend and future head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Musk, as a typical example in an interview with Magazine.

"How does Dogecoin become the gold standard in this uncertain Web3 industry? They have perhaps the most powerful KOL or key opinion leader in history - the richest and undefeated person in the world, Musk. He is the inspiration behind Iron Man. For fans of Ayn Rand, he is the god-like John Galt who created an engine powerful enough to light up the whole world."

Drescher tends to see meme coins as 'brand coins'. Typically, they need a key opinion leader or a figure to drive the coin. Successful meme coins have 'fanatical followers who live and die for it. This makes them get up every morning.'

The analog of the spirit of the times has resonated. For example, when then-presidential candidate Joe Biden stumbled on the stairs, Kamala Harris' memes surged and were subsequently removed by the Democratic Party as their nominee.

Image source: Political meme coins are popular on CoinMarketCap.

Application 3: Charity Trojan Horse

Meme coin can serve as a Trojan horse for more meaningful projects, such as fundraising for charity, launching casinos like Iggy Azalea's Motherland, or launching exchanges like ShibaSwap.

As Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin - a person known for donating meme coins to charity - wrote:

"Among the coins I have seen, what's more interesting is that most of the token supply (or some ongoing fee mechanism) is dedicated to some kind of charity."

I feel there is an unoccupied opportunity here to try and create something more positive and enduring.

The meme coin $NEIRO from the Neiro Foundation is trying to rise by integrating practicality and speculation, becoming the next Dogecoin.

The question is, who is the Trojan horse? Is it for charity or speculative rise?

The meme coin is named Neiro, which is a rescued Shiba Inu adopted by Atsuko Sato, the owner of the original 'Doge' Kabosu.

Image source: imgflip.com Doge vs Neiro. (X)

The Neiro Foundation is a collective effort aimed at providing funding for the rescue and well-being work of Shiba Inu dogs worldwide, providing necessary resources and financial support to dog shelters and charities that improve the lives of Shiba Inu. This breed is prone to several common health issues, including hip dysplasia, glaucoma and cataracts, as well as progressive retinal atrophy.

SlumDOGE Millionaire gained public recognition after turning $180,000 into over 3 million Dogecoins, a process documented in the documentary 'This Not Financial Advice.' He is now a spokesperson for the currency, stating, 'Despite the growing popularity of meme coins, many critics overlook the clear, positive missions of some meme coins.'

In addition to viral humor, some meme coins support charitable initiatives, thus gaining fervent community support. The best meme coins all have a strong narrative foundation, resonating with an increasing number of socially conscious Web3 users, while demonstrating the immense potential for DeFi to drive charitable causes.

Application 4: Funding the activation of AI agents

AI agents have great practical potential. Imagine an AI agent that can automatically rebalance your cryptocurrency investment portfolio, so that profits are automatically transferred to high-quality coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and $SOL, avoiding holding 90% of garbage coins.

Source: cointelegraph Sometimes, it is difficult to distinguish between robots and humans. (X)

It seems that one day, AI agents may actually guide autonomous DAOs. But for now, they are highly concentrated at the endpoints of meme coin bot trading. Bots like Truth Terminal interact with users on the X platform, create artificial hype, drive community engagement, and promote the purchase of meme coins.

Take a look at Fartcoin, an AI-inspired meme coin that skyrocketed to a market value of 900 million dollars by following the 'invariable comedy rule of rising hot air.' It is rapidly catching up to another meme coin promoted by Truth Terminal, $GOAT.

The very concept of autonomous AI agents launching the entire idea of memecoins is a meme in itself, as many 'AI agents' are just disguised humans, $GOAT is human-made. However, the real growth in the number of agents highlights its potential.

Calanthia Mei, co-founder of Masa, said, "There is a huge difference between intelligent AI agent memecoins and stupid meme coins." Mei, who was previously a founding member of PayPal's venture capital division, spoke about the "perception of memecoins" — she was referring to the intersection of AI and menets, where AI agents perform tasks such as making transactions.

In addition to making money, the side effect of meme coins is to make technology cool. They shine a spotlight on technology that only a small number of people care about.

Meme Coin is helping to fund and launch agents on the Virtuals Protocol, AI agents can interact with token economic design through programming. It also allows for codeless AI agent construction, tokenization, deployment, and more complex design.

Mei's company Masa is a 'decentralized data miner network' that provides real-time data to support the use of Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and relies on context-aware AI agents based on pre-planned prompts for 'emotional intelligence'. These agents can learn new things in real time and gain new memories, she told 'Magazine'.

Therefore, in this case, these RAG-based AI agents are equipped with dynamic data retrieval, emotional intelligence, and memory capabilities, enabling them to have context awareness and adaptability in real time.

Image source: XMei believes that AI agents are the unstoppable application of trading.

Mei is confident that memes will accelerate the experimental connection between AI and encryption. Since the emergence of the $GOAT story, she has received "three times as many inquiries about AI agent development in the past few weeks as before."

Think about it - the smart AI proxy meme coin created on Crypto Twitter, which is the home of market sentiment in the crypto market. This is almost an unstoppable investment argument.

Application 5: Fair Launch Tokens to Avoid Retail Investors Being Exploited by Venture Capitalists

Retail cryptocurrency investors have been taken advantage of by venture capitalists for years. These investors entered early and purchased a large supply of tokens at a price far below the eventual market price. This resulted in ridiculously high valuations after complete dilution, and retail investors missed out when venture capitalists sold off the tokens. It's no wonder that users burned by unfair token economics turned to meme coins, which can - although not always - be launched fairly.

"Mei from Masa said that for some projects, meme coins provide much-needed funding for developing their technology, escaping the cold risk investment market and Web3 echo chamber."

In Murad Mahmudov's viral Supercycle speech at Token2049, he believes that fully unlocked meme coins mean tokenized memes are actual products. No venture capitalists, no lock-up period. Because it has no income and cannot be priced as an asset, this has become an advantage instead.

Ultimately, meme coins are useful for a new type of financing tool, said Zhen Yu Yong, CEO of Web3Auth, a white-label wallet company that builds wallets for Trust Wallet and many Fortune 500 companies with 20 million monthly users.

Of course, most meme coins will fail. But now, you can launch a tokenized project without market makers, with a chance of success, and without the interference of risk investors and back-end equity trading.

The lack of support from venture capitalists for most meme coins is clearly part of the retail appeal. Those veterans who missed Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other major currency in 2010 can get rich immediately without the risk of venture capitalists messing up the pre-seed round. This is an ideological investment argument - the dream of veterans.

In short, Meme coin is like the ICO cartoon version without the assumption that someone might try to build and launch the product.

Image source: cointelegraphICO The most accurate memes of the ICO era. (LinkedIn)

Disclaimer: This article does not constitute investment advice. Users should consider whether any opinions, viewpoints, or conclusions in this article are applicable to their specific circumstances and comply with relevant laws and regulations in their country and region.

This article is authorized to be reprinted from: "MarsBit"

Original Author: Max Parasol

The 'memetic currency' is more than just speculation! Experts reveal 5 major applications, but still need to be careful about returning to zero. This article was first published in 'Crypto City'