The year 2021 happened, and some people became instantly rich by the standards of their own past selves. Now it’s 2024, but neither the disruptive blockchain technology, nor the fair and secure idea of decentralising everything and everyone, nor the fair finance of DeFI has become the main driver of cryptocurrency. It’s worth acknowledging that for retail and even crowdfunders, it’s a nice frame and argument that the cryptocurrency market is a serious innovation and technology space.
Meanwhile, of the more than 70 major new projects in Silicon Valley related to AI, not a single one is related to blockchain. That’s a real reflection of the business interest in cryptocurrency.
It’s worth looking at the top 100 tokens by market capitalisation and what has driven most of the activity in layer 1 networks over the last two years, the reason why commissions have skyrocketed and gas fees have become obscene.
And everywhere you’ll see the same answer: meme coins and their derivatives (such as the Ordinals protocol).
Meme coins are the core idea of the cryptocurrency market. Ever since BTC raised, the core idea of the market has been to get rich fast.
This is what most people come to the market for. Let’s go back to the top 100 tokens by market cap, and 9 tokens in the top 100 are meme coins.
The capitalisation of all major meme coins today is ~$46 billion, and the capitalisation of all AI related tokens is ~$36, the entire GameFi sector is ~$16 billion.
Not so much in terms of capitalisation? But if we look at volumes. There are already 5 meme coins in the top 20 by trading volume.
If we go further and look at futures, there are consistently 4-5 meme-coins in the top 10 by futures trading volume. There is a constant rotation, one gets into the top 10 today, another tomorrow.
But the fact is that a huge amount of speculation is tied to them. And this story is not about holding, it is about getting rich fast.
It’s hard to admit, but the whole industry is saturated with Get Rich Fast.
All those pre-sales of obscure stuff, drops and Telegram tapping apps with possible freebies and meme coins that rise and fall based on the mood of the crowd.
The concept of ‘Get Rich Fast’ is essentially impossible to beat, it is the narrative of all casinos and bookmakers. You can sell any idea with such an offer, no one will ever look into what is behind this token and if it is important.
