What's Special About "THE" That Surged on a Joke from Vitalik?
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What's Special About "THE" That Surged on a Joke from Vitalik?
When things always appear in the form of jokes, people also tend to respond with a speculative attitude.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights
By Professor Zhou, TechFlow
There is nothing new under the sun.
In crypto markets, when things keep emerging as jokes, people have grown accustomed to responding with speculation.
Take APTOS, for instance — its economic model was initially seen as laughable, but once paired with generous airdrop plans, public sentiment swiftly shifted from "ridiculous" to "actually amazing."
Meanwhile, after Vitalik Buterin made a joke in English about the word "The," a new project called "THE Protocol" surged over tenfold within two days.
This scene recalls last year’s bull-market spectacle: “Musk and Doge.” Yes, the world’s richest man had rockets — and Doge rode to the skies.
Now, as we drift into a bear market, a new tale unfolds: “Vitalik and THE.”
The difference? Musk actively referenced Doge in his posts, while Vitalik may have been just a passerby with a single line.
Yet that one line sparked a frenzy among many.
Through bull and bear cycles, speculation may always be about sentiment — not right or wrong. How did this new meme “THE” come about, and can it stay hot?
Vitalik’s Joke
It all started five days ago with a post by Vitalik.
Late at night, he made a slightly sarcastic remark:
"I think someone should create a protocol called 'THE,' so that shillers can say, 'Look how many people are mentioning THE!' No matter what anyone says, the word 'the' will always appear frequently."
As mentioned earlier, when things emerge as jokes, people respond with speculation.
True to Vitalik’s words, a protocol named “THE” quietly launched three days later.
At the time of writing, dextools data shows the token associated with the protocol — $THE — has surged over tenfold.
Even with such explosive growth, there are still two zeros after the decimal point in its price.
Sharp-eyed observers might immediately recall the “zero-stripping” trend among animal-themed memecoins last year, where during bull runs, many memecoins lost a zero behind the decimal within days.
Vitalik’s joke about “THE” now seems to be evolving into an actual meme.
Responding to a Joke with a Meme
Under normal social or online debate logic, when a public figure criticizes something sarcastically, the criticized party either argues back or stays silent. But in this space, people don’t feel embarrassed being mocked by a big name — instead, they happily respond with memes.
Following the launch of THE Protocol, Twitter chatter around $THE rapidly increased. The project quickly created an official social media account: no fancy website, no complex whitepaper — just joyful acceptance and self-amusement.
In its description, THE openly states, “Vitalik gave this project life.” Whenever celebrities mention the word “THE” on social media, the protocol cheerfully adopts it as endorsement, playing along convincingly.
For example, when the U.S. president posted about soaring oil prices — naturally including the word “THE” — the protocol immediately shared it with the comment: “Look, Grandpa Biden mentioned THE pump!” (where “the pump” actually refers to rising oil prices).
Though the pun of turning a pronoun into a noun is old, THE’s self-entertainment, combined with Vitalik’s influence, has amplified its reach.
Given how frequently “the” appears in English, whenever Vitalik used it in another post, the comments lit up with excitement — every reply pointed to the $THE token.
Eventually waking up to this, Vitalik seemed to realize: a simple joke had ignited a full-blown meme frenzy.
We cannot predict what the next big meme inside crypto will be, who will spark it, or how long it will last. But one thing is clear — a distinct and inevitable web3 propagation pattern:
Key figure → Topic buzz → Tokenization of topic (symbol) → Speculation on token → Rising attention → Topic expansion → Further attention → More key figures join → Next cycle…
Narrative is crucial in this world. While top-tier projects often involve narratives pushed top-down by elite tech teams and VCs, memes represent bottom-up storytelling: chaotic, fearless, and everywhere.
How long the story lasts is another matter. In the last animal-themed coin cycle, only the “dog-shit” combo survived. This time, will we see spin-offs like “A” or “An”?
Regardless, speculation and entertainment around memes continue.
The Smell of Money in the Joke
When joining THE’s community, bots frequently announce that whales are buying large amounts of $THE — signaling bullish news.
Beyond the surface-level irrational exuberance and standard playbook, let’s examine THE’s real metrics. According to Watchers’ analytics, $THE has only been live for two days, with roughly 4,000 unique holder addresses.
However, note that THE has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, and over 740 entities already hold more than 0.1% of the supply. Assuming one entity corresponds to one address, large holders make up nearly 20%. Given that one entity may control multiple addresses, the concentration of holdings is likely even higher.
Further analysis reveals that the largest holder of $THE is none other than Vitalik himself — due to the protocol directly sending a large amount to his wallet, since the entire phenomenon originated from his joke.
It’s not the first time a meme has sent money to Vitalik — Shiba Inu did the same in the last cycle. As we know, Vitalik later donated those tokens to charity.
Among the top holders, many have previously held other memes — various Doge variants, for example. Taken together, THE holders are typical degens, well-versed in meme dynamics and far more sensitive than average users.
When a meme captures the masses, only a few may truly profit from it.
Additionally, one top holder owning nearly 3‰ of THE is tagged in historical records as linked to victims of the Multichain hack. This serves as a reminder:
Meme tokens in early stages may also be playgrounds for gamblers and hackers. Virality brings traffic, and when survival instincts and skills help them sniff out profits, could you fall into traps due to poor contract handling or clicking phishing links?
Conclusion
ETH and THE look similar, just with letters swapped. Ironically:
ETH originated from Vitalik. THE originated from Vitalik’s joke.
On etymology, here’s a little-known fact: the word “THE” traces back to the ancient Greek “thoes,” carrying a root meaning of “god.”
In today’s story of THE Protocol, we acknowledge its accidental rise as a meme, but chasing overnight riches via memes remains elusive.
When gods are often associated with heavenly images, let’s hope that in the midst of speculation, neither you nor I end up falling into hell.
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