What's trending now in meme culture? The玩法 keeps evolving again and again.

2024.09.27

What's trending now in meme culture? The玩法 keeps evolving again and again.

On a macro level, with the 50 bp rate cut confirmed, the market is expected to regain liquidity. The combination of these two positive factors could unleash a new wave of meme-driven momentum.

2024.09.27 - 07:32:01

Meme

Navigating Web3 tides with focused insights

On a macro level, with the 50 bp rate cut confirmed, the market is expected to regain liquidity. The combination of these two positive factors could unleash a new wave of meme-driven momentum.

Author: WOO X Research

Background

This cycle's meme frenzy was ignited by $BOME, with Pump Fun adding fuel to the fire. However, Pump Fun’s feature allowing anyone to launch tokens significantly flattens differentiation among meme coins, while also drawing in a large number of participants through simple mechanics.

With increased competition and golden dogs becoming harder to find, the most striking example is that during the BOME era, a golden dog could aspire to reach a market cap of $500 million, whereas on Pump Fun, hitting $50 million already qualifies as a one-in-ten-thousand miracle.

The declining meme coin trading volume on Solana serves as strong evidence of this shift.

Reference: @Syndica_io

Has the meme trend ended? Not at all—it has evolved

The latest wave began with Neiro, the new dog adopted by Doge’s owner. Naturally, on-chain players seized the opportunity, leading to both uppercase NEIRO and lowercase Neiro appearing in the market. As everyone knows, Binance eventually listed the lowercase Neiro spot pair, pushing its market cap close to $500 million. Combined with the macro environment—confirmed 50 basis point rate cuts signaling improved market liquidity—these dual catalysts have sparked a fresh wave of meme activity.

So, which meme coins are currently trending in the market? Let WOO X Research guide you through them!

Zoo Chaos: Web2 Keyword-Driven Narrative Hype

MOODENG:

Built on Solana, MOODENG features a pygmy hippo from a Thai zoo. Its adorable image quickly went viral in the Web2 world, generating $360,000 in revenue for the zoo within three weeks and attracting over 80,000 visitors. The zoo even launched a 24/7 live stream for MOODENG. Even X (formerly Twitter) officially posted about it, highlighting MOODENG’s peak popularity in Web2.

MOODENG carried this Web2 momentum into Web3. On September 10, a namesake token appeared on Solana. By the next day, its market cap was just $500,000. As the real-world baby hippo continued gaining fame, the token price steadily climbed. On September 25, OKX shared a photo related to MOODENG on Twitter, hinting at a potential listing. At that moment, the market cap surged from $80 million to $100 million.

Currently, the market cap stands around $120 million—over 100x growth in less than a month.

PESTO:

Also built on Solana, PESTO is a penguin from Melbourne’s aquarium. Like MOODENG, PESTO gained popularity due to its unique appearance compared to others of its species. Unlike typical black-and-white penguins, PESTO has brown feathers and is taller and heavier than its parents—making it the heaviest penguin in Melbourne Aquarium’s history.

Its fame attracted coverage from major international outlets like BBC and CNN, and even pop star Katy Perry counts herself among PESTO’s fans.

East has MOODENG, West has PESTO

In terms of price performance, PESTO was created on September 18—later than MOODENG—and started from around a $1 million market cap. It now holds a market cap of approximately $20 million, achieving a 20x increase.

How to play the zoo meme trend going forward?

Zoo-themed meme coins mostly appear on the SOLANA chain.
Use Web2 traffic tools like Google Trends to identify recently viral animals that haven’t yet spawned a token. Exposure isn't limited to traditional media; monitor social platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. For example, OMOCHI, a frog网红 on TikTok, saw over $11.5 million in trading volume within just three hours of launching.

Musk-Themed Memes

TERMINUS

Built on ETH, TERMINUS draws its concept from Elon Musk’s idea of a “Mars City.” This originates from a February 2020 tweet where Musk said: “Mars is to Earth, as Terminus was to Trantor,” meaning Mars relates to Earth much like Terminus relates to Trantor.

Trantor is the capital planet in Isaac Asimov’s *Foundation* trilogy. Many speculate that Musk intends to name the first Martian city Terminus.

Honestly, the meme narrative here isn’t particularly compelling—the ticker "Terminus" is complex and unintuitive, and the reference stems from an old tweet with fading relevance. However, note that @liping007, an early SHIB investor, bought a total of 1.5 ETH worth when the market cap was ~$160k and ~$460k, then added 22 ETH in liquidity on September 24.

He has also actively promoted TERMINUS on Twitter, influencing many Chinese-speaking KOLs and users like 0xSun to follow suit.

This meme coin is largely driven by Chinese-speaking communities—a fact evident in trading patterns. Trading volume drops sharply between 00:00–08:00 UTC+8, clearly indicating regional dominance.

TERMINUS started from a market cap of about $500,000 and now sits near $40 million—an 80x surge.

MARS

Conceptually similar to TERMINUS, MARS launched on September 25 with the same Mars theme. However, the ticker is simpler and more direct, enhancing its virality.

It opened with a market cap of ~$1 million, peaked at $18 million, and currently holds a market cap of around $8 million.

How to play Musk-themed memes going forward?

Musk-related memes mostly appear on ETH.
The Mars narrative was initiated by TERMINUS, making its price action a key indicator. If it breaks below its previous low of $25 million market cap, the meme cycle may be over.

SUI Ecosystem Memes

Recently, SUI has surged—its token price rising from $0.76 to a high of $1.80 in September, a 126% increase—drawing significant market attention and creating a wealth effect.

Crypto users who missed buying SUI may now seek beta exposure via meme coins within the ecosystem, hoping to capture some of SUI’s value appreciation. This inflow of capital fuels meme coin interest and creates further wealth effects.

BLUB

The top meme coin on SUI, BLUB features a fish with Pepe’s face. It currently boasts a market cap of $38 million.

Interestingly, BLUB was launched on September 1—coinciding closely with SUI’s initial price uptick. It rose from an opening market cap of $3.5 million to a peak of $48 million, achieving an 11x gain.

SUIB

As the name suggests, SUIB is the Shiba Inu coin on SUI. Its distinguishing factor came on September 24, when @EmanAbio, co-founder of SUI, retweeted content about SUIB and noted that the project was created by Aftermath, a lending platform on SUI. This gives SUIB the aura of an “officially endorsed” meme coin.

Following the co-founder’s post, SUIB’s market cap skyrocketed from $250,000 to a peak of $2.73 million—over 10x growth. However, caution is warranted: SUIB suffers from extremely poor liquidity, estimated at only around $40,000.

How to play SUI ecosystem memes going forward?

Currently, SUI meme coin speculation is largely driven by degens who missed SUI’s run-up and existing SUI ecosystem participants—still very much an inside game (PvP).

To truly emulate SOL’s success in attracting massive external capital into meme coins, a necessary condition is for Binance to list top-tier SUI ecosystem projects like Cetus and Scallop. Legitimate, “serious” projects must first gain market validation; otherwise, the meme narrative will struggle to sustain and risk becoming a flash in the pan.