How to find the next golden dog? Look for assets that stir your emotions
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How to find the next golden dog? Look for assets that stir your emotions
In meme coins, emotional intelligence (EQ) is far more important than IQ.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: OnlyApes
Compiled by: TechFlow
Welcome, friend!
The on-chain meme market has been extremely active recently, which is partly why this article was delayed. I’ll try to publish future articles more quickly.
When you first start following meme coins, you’re bombarded with an endless stream of new tokens. Thousands launch every day, but only a few are truly worth your time and capital. Today, I’ll share my personal framework for selecting meme coins. I’ve noticed that everyone successful in trading meme coins shares similar principles—yet each person’s approach differs slightly based on their unique life experiences.
A key aspect of choosing meme coins is understanding which ones you should buy—a process that’s deeply personal and authentic. Of course, there are universal, widely recognized winners. But in some cases, your unique perspective might allow you to spot a coin before others fully grasp its potential.
You can think of each meme coin as targeting a specific market. Every strong coin should resonate with a particular group. These communities have distinct values, beliefs, cultures, and emotional responses to events. The deeper your understanding of a coin’s target audience and its ability to gain traction within that group, the greater your chances of finding a winner.
This is why even a simple concept like “cute little dog” can capture massive attention—almost everyone relates to cute puppies. It’s also why tokenizing existing memes can be so powerful. However, right now it’s just too hard to know which cute puppy to back.
There are far too many coins—and far too many cute dogs and cats.
I simplify the process of picking dogs and cats by saying: only buy coins that have already succeeded. You’re unlikely to encounter a new dog or cat coin that will reach a multi-billion dollar market cap.
If you're determined to hunt for dog coins, focus on special cases—like when Doge’s owner adopts a new dog named Neiro. Stick to newly launched animal coins that already have fame or piggyback off well-known names. However, this segment has become so "PvP" (player versus player) that I personally choose to ignore all newly launched famous-animal memes. If you do participate, either buy into every PvP battle or wait until a winner emerges—while recognizing your coin may get "drained." I personally avoid limitless gambling and thus usually stay out.
I hold one core belief: you don’t need to make money on any specific meme coin. Beyond getting a few likes online, buying a coin that everyone talks about for a few days doesn’t matter much. You simply want to collect in your meme portfolio those coins that significantly outperform major cryptocurrencies (BTC, ETH, SOL) and then hold for gains.
Today’s focus is providing a framework for selecting meme coins—which also means being skilled at ignoring them, especially during early stages when you should still be gathering data points.
Why Do People Buy Meme Coins?
This is a profound question, and everyone has their own answer. Some buy for potential financial gains; others because they find them fun.
Within the context of Crypto Twitter, people primarily buy meme coins because they believe others will buy them too.
Current dominant trends include:
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Regular crypto investors buying coins they believe non-crypto natives will eventually buy (mass market).
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Regular crypto investors buying coins they personally find entertaining (crypto-native market).
Coin types from both mass-market and crypto-native segments can perform well. Until we see a true bull market with widespread mainstream participation, focus on coins that are already gaining traction at least within the crypto community.
Framework
If you want to make quick profits in the meme coin space, you need to track the velocity of attention. In other words, when making short- to mid-term investments, your primary goal is identifying potential virality.
"But who can predict what will go viral?!"
Any competent content creator will tell you that’s simply not true. Anyone with a decent following has experienced virality at least a few times.
Remember how I said everyone uses their unique experience to guide their meme coin picks? For me, it comes down to understanding how people react to written content.
Meme coins are essentially just another form of content you can speculate on.
When I create content for crypto protocols, I aim to improve my copywriting skills. I stumbled upon a highly useful framework created by YouTube/Twitter content creator Shaan Puri.
When I sat down to analyze my own meme coin strategy, I realized many principles of viral content apply directly to meme coin selection—and they work.
Like viral content, every great meme coin evokes emotional resonance.
I've adapted this framework specifically for meme coins.
You should look for meme coins that trigger these emotions:
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Cuteness — “Aww”
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This usually includes typical dog, cat, or hippo coins. By the way: I think Moo Deng is ugly, not cute at all. But regular people love it, so let it pump to $1B.
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Humor — “LOL”
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Everyone has different senses of humor, but ideally, what makes you laugh should also amuse many others. If no one gets your joke, you’re probably out of luck.
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Shock & Awe — “Unbelievable!”
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Stunts like tiny figures fighting, someone self-immolating, or anything that triggers awe and surprise.
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Absurdity — “WTF?”
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Similar to shock and awe, but leaning more into stupidity. “Dumb” memes like Skibidi Toilet fall into this category.
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Anger — “That’s offensive!/Not okay”
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Anything controversial. Racist meme coins belong here. (Note: The actual buyers aren’t the ones angered by the concept. The real target is everyone else who gets angry—sparking discussion and drawing attention.)
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Disgust — “That’s gross”
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I don’t have strong examples in the meme coin space, but I include this because it applies to content. I consider this the weakest emotional trigger for me—I don’t want to repeatedly see things I find disgusting in my meme portfolio.
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We live in an infinite content world.
You need emotional triggers to capture people’s attention.
Meme coins are just tokenized attention.
Note: Emotional triggers aren’t the only reason meme coins succeed. A better way to understand the framework is that when emotional triggers exist, success becomes more likely. Many other factors are at play in the meme coin space (holder base, distribution, mainstream narrative). Emotional triggers help a meme get noticed.
Coins derived from existing brands, followings, or recognizable movements can bypass the need for emotional triggers—because emotional connections are already established, and attention follows naturally. This was a major driver behind my ZYN thesis published in March. When you layer emotional triggers on top of such meme coins, they have explosive potential.
Combining multiple emotional triggers leads to wild results. Racist joke meme coins perform well precisely for this reason—they provoke anger and disgust among certain groups, while others find them funny. This emotional collision drives attention. Think of coins like Retardio, George Droyd, Indian Call Centre (RIP). (We’ll set aside moral debates around racist meme coins for this article—I’m merely explaining why they rise and what drives them.)
CHABENISKY, the parody coin of Mark Cuban, is a great example of absurdity and humor. It also leverages his celebrity status to attract more eyes. Some are drawn because it’s funny, others because it’s weird/absurd, and a few might be driven by anger toward Mark himself.
Don’t assume you’re buying a coin for the same reason as others. Ultimately, your coin’s value depends on the strength of its holder network. A coin must reach its target buyer group and evoke emotion within them.
In short, in meme coins, EQ (emotional intelligence) matters far more than IQ.
Management Tips
Meme coins have proven to be a permanent part of the cryptocurrency landscape. That means investing time to master creating and trading them is worthwhile. They offer anyone the most accessible path to launching a project that could reach millions.
Many ask me what bots and tools I use on Solana, so this might deserve a separate article. You might not believe it, but I mostly use the Jupiter frontend and Phantom wallet. A few weeks ago, Jupiter launched its own trading terminal. After testing it, I found my execution efficiency improved significantly. Over the past few months, I may have lost tens of thousands of dollars due to using basic tools.
It’s not perfect (during high volatility, setting slippage too high can be problematic), but it’s definitely better than what I used before. If you know of better trading bots, please let me know—I’d love to try them. Jupiter charges 0.50% per trade, which is acceptable for me. I prefer simplicity—focusing on meme selection rather than getting bogged down by tool complexity.
Important Note: I have not conducted any security research on this trading terminal. You should not allocate your entire portfolio to meme coins. If you do, never send all your funds to any trading bot. This setup is only meant for actively managing smaller positions. As I mentioned in my previous article, the meme coin space is more about tracking trends and identifying coins to add to your portfolio. Due to asymmetry, you don’t need large allocations to capture outsized returns.
Disclaimer: Content provided in this blog is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Meme coins are highly volatile and speculative, involving significant risk. Information shared here should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. We are not financial advisors, and you should not rely on any information herein to make financial decisions.
By accessing this blog, you agree to assume all risks associated with using the information provided.
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