The market is becoming increasingly absurd; it's best to strike while the iron is hot
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
The market is becoming increasingly absurd; it's best to strike while the iron is hot
The game is likely to make a comeback, but with new rules, more absurd narratives, and attracting new players.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Westie
Compiled by: TechFlow
Let's talk about the Memecoin cycle—forget utility, long-term vision, or even storytelling. At its core, this cycle is really about just one thing: getting in early.
Breakout: The ETF Boom and Solana’s Rise
This breakout wasn’t driven by ordinary market sentiment, but by more specific events. At the end of 2023, Bitcoin ETF applications signaled that institutional capital was about to flood into crypto. Meanwhile, Solana staged a strong rebound after the FTX collapse, telling a story of recovery and restored legitimacy.
In contrast, traditional altcoins felt stale. Many carried the heavy baggage of the bear market—VC-backed projects with roadmaps and whitepapers, yet valuations often seemed artificially constructed, designed more for exit strategies than genuine innovation.
Memecoins offered something entirely different: simple, direct, fun. They were anti-VC tokens—no whitepaper, sometimes not even a website. Just a meme, a ticker, a launch. Their appeal lay in simplicity and high risk. Precisely because traditional altcoins were so predictable, memecoins became the purest form of “high-risk, high-reward” bets in the market.
If Bitcoin could double on ETF hype and SOL could rise from its lows, then why couldn't a completely useless dog coin increase 100x? That’s where this cycle began: ETF optimism, SOL’s comeback, and growing fatigue toward VC-backed alts.
BONK: The First Step in the Race to Get Early
Then came BONK.
BONK wasn’t complicated or particularly meme-worthy. But it was the first token to capture this energy. People saw its wild volatility, observed the profits, and gradually developed an intuition: something was happening. This was different. This was fast.
At first, “getting in early” wasn’t a conscious goal. It was more like, “This is volatile—maybe I can take a small gamble.” But BONK’s performance—its explosive surge followed by predictable fluctuations—slowly shaped the rules of the game.
Narrative Shift: Absurdity Rises from a Limited Meme Pool
The narrative evolved. Crypto participants began to realize: “Memecoins are a game, and the key is finding the next BONK—but funnier.”
“Funnier” didn’t mean technical progress or team strength. “Funnier” meant easier to spread. How? At this stage, memecoin mechanics were still primitive, and differentiation options were extremely limited. There were no complex strategies or elaborate narratives to follow. In reality, the pool of ready-made, internet-native meme material was itself quite small. You weren’t picking from thousands of choices, but from a handful of concepts that could instantly make someone laugh.
Within this narrow selection, what stood out most? The answer: Absurdity.
In this context, “funnier” was nearly synonymous with “more absurd.” In an immature memecoin world, absurdity itself became a powerful signal. It grabbed attention and spread quickly. More importantly, in a market where nobody knew what a “good memecoin” should look like, humor and instant punchlines became the strongest filters.
Then Dogwifhat (WIF) arrived.
“Wif hat.” A misspelled, meaningless image of a dog wearing a hat. It was peak internet absurdity. For many, the first reaction was laughter. That was its charm. This humor, this absurdity, sent a signal:
“This is new. This is unique. Is this… early?”
The rules of the game became clearer—almost intuitive. It wasn’t just about finding a memecoin, but about identifying the one that already had viral potential before the explosion. Catching internet jokes, fleeting memes, and absurd moments. And in those early days, within that limited meme pool, the coin that made people laugh the loudest and seemed the most ridiculous naturally emerged as the winner.
To find such a coin, you had to get in early.
The Memecoin Hunting Ground: Speed vs. Manipulation
The game evolved rapidly. “Early” no longer meant just after launch—by then, it was already too late. True “early” meant before launch—before the public noticed, before hype exploded, before prices surged.
Tools like Photon and “memescope” emerged to meet this demand. The game turned tactical. Traders spent hours glued to memescope—the page listing new memecoins on Photon. The strategy became simple: watch memescope, refresh constantly, buy the second a new coin appeared. Pure optimization for “early”—racing on speed, reflexes, and screen stamina.
The “memescope play” seemed fair—anyone with the tools and time could theoretically participate. But beneath the surface, a darker force emerged: insiders manipulating the game. They created memecoins and precisely controlled the very metrics that memescope traders relied on to make decisions.
These projects weren’t always organic grassroots movements. Increasingly, memecoins were carefully engineered as profit vehicles. Insider tactics included:
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Creating memecoins from scratch: No real community or organic buzz from day one.
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Manipulating data metrics: Artificially inflating on-chain trading volume, fabricating social media buzz, even gaming ranking systems to make coins appear more popular than they were.
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Exploiting trader tools: Knowing that memescope and similar platforms had become central to memecoin trading, they specifically designed attacks targeting these tools’ vulnerabilities.
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Hiring market makers: Creating illusions of active trading at launch, making new coins look instantly hot on charts.
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Partnering with KOLs (key opinion leaders): Paying influencers to shill, creating a false impression that “everyone is buying,” triggering early FOMO (fear of missing out).
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Deploying Twitter bots: Using bot armies or paid accounts to spam comments under major crypto accounts, flooding social feeds with coin-related content to fabricate artificial hype.
Traders watching memescope genuinely believed they’d won the “early” game. But in reality, they were always one step behind those who truly controlled the game.
Two key dynamics of the memecoin game—absurdity as the engine of virality, and insiders manipulating the “early” game to create exit liquidity—are now entering their final boss phase.
Fartcoin: The Ultimate Gamble of Absurdity and Attention
For those trying to create the “next WIF”—the next memecoin to go viral quickly—a crucial truth has emerged: To get the public to buy your memecoin, you must capture their fleeting attention. In the world of memecoins, attention isn’t won through complex stories or technical promises, but through raw, undeniable visual impact.
Today, the definition of “early” has shifted completely: It’s no longer just about speed or mere absurdity—it’s about meticulously crafting “extreme absurdity” as the ultimate attention-grabbing tool.
This is where Fartcoin shines.
Fartcoin. From the perspective of a memecoin creator trying to grab mass attention, what could possibly attract more eyeballs than launching a token called “Fartcoin”? This isn’t just absurd—it’s so ridiculous that everyone instantly gets it. The name itself is a topic generator, a natural click magnet. It feels deliberately engineered to produce headlines that cut through internet noise: “Look at people actually throwing money at this nonsense!”
Fartcoin became the ultimate experiment in attention economics within the memecoin world. This wasn’t just another token launch—it was a deliberate, almost cynical attempt to weaponize absurdity for maximum visibility. It served as a clear, comical proof of concept: in the memecoin game, especially when aiming for true virality and mainstream reach, extreme absurdity isn’t just desirable—it’s the core marketing strategy, refined to its purest, most provocative form.
Is there a more absurd meme than Fartcoin?
The Inner Game and New Market Playbooks
Beyond the manipulation tactics of the memescope era, a deeper trend is emerging: Pure animal-based absurd memecoins, despite their explosive popularity, are hitting a wall. The market is becoming more rational and savvy.
The narrative needs a new direction—a gameplay wrapped in a veneer of “legitimacy.” This is where “content-rich” memes begin to emerge. These tokens are still fundamentally memes, but they come with a plausible excuse—a thin layer of justification that lends them some credibility. AI-themed tokens thus become the new playbook. Suddenly, buying a meme isn’t just about a dog in a hat—it’s about “investing” in the future of artificial intelligence! This provides a seemingly reasonable justification for buying, however flimsy, moving beyond pure absurdity.
Yet beneath this thematic shift, the core mechanics and the role of insiders remain unchanged. The real advantage still lies in information asymmetry. These insider groups simply adapt quickly, leveraging their early access to information to maintain their edge in this new narrative. They know about AI coin launches before anyone else and continue profiting from that advantage.
Celebrity Memecoins: The Peak of Absurdity and Manipulation
The memecoin game has evolved into a new phase: the year of celebrity coins. Insiders have discovered that the most effective way to achieve viral-scale distribution and ensure exit liquidity is to partner with high-profile celebrities. These figures often have massive followings but little understanding of crypto, making them perfect puppets for insider operations.
Even more interesting, these backstage players often disguise themselves as “elite traders,” implying (or outright claiming) that their profits come from skill rather than information advantages. This narrative frustrates regular players, who increasingly feel they can never get in “early,” always one step behind.
The “inner game” is now fully exposed, with key strategies including:
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Being the issuer: Create the token, control the narrative, use extreme absurdity or a “serious-looking” cover story to drive virality. This is the ultimate early move—complete control over dissemination timing.
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Being an insider: Identify tokens with high viral potential or apparent utility before they’re widely discussed on crypto Twitter. Information asymmetry about viral potential is their biggest edge.
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Being an influencer: Build a fanbase, use influence to enter absurd or “serious” tokens early, then amplify the narrative, generate headlines, and guarantee buyers for the exit.
As this trend of viral absurdity and controlled narratives intensifies, Fartcoin demonstrated the peak power of absurdity. But then, TRUMP appeared out of nowhere.
TRUMP. The hottest meme on the planet? Suddenly, even carefully crafted absurdity paled in comparison. Who could possibly compete with Trump in terms of cultural heat? Almost no one.
Imagine being a memecoin trader when TRUMP launched. Anyone paying slight attention could see it was a classic insider operation. 80% of the supply was transparently locked for insiders. On-chain data clearly showed snipers and pre-launch privileges. These should have been red flags—but in front of TRUMP, none of that mattered.
Because this was Trump—the elected President of the United States. This was the ultimate memecoin, the ultimate celebrity coin. Of course you bought it. It felt like a new set of rules. Even though insider manipulation was obvious, with Trump, it simply didn’t matter anymore.
Then MELANIA launched.
When MELANIA went live, the entire market seemed to lose all momentum. Like a once-bustling club where everyone suddenly sobered up. The “inner game” already evident in TRUMP was fully exposed in MELANIA. The tactics were identical, but MELANIA’s “naked cash grab” was even more transparent. The difference? TRUMP’s meme power briefly masked cynicism; MELANIA had nothing left to hide behind.
The “inner game” had long been obvious, but before MELANIA, people chose to ignore it. Now, with MELANIA, the scam was laid bare—and the cycle broke.
TRUMP also became the ultimate case study: it clearly showed how the “inner game” could reach its peak. It wasn’t just a meme—it was political and cultural power, launched with insider privilege and guaranteed success.
Is there a bigger, more transparent “inner game” than TRUMP and MELANIA?
Echoes of 2021: NFT’s “Early” Cycle
Does this entire memecoin cycle feel eerily familiar? Go back to 2021—the peak of the NFT boom.
What triggered it? ETH’s price surge, fueled by the DeFi summer. NFTs then became the “high-risk, high-reward” play on ETH—a bet with potentially outsized returns.
Quickly, the focus shifted to PFP (profile picture) projects. “Community” became the buzzword, but the real game was finding the next Bored Ape—a project poised for rapid value and cultural ascent.
Like memecoins, people realized the key was getting in “early.” But in the NFT world, “early” meant securing whitelist spots. Grinding Discord, engaging on Twitter, completing tasks—the whitelist race became the NFT version of memescope, with everyone scrambling for pre-launch access.
The chase for “early” intensified. People realized the earliest entry was becoming creators themselves. Soon, celebrities jumped in.
Steph Curry and Jimmy Fallon flaunted million-dollar JPEGs, while Logan Paul openly scammed his fans. Who came next? The NFT space seemed to hit its peak with celebrity-driven projects, and narrative fatigue began to set in.
Speaking of cycle shifts… NELK, the team that symbolized the peak of celebrity NFT mania in 2021, recently launched their own memecoin—Fullsend. If that’s not a signal, what is?
The similarities are striking. Different asset class, same underlying game: an endless chase for “early” that ultimately consumes itself. At some point, the game runs out of moves—you need a full reset.
The End of Absurdity: Cycle Reset and Reflection
As the memecoin cycle winds down, echoes of the NFT boom linger. We see tokens like LIBRA launching, with people seemingly going all-in, risking entire portfolios just to replicate the glory of a TRUMP trade. This is exactly what George Soros described in market cycles as the “twilight zone”—a phase where people keep playing even though they know the game has lost meaning.
As Soros noted, the defining trait here is “people continuing to play even after they’ve stopped believing in it.” The magic of “early” is fading, but the habit of chasing memecoin pumps remains deeply ingrained.
Soros also warned: “Eventually, a tipping point arrives when the trend reverses, sentiment flips, and a catastrophic acceleration downward begins—that’s what we call a crash.”
Now we must ask ourselves: Can this narrative evolve further? Are there more levels to this game?
Will there be a meme more absurd than Fartcoin?
Will there be a larger, more transparent “inner game” than TRUMP and MELANIA?
The likely answer is no. At least not in this cycle.
The memecoin cycle, defined by the endless pursuit of “early,” seems to have reached its end. Driven by hype, absurdity, and the promise of early access, it has, like all hype cycles, self-destructed. When the underlying mechanics are exposed and the illusion fades, the chase for “early” ultimately devours itself.
Yet the human desire for “early” will not disappear. This psychology is deeply embedded in crypto culture.
Perhaps this memecoin cycle is over, but that desire remains. The game may return—just with new rules, more absurd narratives, and fresh players eager to be the one who finds the next “early” opportunity.
Friends, please stay safe.
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