Solana Meme Trend Shifts Rapidly: The Rise and Fall of $Ghibli's $28 Million Market Cap
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Solana Meme Trend Shifts Rapidly: The Rise and Fall of $Ghibli's $28 Million Market Cap
Welcome to the Ghibli Universe.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: TechFlow
The meme market shifts fast. Today, most meme enthusiasts are fixated on $Ghibli—reaching a $28 million market cap in less than a day.
Social media is flooded with AI-generated images in the Ghibli art style. Even Sam Altman and Elon Musk joined the trend, while crypto projects rushed to create their own Ghibli-style derivative artworks.
Here’s a quick breakdown of how the $Ghibli token surged into the spotlight.
Ghibli? Studio Ghibli? AI Ghibli?
"Ghibli style" refers to the distinctive visual aesthetic from the renowned Japanese animation studio Studio Ghibli, co-founded by legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. The studio has produced countless iconic films such as *Spirited Away*, *My Neighbor Totoro*, and *Howl's Moving Castle*.
The Ghibli style traces its roots to Miyazaki’s early creative work. Characterized by watercolor-like textures, high-saturation colors, and unique character designs, when people think of Ghibli, many immediately picture clean, refreshing scenes combining blue skies and green meadows.
Master Miyazaki's last film: The Wind Rises
Ghibli Style + AI
The distinct Ghibli style has long been a classic in traditional animation and gaming. Since AIGC took off in 2022, image-generating AI technologies have rapidly evolved, and models like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion now support Ghibli-style generation. In recent years, numerous AI-created Ghibli-inspired artworks have emerged.
Copyright issues surrounding AI-generated art remain controversial. Years ago, Miyazaki himself expressed skepticism toward AI-generated art, calling it “an insult to life.”
How Did $Ghibli Blow Up?
The surge of $Ghibli began with an update to GPT-4o’s image generation feature.
Yesterday, GPT-4o rolled out a major upgrade, enabling a built-in "image-to-image" function directly within chat. Users can now upload an image and use simple natural language prompts—such as “turn this into a Ghibli cartoon style”—to generate new visuals based on the original.
While style-transfer technology has existed for years, GPT-4o dramatically lowered the barrier to entry. Now, users no longer need specialized AI tools to perform image transformations.
With lower technical barriers and the inherent fun of Ghibli-style remixes, Ghibli-themed images went viral across social platforms yesterday.
Around 6 PM yesterday, a token named $Ghibli appeared on Pump.Fun. Its logo was a Ghibli-style AI rendition of Pump.Fun founder @a1lon9’s profile picture.
Clearly, the $Ghibli narrative is straightforward: riding the wave of viral AI-generated art. Initially, however, $Ghibli didn’t attract much attention. X user @Kris7146 pointed out that $Ghibli had highly concentrated token distribution.
Still, early whales kept buying in, pushing $Ghibli’s price higher. After the $JellyJelly incident concluded last night, $Ghibli stabilized around a $3 million market cap.
In the early hours today, Sam Altman changed his X profile picture to a Ghibli-style image. Upon discovery by the community, $Ghibli surged past $3 million. But that wasn’t all—shortly after 6:33 AM, Musk posted a meme blending Ghibli-style art with The Lion King, a self-portrait, and Doge, captioning it “Theme of the Day.”
With these tech titans endorsing the trend, $Ghibli’s momentum became unstoppable, soaring to a peak market cap of $28 million before pulling back. It currently hovers around $20 million.
The $Ghibli frenzy is essentially a convergence of online hype, capturing attention and liquidity on-chain. It doesn’t bring groundbreaking innovation or narrative depth. Yet for meme tokens, strong storytelling is just one factor among many. When the market “feels it,” the rally follows naturally.
For ordinary participants, while using real money to ride the waves, stay cautious—don’t get carried away. Keep your limits.
(PS: Beyond Ghibli style, GPT-4o’s image generator supports various other artistic styles too.)
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