We need to talk about meme coins
When attention is the most valuable commodity of all this is what you get
The blockchain, NTFs, decentralised... I disassociate whenever anyone utters the word “crypto”. But meme coins? Now I’m seated. Why? Hawk Tuah Girl.
She was my unexpected entry point into this highly unregulated world after she launched the crypto currency coin ‘Hawk’ in late December and it hit a theoretical valuation of $490 million within hours. But just as quickly early holders dumped their holdings, ‘Hawk’ tanked, dropping 95 per cent of its value, leaving fans who had bought a stake out of pocket. Lawsuits followed and Hawk Tuah Girl, real name Hailey Welch, hasn’t been seen or heard from in over a month.
It was easy to stay curious beyond that messy drama because Hawk Tuah Girl proved to me that meme coins, just like her own fame, are a metaphor for our times because they only need attention to go from nothing to something.
Fandom, trends and hype are what makes a meme coin rocket in value, and they’ve become an easy way to monetise all three. Just ask the new president of the United States who launched ‘Trump’ just days before taking office. His army of supporters, his unparalleled ability to be the main character and dominate the news cycle, meant his venture soared to a market cap high of $15 billion after traders rushed to buy-in.
The vast majority of Trump’s ‘investors’ are young men and that’s true for the meme coin market in general. Many of them are so young they’re not allowed a credit card, but there’s nothing but parental supervision stopping them from making and trading coins in what is essentially an unregulated gambling market.
In one infamous case a boy in his early teens made $50,000 in less than ten minutes by making coins and then selling off his stake when the value went up. His strategy, known as a ‘rug pull’, was captured on video and shows him giving the double middle finger to his investors as he cashes out and the value of their stakes plummet.
So what even are meme coins and how do they work? I spoke to Nick Kaufman, a ‘KOL’, or key opinion leader, in the crypto world who told me: “A meme coin is like a company stock but its value is based on the attention it can attract rather than company performance or revenue.”
For a meme coin trader to win, another trader has to lose. “It’s a game of musical chairs,” according to Kaufman, who has tracked trends for TikTok and worked for both Snapchat (with me) and Clubhouse’s community teams.
There are few rules and as Kaufman put it, the meme coin market “is the wild west right now”. That hasn't stopped more than six million meme coins from being created, or impeded the market value growing to more than $100 billion.
Anyone can make a meme coin by using a platform like pump.fun. They are then hyped up by ‘devs’, the person who runs the coin, on Twitter/X, Kik and Telegram. Traders can buy a stake in a coin by swapping a fiat currency like USD or GBP for the crypto currency Solana. Crypto wallets like Phantom and Moonshot then allow traders to use Solana to buy and sell stakes in coins.
Most investors hope to buy in at a low market cap and then sell if it shoots up. They pocket the difference minus some small transaction fees.
The vast majority of coins hold little market value but the biggest - DOGE, Shiba Inc, Trump, Pepe, Bonk, Fartcoin and dogwifhat - are currently worth billions each, in theory.
The coin names provide some insight into the sense of the humour of the most active traders. “Gen Z men dominate the meme coin scene,” says Kaufman. “It’s something of a third space for guys in their twenties and teens.”
And while Kaufman is aware that the young men are taking huge risks with their money he believes that there are some upsides to meme coin trading. “The level of camaraderie in Telegram groups is really heartwarming,” he says. “These are kids who come off like they don’t have much direction in their lives and the trading allows them to forge bonds with each other.”
He added: “These guys understand internet culture, they’re really intelligent, they’re organised. When they mature I think they’re going to push the internet forward in really interesting ways.”
For now though meme coins are the domain of those who want to gamble, get rich quick or grift.
While Trump’s foray into meme coins, swiftly followed by his wife Melania, has brought more attention to the market, many other well-known people are chastened by the experiences of Hawk Tuah Girl. MrBeast, the world’s biggest YouTuber, ruled out launching his own even though he acknowledged he could make “hundreds of million of dollars”.
Even crypto enthusiasts are not happy that Trump is peddling a coin. They worry that the speculative nature of them tarnishes the broader quest to make crypto a legit alternative currency.
But Trump’s second administration and his claim that he will be a “crypto president,” makes it likely that meme coins will go mainstream according to Kaufman. “This is just the beginning of digital currencies representing the things that you love in your real life,” he said. “People thought that would be NFTs but soon everything that has fans will have a digital currency correlated to it.”
If that happens understanding internet trends will be key to making market moves. Maybe we should all start trading*.
* this is absolutely not financial advice 🙃
So hot right now
Bonnets… All the cool east London girls and gays have been wearing them for months…
White plastic chairs… After Bad Bunny’s new album and its cover art prompted waves of nostalgia for the ubiquitous, simple seat.
Debí Tirar Más Fotos (I should have taken more photos in English) has not only topped Spotify’s album chart in the U.S., it’s inspired Latinos to share treasured pictures of their families and friends on the chairs. It’s struck such a chord you can now buy white plastic chair earrings.
Lola Young… Will I stop wanging on about her? No. Is she still hot? Yes. Chartmetic produced a visual to show you exactly how scorching the 24-year-old is…
Addison Rae… after making the cover of Rolling Stone and being entirely unbothered about the TikTok ban
Netflix… The streamer’s stock surged after they added a record 19 million subscribers in the last quarter thanks to the Paul v Tyson fight, Beyonce Bowl, Christmas Day NFL games and the second series of Squid Game.
Going viral
KatrinaNY after she challenged those who said Elon Musk didn’t do a Nazi salute to recreate the move in public…
… and at least one person rose to the challenge, on LinkedIn of all places.
This week I’ve been…
OBSESSED WITH (Inauguration edition)
Lauren Sanchez’s lacy bra and the three-day news cycle it created
Melania Trump’s protecting-her-peace hat
The backlash to Kim Kardashian after she posted a picture of Melania Trump on Instagram
THINKING That TikTok (Trump’s edition) feels very different to TikTok 1.0. As one commenter said…
WATCHING Yellowstone, finally. How have I lived this long without Beth Dutton in my life?
READING
All 8,000 words of Vanity Fair’s bruising piece on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle five years on from Megxit: American Hustle
Not Ugly – But Poor: The New Gen A ‘Battle Cry’ from the brilliant
who goes deep on the normalisation of surgery and tweakments amongst the youngTrump Barely Won the Popular Vote. Why Doesn’t It Feel That Way? from Ezra Klein in The New York Times (gift link)
EATING A dreamy Turkish lunch at Leydi, London. A solid 8/10.
highly flammable is produced and written by me, Rachel Richardson
I’m a content creator, commentator and consultant at Beginning, Middle and End
Want more? Check out Threads, Twitter/X and Instagram. I’m also dabbling in some Bluesky thinking.
Email rr@bmend.com
I had no idea about the hawk tuah crypto! Jesus. Can’t help but feel like her youth and ignorance has been massively taken advantage of, here
#rachcoin incoming?