Memecoins as Humanity in Action

Main Takeaways

In a move that feels ripped straight from a satirical headline, President Trump has entered the memecoin arena with the launch of $TRUMPthree days shy from his inauguration, a token promising “huge” gains and a “tremendous” future—because, naturally, everything he touches is the “best.” Backed by a flurry of patriotic memes, NFTs of his signature scowl, and promises that it’s “the most stable coin ever,” the token has already sent crypto community into a frenzy. $TRUMP has now risen more than 10 000% with $71 billion Fully Diluted Valuation, an impressive feat that even confounded Binance’s co-founder CZ. Two days later, Trump’s wife Melania also launched $MELANIA memecoin.

Whether these tokens’ true legacy will become the next financial phenomenon or just another punchline remains to be seen. But one thing’s for sure: when even the reigning first couple of a superpower country is jumping on the bandwagon, it’s clear that memecoins aren’t just a niche curiosity anymore—they’re a full-blown cultural phenomenon.

Memecoin of the 45th President of the United States of America. Source: X.

There is no better time than today to deepen your understanding of memecoin. This article takes a deeper dive into the recent QUANT memecoin saga to explain and illustrate the basic principles underlying the success of a memecoin.

QUANT: How a Thirteen-Year-Old Started a Mini Financial Revolution Online

It started, as most memecoin stories do, with a joke.

On an otherwise uneventful November evening in 2024, a 13-year-old Gen Z streamer sat at his desk, live-streaming to a modest but devoted audience. In his arsenal: an ironic sense of humor, a knack for crypto trends, and a fascination with meme tokens. His big idea? Launching a memecoin called QUANT using the Solana-based platform Pump.fun, where creating cryptocurrency is about as easy as setting up an Instagram profile.

Within minutes, QUANT was live. The young creator played his part as a savvy crypto prankster perfectly. As token holders flocked to buy QUANT, lured by the promise of getting into “the next big thing” in memecoins, he executed the classic crypto move known as a rug pull, selling 51 million tokens for $30,000 worth of SOL. Then, in full view of his audience, he grinned and closed his laptop like a supervillain in a low-budget heist movie.

Source: Chaincatcher.com

The little rascal raised his middle fingers before committing a rug pull. Source: Chaincatcher.com

In the memecoin world, a rug pull isn’t exactly new. But what followed next transformed QUANT from a fleeting joke into a mini financial and cultural revolution unlike anything the community had seen.

The QUANT rug pull wasn’t met with resignation or silence; it was met with fury. Instead of abandoning the project as the teenager had likely anticipated, a group of disgruntled traders decided to take revenge in a quintessentially memecoin way: they pumped the token’s value to the moon.

The QUANT community orchestrated a collective effort to drive the token’s market capitalization past $22.6 million in just 15 hours. The tokens that the young creator had dumped for $30,000 were suddenly worth close to $4 million. Ironically, the mastermind behind the rug pull was left watching from the sidelines as his token became the hottest memecoin of the moment.

Meanwhile, the crypto corners of Twitter, Reddit, and Telegram lit up with jokes, memes, and conspiracy theories. For one glorious day, #QUANT was trending, embodying everything the memecoin market represents: absurd, communal, and wildly unpredictable.

As the QUANT pump gained traction, crypto sleuths did what the internet does best: they doxxed the teenage creator. His personal details, and his family’s, were leaked online, turning what had been a playful financial prank into a cautionary tale about the dark side of memecoin fame.

Despite the frightening backlash, the 13-year-old showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, he doubled down on his antics by launching follow-up tokens with names like $Lucy (named after his dog) and $Sorry, profiting further from memecoin speculation. By the end of 2024, the teenage boy had become the classic antihero of the memecoin world: equal parts savvy and reckless, admired and despised.

For a brief moment in November 2024, QUANT seemed unstoppable. But as with all memecoins, its value was as volatile as the community that powered it. Within weeks of its meteoric rise, the token’s price began to plummet. From an all-time high of $0.0633, QUANT now trades at $0.00075, reflecting a staggering 98.8% loss in value.

Simply put, memecoins live and die by their community’s attention span. Once the outrage and excitement surrounding the rug pull subsided, so did the market interest. Traders who had ridden the QUANT wave to its peak cashed out, leaving latecomers to deal with the crash. Today, QUANT exists as a digital relic — proof of both the potential and the pitfalls of memecoins.

Navigating the Memecoin Jungle

In the chaotic, meme-filled universe of the internet, cryptocurrencies known as memecoins have emerged as one of the most fascinating social phenomena. While traditional currencies represent economies, stability, and rules, memecoins thrive on humor, virality, and community-driven chaos.

Memecoins are a unique breed of cryptocurrency, built not on technological innovation but on the collective power of internet culture. Unlike Bitcoin, which emerges as “digital gold,” or Ethereum, which offers a platform for decentralized applications, memecoins are digital jokes that turn into financial memes. Their value doesn’t lie in utility or scarcity but in the community’s shared humor and willingness to believe in the joke.

QUANT’s story is just one example of this phenomenon, where tokens are created for laughs and, through the magic of community enthusiasm, become vessels for speculative trading.

At the heart of every memecoin is a community. A memecoin’s journey from obscurity to the moon — or more often, the landfill — depends entirely on the collective energy of its believers. Platforms like Pump.fun have made this phenomenon even more accessible. With its user-friendly interface, anyone can launch a token, customize its branding, and share it with their networks.

Meanwhile, the real action happens on X and Discord, where memecoin fanatics converge to swap memes, plot their next moonshots, and shamelessly shill their latest obsessions. Together, these platforms and their chaotic communities have turned memecoins into ludicrous force majeure: part joke, part economic experiment, and 100% internet culture in action.

The launch of $TRUMP memecoin is a masterclass in cultural branding, encapsulating Donald Trump’s enduring ability to turn himself into both a symbol and a spectacle. Leveraging on his outsized global influence as a politician, celebrity, and entrepreneur, Trump demonstrates his knack for staying relevant in an era dominated by internet virality. This memecoin may very well cement his legacy as a cultural disruptor in a world where influence is increasingly traded like currency.

Let’s take a look at another popular memecoin in 2024: FARTCOIN. What started as a tongue-in-cheek jab at crypto culture exploded into a legitimate market player. Armed with a hilariously irreverent name, FARTCOIN drew a loyal fanbase that turned the token into a cultural statement. Its ascent underscores the absurdity and brilliance of memecoins: it doesn’t have to make sense; it just has to make people laugh.

Another standout of 2024, MOODENG’s rise was catalyzed by a massive donation from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin toward wildlife conservation efforts. Named after a pygmy hippopotamus in Thailand that went viral on the internet, the token leveraged on trending internet sensation and KOL altruism. This potent mix struck a chord with the crypto community.

No discussion of memecoins is complete without a nod to the granddaddy of them all: Dogecoin. What began as a playful homage to a Shiba Inu meme has grown into a cryptocurrency empire. Dogecoin’s trajectory from internet joke to mainstream currency is a digital proof of the power of community belief.

Elon Musk, Dogecoin’s most famous supporter, has infused it with his trademark eccentricity. From promising to use it as the currency of Mars to establishing a U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to manage federal spending, Musk’s advocacy has turned Dogecoin from a silly internet joke into a cultural touchstone of today’s digital age, a symbol for technological ambition.

The Golden Principles of Memecoins

For the average user, engaging with memecoins means a high-stakes experiment with collective psychology. The first principle users must remember is that these tokens defy traditional investment logic, thriving not on utility or fundamental value, but on the fickle currents of virality. A memecoin’s success depends entirely on its ability to capture the internet’s imagination, riding the wave of jokes, trends, and cultural moments that define the online zeitgeist.

The next principle is that memecoins are only as valuable as the community backing them. A passionate and dedicated group of believers can elevate any memecoin, whether it starts as a sincere project or a half-baked joke. In the case of QUANT, its meteoric rise wasn’t driven by technological innovation but by collective outrage. The community’s determination to pump the token after the creator’s rug pull underscores the central role that shared enthusiasm — and sometimes, sheer spite — plays in memecoin valuation. Yet, as QUANT’s story also shows, this energy is fleeting. When the excitement dissipates, so does the token’s value.

Lastly, this volatile ecosystem embodies the principle of high risk, high reward of memecoins. Memecoins are infamous for their dramatic price swings, offering the possibility of turning small investments into massive gains, or losing everything overnight. For instance, PENGU, the native token of the Pudgy Penguins NFT collection, surged by 581% within 24 hours of its exchange debut, driven largely by community enthusiasm and a well-executed airdrop campaign. In mid-January 2025, PENGU was trading at approximately $0.0316, a 54.8% decrease from its all-time high of $0.06845 recorded on December 17, 2024.

The chaotic nature of memecoins inevitably raises serious ethical questions. What does it say about the crypto market when a 13-year-old can profit from reckless behavior, launching tokens with little accountability? The QUANT saga highlights the need for clearer boundaries in this space, from regulation to ethical considerations about who can create and promote digital assets.

In the memecoin market, every trader becomes an anthropologist, navigating a world governed by virality, humor, and the unpredictable forces of collective action. This is where finance meets internet culture, where the value of an asset is determined not by what it does, but by how loudly the crowd believes in it.

Through the lens of memecoins, we observe the power of collective belief, the impact of viral culture and the democratization of financial participation. These tokens, in essence, humanity in action — unpredictable, collaborative, and endlessly inventive.

Meme-ing with Binance

For those intrigued by the memecoin frenzy but seeking a more curated playground, Binance offers a way to join in with more confidence. Binance’s listing process involves thorough vetting that helps weed out blatant spoofs and fly-by-night rug-pull schemes.

Still, it’s crucial to remember: Even on Binance, engaging with memecoins is far from a guaranteed path to riches. The thrill of this market comes with inherent risks, and you should never trade more than you’re willing to lose. Whether you’re riding the wave of a cultural phenomenon or just want to dip a toe into the memecoin mania, Binance offers a way to do so with more security and structure in an otherwise unpredictable landscape.

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