Murad Mahmudov, as a witness and analyst of this trend, proposed the concept of “Meme Coin Super Cycle”. According to him, Meme Coin is not just a pure speculative tool, but the most powerful user popularization engine in the crypto world. He took an in-depth look at the key factors behind Meme Coin’s success and explained how to promote the growth of these projects through social media and community power.
Every era needs its own spiritual leader, and the same is true in the realm of memes.
If Musk, the world’s richest man who promoted Dogecoin in the last round, is an old-school missionary, then Murad is a new generation of super fomo who advocates cult culture.
From a few Meme coin projects in 2017, it grew to tens of millions by 2024 and gradually formed a huge market. At the same time, the market value of many Meme coins has surpassed billions of dollars, becoming a significant part of the crypto market.
Murad Mahmoudov as a witness and analyst of this trend, proposed the concept of “Meme coin super cycle”. According to him, Meme coin is not just a pure speculative tool, but the most powerful user popularization engine in the crypto world. He took an in-depth look at the key factors behind Meme coin’s success and explained how to promote the growth of these projects through social media and community power.
In this LBank Pulse Focus column, we are honored to invite Murad, a leading figure in the Meme Coin space, to share his in-depth insights on the future of Meme Coins, particularly his perspectives on crypto trends in 2025 and beyond.
Sharing it will help us understand in depth how the rise of Meme Coin will promote the global popularity of cryptocurrency and lead future market development.
LBank: Can you share with us your professional background? Between studying at Princeton University, working at Goldman Sachs, and becoming a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency space, what’s it like?
Murad: I’m from Azerbaijan and I studied in the United States and then in Beijing for a year. In Beijing, I met the fourth OKX employee, who introduced me to the cryptocurrency field. After graduating, I entered the mainstream financial sector, engaging in options trading in Hong Kong and commodities trading in Singapore. In 2016-2017, I started participating in work related to ICOs, cryptocurrencies and blockchain, and realized that Bitcoin could become the next wave of revolution. Since then, I have devoted myself to this field, in particular to trading, investment, on-chain analysis, asset management, and I am now developing in the field of DeFi. Additionally, I am also actively involved in projects related to Meme Coins.
LBank: You have a preview of the current “Meme Coin Super Cycle” and 2025. Can you tell us more?
Murad: The origin of Meme coins dates back to Dogecoin in 2013. Since then, the scale of Meme coins has continued to expand with each cycle. In 2017 there was only Dogecoin, in 2021 there were 5,000 Meme coins, and in 2024 the number of Meme coins reached tens of millions. I believe this trend will continue until Bitcoin becomes the world’s universal currency.
Outside of cryptocurrencies, the main driver is continued inflation and global pressures on the money supply, which push people to constantly compete, outperform their competitors, and keep moving forward.
At the same time, artificial intelligence is replacing many jobs and competition in various industries is becoming increasingly fierce. Furthermore, people are also aware that traditional communities and institutions in the real world are gradually losing their influence and importance. All these factors together are pushing people towards cryptocurrencies, meme coins and these crypto communities.
From an industry perspective, from 2015 to 2017, people could still purchase high-quality projects such as ETH and BNB, which at the time had a market value of only $30 million. Today, some projects have a market value of up to $30 billion once launched. Successful crypto projects in the past have very strong support from the core community. The key to forming a core community is that ordinary people can participate early at a lower price and thus become richer.
The central idea of my strategy is that 10,000 people each holding $1,000 is much better than one person holding $10 million, or 10 million people holding only $1 each. The greater the proportion of these holders in a community, the more media attention, enthusiasm and influence it will generate. This is the key to boosting the development of Meme Coin.
LBank: What qualities do you think a successful Meme piece should have?
Murad: The most critical concept is “critical mass,” meaning that the community has the conditions necessary for explosive spread. For example, it has 100,000 holders, a market value of $500 million, and is gradually listed on major exchanges. I think large cap meme coins generally rise steadily with less downside risk, while small cap meme coins are riskier and the probability of success may be less than 1%. In contrast, mid-cap meme coins offer the best risk-reward ratio, especially mid-cap projects with strong and growing communities, such as SPX 6900, GIGA, MOG, POPCAT, APU and HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu.
LBank: How important is community participation to the success of Memecoin? Are there specific strategies?
Murad: Community activity is crucial and indicators to measure community health can be analyzed in two dimensions: supply side and demand side.
On the supply side, I focus on several key factors: first, the proportion of “diamond hands” (the proportion of long-term holders), second, the degree of decentralization, the fairness of token distribution and the first performances. I hope to see a higher proportion of token holders holding tokens above $1,000 or even $3,000, as they are the most motivated “core force” to promote the project. From an on-chain behavior perspective, I hope these token holders will be more determined rather than frequently engaging in speculative transactions.
On the demand side, price is a key factor, and their rise indicates that the community is actively attracting new members. At the same time, attention should also be paid to distribution channels, cross-chain bridges, partnerships and stock exchange listings.
Finally, the influence of social networks cannot be ignored, notably X and TikTok. In fact, the role of YouTube, Reddit and Facebook is also gradually increasing. A successful Meme piece must have wide exposure on these platforms and continue to expand its influence across these platforms. Meme coins that perform well usually invest a lot of energy in this regard and achieve remarkable results.
LBank: How do you think crypto trends will evolve in 2025 and beyond?
Murad: I think we need to distinguish between long-term storable trends and short-term hot trends, especially those “meme cultures” that have lasting vitality. For example, memes like Doge, Pepe or GIGA have existed on the Internet for many years. At the same time, there are also hot trends that only last for a short time. In the case of TikTok, the key is determining whether a meme can survive for many years or disappear in just a few months.
My general view is that the crazier and more inspiring the meme, the better. Because the stronger the inspiration, the more money, time, energy and work community members will invest. I think crypto trends in 2025 will be different than in 2024, but still full of opportunities.
LBank: Do you think Memecoins will promote the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?
Murad: The core crypto assets will be Bitcoin (BTC) as the primary means of storing value, and other layer 1 projects, such as Ethereum and Solana, will play a relatively minor role. Stablecoins are expected to continue to exist for the next 20 to 30 years.
Before the rise of Meme coins, the positioning of altcoins has always been vague. The rise of Meme coins has divided crypto assets into two categories: one is tokens with cash flow, which gradually evolve into “shares” on the chain; the other is tokenized assets based on crypto culture, community, speculation and belief.
LBank: Do you personally think that Meme Coin can promote the popularity of cryptocurrency around the world?
Murad: This cycle, Memecoin will be the main driver of cryptocurrency adoption. Many people first came into contact with cryptocurrency through Phantom, Metamask, or exchanges, and Memecoin has attracted people of all ages and cultural backgrounds with its easy-to-understand features – no white papers , complex technology or tedious re-staking concepts. It has become the best entry point into the world of cryptography thanks to its universality.
Users will then gradually come into contact with wallets, DeFi exchanges, cross-chain bridges, stablecoins and commodity assets such as BTC. Meme Coins serve as an entry point to attract users to the crypto industry, and these deeper explorations will encourage them to stay in this ecosystem for a long time.
LBank: In five years, do you think Memecoin will still exist?
Murad: Dogecoin and a few other meme coins have proven that meme coins can go through multiple cycles and persist. They continue to reach new heights. I believe Dogecoin will hit $1 during this cycle and hit new all-time highs again. Additionally, there will be meme coins launching ETFs in the future.
LBank: Do meme coins need real utility to survive in a bear market, or can they remain purely speculative?
Murad: In a bear market, utility is a positive factor, but in a bull market, utility can become a constraint. In a bull market, purity will allow meme coins to perform better, while in a bear market, utility can support prices, but also limit upside. Projects like Shiba Inu and Floki have proven this by increasing utility in a bear market. In the future, meme coins will add DeFi functions, transform into investment DAOs, and even create fashion and lifestyle brands.
Author：LBank
This article reflects the opinions of the PANews columnist and does not represent the position of PANews. PANews assumes no legal liability. The article and opinions do not constitute investment advice.
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