Immy Dorse 
Market fluctuations are primarily driven by BTC and ETH, which, after another price drop,
quickly rebounded, establishing a new short-term bottom.
In this rebound, we noticed that various sectors in the entire industry showed some
performance, whether it’s the old concepts of public chains, L2, the Bitcoin ecosystem,
Memecoin, or AI.
However, comparing the rebound extent of tokens across various sectors, it can be summarized
that Meme or sectors with Memecoin attributes are the strongest. For example, PEPE, WIF,
FLOKI, and even WEN, all these standout Meme projects of this cycle, have been rapidly
rebounding.
Coincidentally, Forbes also released the list of the top 10 best-performing cryptocurrencies with
a market value of over $1 billion in the first half of 2024, including WIF, PEPE, ASI, FLOKI,
JASMY, AR, CORE, TON, BGB, and BONK. Among these tokens, Memecoin occupies four
spots on the list, and three belong to the Solana ecosystem, reflecting the inevitable trend of
ecosystem and Meme complementing each other in this cycle.
In the last cycle, the most successful aspect of the Solana ecosystem was DeFi, while at that
time, Memecoin was mostly on BSC or Ethereum. In this cycle, Solana’s high-speed public
chain advantage is leading, with core team members and key ecosystem projects trying out
Meme, making Meme almost as important as DeFi, or it can be said that Solana’s achievements
almost stem from Meme.
The next question to consider is that the development of Meme is highly competitive. Due to the
characteristics of Meme, it can damage ecosystem liquidity and user enthusiasm. For investors,
it is necessary to find the next public chain ecosystem that can provide a growth environment for
Meme and replicate its success.
The answer is undoubtedly TON. So how can we find opportunities within the rules of both TON
and Meme?
Memecoin is the Hottest Trend of This Cycle
The Meme sector began to emerge in the last cycle, when BSC started promoting high-speed
on-chain DEXs. On public chains with fast transaction confirmation speeds, the permissionless
nature of DEXs was fully utilized. Meme tokens, which often feature individual IPs or well-known
animal images as project themes, became the most dazzling presence in the secondary market
by leveraging Meme culture and the hype associated with cryptocurrency.
Although the “zoo” tokens became very popular for a time, after the hype faded, Meme tokens
also became synonymous with behavior such as being ownerless, irresponsible, easy to run
away with funds, and having extreme losses and gains.
When the potential of Meme needed to be revalidated, tokens like Doge, Shib, and People
appeared. These tokens, through market hype, became projects with potential market value
management, strong community culture, and operations, thereby solidifying the Meme sector in
the industry.
In the new cycle, Memecoin has not only continued these previous characteristics but has also
developed more mature ideas and operational methods. Taking Solana as an example, from the
third quarter of 2023, the Solana ecosystem began to take off. Unlike the growth in the previous
cycle, within two years, the DeFi infrastructure of the Solana ecosystem has become very
complete. The development goals of the ecosystem have clearly shifted from the number of
projects to ecosystem transaction volume and hype.
At this time, it seems that the entire ecosystem started to focus uniformly on Meme. Firstly, on
Solana’s DEXs, extremely complete processes for the issuance and trading of Meme tokens,
liquidity supply, etc., spontaneously formed, including various liquidity sharing platforms and
DEX market-making tools. Secondly, Solana’s founders and team publicly supported certain
Memes, and top projects like Jupiter practiced highly popular Meme token airdrops during the
Meme boom, which subsequent Meme projects also eagerly imitated.
Under the combined influence of Meme’s strong hype ability and the heat of the Solana
ecosystem, Solana returned to the industry’s peak. Tokens within the ecosystem, especially
Meme tokens, achieved legends of tenfold and hundredfold gains, with most projects having
very high valuations. Now, the expectations for such returns are gradually shifting in investors’
minds to the next target—TON.
The Meme Gene of TON
In the growth experience of Meme projects and ecosystem integration, Meme has always been
regarded as a thermometer of ecosystem popularity. For example, the continued high popularity
and on-chain transaction volume of Solana can be attributed to the fact that, under the frequent
fluctuations of BTC and ETH, Meme tokens can strongly rebound after BTC and ETH stabilize
briefly. WIF is an excellent example of this.
Moreover, Meme creators continuously follow new trends to create new projects, using the
strategy of “heating up the hype” to maintain the growth of tokens on DEX. Almost all early
Meme projects achieve multiple growths, creating a continuous “myth” that attracts investors.
We can also observe that the complementary relationship between public chain ecosystems
and Meme tokens concentrates attention and traffic on a particular Meme for a certain period.
Therefore, the significant reputation of Memecoin is a result of joint efforts by public chain
teams, projects, and users.
At this breakthrough point, the achievements of Meme on TON could be even more prominent
in the future.
Memecoin focuses on strong community culture and widespread users. The enthusiasm
and liquidity brought by these factors can quickly boost a project’s market value. TON has a
natural advantage due to its large user base on Telegram.
TON’s Notcoin is a successful example based on Meme characteristics. Although Notcoin is
fundamentally a GameFi token, its wide user base and viral spread have led users to widely
recognize it as a Memecoin. Many tokens imitating Notcoin have also emerged.
We can say that Memecoin on TON has already merged into a new form—other types of tokens
with strong Meme characteristics. This has successfully expanded the boundaries of the Meme
sector on TON to include cultural, gaming, conceptual, and even utility-type Memes.
TON’s official team is also continuously promoting the development of Meme.
Starting in 2024, TON has been encouraging users to trade tokens and use DeFi applications
by rewarding them with TON tokens through open leagues. After the third Open League
(second season), since Memecoins accounted for over 30% of the final listed trading projects,
the TON Foundation included Memecoins as an important category in its rules.
During the entire open league period, the foundation distributed about $40 million worth of TON,
and in the final ranking, Memecoins accounted for over 40%. The participation of Memecoins
and other types of tokens continues to rise. In the current fifth Open League Season,
Memecoins account for nearly 50%.
On Solana, the rampant growth of Memes was due to multiple factors including ecosystem
popularity, technical foundation, and user volume. The same applies to TON. Under the
guidance of the TON Foundation, once the development of applications on TON becomes
sufficiently convenient, Memes will also flourish. Additionally, due to the large number of small
and medium-sized projects on TON, these Meme projects are also beginning to use ecosystem
partners and utility and platform-type projects to assist in their operations.
The Pool of Meme Projects on TON
There are already many Meme projects on TON, but if we screen them based on the
characteristics of successful Meme projects in the market, several main strategies can be used
as screening factors:
First, those related to TON officials and major projects. Two weeks ago, an application
based on the concept of the pet of the TON founder was launched, airdropping tokens to users
based on their join time on Telegram. In the past, the pet Meme of the Solana founder
performed brilliantly, and this time, the pet Meme of the TON founder seems to be leading a
new wave of Meme popularity. Similarly, many project officials’ Memes are the same, such as
Jupiter’s mascot cat Meme token WEN, which has had its moments of high liquidity and price
performance after its launch.
Second, star projects in The Open League. Since Notcoin was launched, it has consistently
ranked high in trading volume in The Open League, with few projects able to surpass Notcoin.
Similarly, in the season competition indicators, those tokens with high growth and trading
volumes are relatively excellent projects. For example, in the first open league, which was a test
league before the official season, JETTON and Fish were typical representatives of Meme
tokens among non-DeFi and non-GameFi tokens. JETTON’s name is derived from TON’s token
contract, giving it a certain native advantage in ecosystem culture, while Fish is a well-designed
Meme token. Both have performed well in price since the start of the season. JETTON has
consistently ranked well in subsequent open league seasons. As the season progresses,
JETTON’s K-line performance has shown clear rotation characteristics.
Third, the ever-emerging newcomers. In a constantly growing ecosystem, new Meme
projects have advantages that old projects cannot compare with, and new projects can quickly
grow into season star projects. In other ecosystems, new projects show a trend of continuous
forward momentum in both expectations and community enthusiasm, which confirms the
characteristic of “heating up the hype.” For example, recently, various Memes have emerged around the U.S. election, and price myths continue to be created.
In the current fifth season of The Open League, the top ten projects serve as an example.
Among these, Notcoin is the hottest TON project recently, ranking 54th in cryptocurrency market
value. Other tokens like JETTON, WALL, DFC, HYDRA, and COFE are star projects that have
ranked high in recent open league seasons. These projects are relatively new and have shown
good K-line performance recently due to attention and support in the league.
From a price perspective, TONG, ranking the third, has completed about a two-fold increase
during the latest season. Its data promoting on-chain TVL and growth are also excellent. The
community enthusiasm for TONG comes from the understanding of “pain” in Eastern culture,
cleverly leveraging the international popularity of Chinese culture. Unlike other Memes, TONG
was issued through an IDO and used some liquidity management functions of TON’s DEX, such
as allocating 30% for liquidity and using the 100,000 TON raised in the IDO to form the initial
liquidity pool. 40% is linearly distributed to the liquidity mining plan on the DEX. For Meme
projects, many projects have achieved excellent results by issuing through IDOs and then finely
managing liquidity. For example, Jupiter’s WEN, the first project on Jupiter’s IDO, chose full
circulation, directly managing liquidity with DEX and CEX. Additionally, projects like IQ50 and
PUMP launched on Bakerswap follow similar allocation rules and provide early liquidity support
and later liquidity management.
There are many Meme projects, constantly emerging, which means their volume cannot directly
become like Doge. However, for Memecoins, hype equals value, and attention equals value.
Any factors that help increase user purchasing power could be the best influencing factors.
Especially for projects participating in the league, it brings together all the driving forces in the
ecosystem in a short time. Therefore, projects like TONG can maintain parity with early
excellent projects like JETTON and WALL. With good competition results, they may break the
spread threshold and become high-quality Memes.
Conclusion
The popularity of TON no longer needs validation; however, for the Meme sector, the unique
characteristics of TON will enable Memes on TON to start afresh.
Under clear Meme sector rules, TON serves as an excellent ecological soil. Yet, in previous
public chains, the explosion of Memes was closely linked to the chain’s infrastructure. Memes
require token issuance, liquidity supply, and wallet tools. On TON, they also need to integrate
with Telegram’s frontend, which is currently limiting the extensive development of Memes on
TON.
TON’s technology and development tools still require education and simplification for
developers. However, we have already seen the presence of token contracts like Jetton, DEXs
such as STON and Dedust, as well as launchpads like TonUP and middleware platforms like
LayerPixel that provide token frontends and issuance services. By simplifying the overall
difficulty of token operations, Meme projects can launch faster and reach the maturity stage of
liquidity supply more quickly, creating more defined opportunities.
Therefore, if you are looking for Memes on TON just as you did on Solana, the above-
mentioned methods are certainly feasible. However, always remember the viral spread and
hype-driven characteristics of Memes. Under the heat of TON and the viral spread advantage of
Telegram, you can find timely targets and seize opportunities for success!
