Is This Crypto Cycle a MEME Coin Cycle?
Are we too late to make money in crypto? Will meme coins make us rich? Will you become a millionaire if you invest in AI coins?
My readers will know that I am not a fan of altcoins. For the most part, I find them repulsive scams. Useless in any real terms, they serve to fill the pockets of their founders and manipulators. I tend to agree with Michael Sailor: “There is no second-best cryptocurrency!” Having said that, there is an exception to this rule.
The honest joke coins
Things like DOGE, the original MEME coin. I know, I know. Doge is a boomer coin. I’m old even for mentioning it. It doesn’t even have a hat! What a disgrace. With that out of the way, let’s talk about meme coins.
“But they’re the most useless cryptocurrencies of them all!” one might argue. True. But since almost all cryptocurrencies, this side of daddy Bitcoin, and some gambling-enabling smart contract pipe dreams, they all are. Most just pretend otherwise.
While meme coins are the absolute worst trash, as worthless as the memes themselves, at least they are honest about it. And that honest approach suddenly makes them worth something.
Everyone knows they “don’t do anything.” We all know they will eventually lose all value. There is no pretending.
It’s an honest gamble that, with the help of the memes themselves, gives their buyers some joy- a laugh, a sense of community, and a dream of a sudden pump that will change their lives. Let’s not lie to each other — they serve this singular purpose.
Is this crypto cycle a MEME coin or an AI coin cycle?
So far, it’s been Bitcoin, a select few altcoin outliers like Solana, meme coins, and a touch of AI coins.
AI-themed cryptocurrencies make rational sense, right?
All the tech is about Artificial Intelligence these days, so we want a piece of that pie as well. If we can’t gamble on the AI companies themselves, at least we can buy cryptocurrencies with AI in the name. This is how most market participants think.
While I haven’t researched any of the AI coins, I can tell you they don’t work on creating their own AI systems or proposing any practical AI service. None of them is the new Open AI. But they do have AI in the name and their so-called “vision.”
The chances of the big AIs one day either using these coins, or some grand new AI being created by the money acquired through these tokens are ZERO. Fine, 0.0000000000000001%. Happy?
Good, let’s move on. Still, the name sells. Since AI is popular, so will the AI coins be. Investing some money in AI coins may be very profitable. Just get out before the cycle’s end, or you’ll have very heavy bags of worthless shit nobody wants anymore.
Trust me. Bear markets are no fun when you see your investments go from riches down 97% and shaking the entire time if someone remembers to pump them the next cycle.
Let’s get another thing clear. We, the retail, don’t buy things because we understand the underlying technology, tokenomics, or do proper research. We can’t. You need lots of resources, time, and knowledge for that, and we have none. When retail comes into the market, it comes with one purpose and guiding principle.
- What can I buy that will make me the most money in the least amount of time?
How does retail find what to invest in?
They go on forums and social media searching for ideas. They talk to their friends. The more money people have made with something that season, the more appealing it is for the masses.
I think meme coins are absolute winners in this regard. There is no lack of stories from rags to riches in this space, but meme coins of late are stomping them all. Just this weak, a brand new meme coin went from a one million market cap to one billion in twenty-four hours.
Crypto Twitter, now X, is full of these internet animals (profile pictures) telling their stories:
- “How I invested one thousand dollars into a meme coin, and in a few weeks, I sold it for millions.”
- “I made a hundred x on a meme coin. Here’s how you can do it, too.”
- “What is the next one thousand x meme coin?”
Anyway, it’s not a lie. Mostly. These things are not only possible. They routinely happen in every cycle. It’s not a product of research or intelligence. In fact, most of us “middle of the curve” normies have to battle out intelligence and keep moving to the left side in an up-only market, where everything flies to the moon. The stupider the idea, the faster and further it flies.
Memes are fun, and they spread through the internet like viruses
In a game of popularity, public recognition, familiarity, and appeal to the young generation, memes have no competition. It’s not even close. This is doubly true for the young guns of today. They basically talk in memes, which is good as they don’t know how to speak anymore anyway.
We’ve gone from hieroglyphs to the written word, back to hieroglyphs, or, even worse, back to cave painting to tell a story. We just paint on social media platforms instead of dark and moist caves.
Now, we can be grumpy and deny this reality, thinking that we know best or go with the flow. I’m going with the flow this cycle. I even did the unthinkable — I began playing within the Solana ecosystem, using decentralized exchanges and wallets, to see “what the kids today are up to.”
And you know what? I get it. I do. It’s fun, and it’s easy, instant, and cheap. All you have to do is buy some SOL, send it to your wallet ( I use Phantom), log into one of the decentralized exchanges (I use Raydeon and Jupiter), and voila — you can now buy all the meme crap your heart desires.
There is a tiny learning curve, but if you stick to portals like DEX Scanner and Coin Gecko or Coin Marketcap, you’ll have the correct addresses and the resources you need. Make no mistake, it’s all crap, but crap that may very well one day have its time in the spotlight.
I’m pretty confident that quite a few “low cap” meme coins are still out there that will break onto a CEX (centralized exchange) and go 100x, perhaps even 1000x.
Are you too late to the party?
Well, we’ve been in a bull market for about a year now, so you’re not early. And neither am I, as I’ve managed to repeat the same mistakes I make every cycle. I keep insisting on buying a decent dip that never comes as the price runs away from me.
I am horrible at trading the initial phases of bull markets because I hate just market buying the top, but in such environments, that is the only thing to do unless you want to stay sidelined. You don’t. It’s painful!
What’s next for the crypto market?
- If we experience a similar cycle as the previous three times — a dip before the halving — then the biggest, steepest, most hyped-up phase of the bull market until its inevitable overreach and a transition into a bear market. Study the cycles.
- Things are different this time because the ETFs are buying up all Bitcoin. One of these days, the four-year cycle pattern will cease to work. It could be this year, and we could enter a sort of super-cycle with no end in sight.
- A black swan, war, financial crash, or something completely unexpected cuts the party short, and we skip the final phase of the bull market.
Anything is possible, friends, so stay humble and observe the market. It will tell you the true story by drawing it in the charts.
As things stand today, I think we’re still early in the sense that there are still ample opportunities to make money in this market. If you screwed up the past year, shake it off. You’re not the only one. I think this year, there was a record of sidelined cash refusing to enter the market.
There is no point in resenting yourself for making mistakes; look toward the future, not the past. But do try to learn from them.
My working thesis for the remainder of this bull market in crypto:
- We have six to eighteen months of the bull market still ahead of us, but it will be more turbulent. I remain open to any evidence to the contrary. Cycles theory.
- Memes and AI will be the winners of this cycle. The problem is you can’t know which ones, so you might want to diversify and not put your whole life savings into “DirtyHungryCatMemeCoin,” for example.
- I don’t think the theory of diminishing returns works in this space, including Bitcoin. The previous cycle was ruined artificially, and I think we might be surprised by the upside in this cycle.
- The market has undoubtedly changed. Two to five hundred million new inflows into Bitcoin ETFs will do that. A supercycle is not out of the question. Classic rotations from Bitcoin to large, mid, and small caps might not work anymore. It’s Bitcoin + meme coins, as it would appear.
Why would anyone buy a meme coin when they can buy Bitcoin?
I’m something of a Bitcoin maxi. No, I don’t scream at people on the internet, eat raw stakes, and pray in the church of Bitcoin Jesus, but I do believe in Bitcoin and what it stands for (and I dump on altcoins all the time).
The thing is, Bitcoin is getting awfully expensive. While you can buy a fragment of Bitcoin, most new market participants who fuel the bull market’s frantic phase won’t want to do that. They will do what they always do: Look for the cheapest coins that can repeat the success of Bitcoin or some superhero meme coin like WIF.
They’ll think: “I can buy one hundred thousand coins instead of 0.0001 BTC, which is one one-thousandth of a Bitcoin. Maybe it will go up to one dollar or even a hundred, and I’ll be a millionaire!”
I get it. Bitcoin is now more attractive to those who want to preserve their wealth, not those who don’t have any money and want to get there fast. They have to take on more risk and are willing to. That’s always been the driving force of altcoins, and it will remain so in the future.
- If you have millions or at least hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest, a Bitcoin-heavy portfolio is the way to go. A few percent can then be spent on fun and gambling. It’s also the perfect answer if you’re interested in the long game and your time preference is in decades.
- If you are starting with a few hundred or a few thousand dollars, I have to admit that buying Bitcoin won’t change your life. You’re probably better off gambling in the Altocin sandbox.
Your risk appetite depends on your personal situation and character. Always consider it not in terms of “How much do I want to make,” but “How much am I willing to lose?”
- If you’re young and have an independent income, then gamble away. You can always make it back.
- For those for whom even Bitcoin is risky, leave the meme coins shenanigans to the young and the risk-hungry folk and just buy spot Bitcoin. It will still overperform most other assets on a long enough timeline (probably).
Have fun out there, but remember to manage risk. Buy meme coins with pocket change, and if they become worth large sums of money, sell them and walk away. You were one of the lucky ones.
Remember: “Making money in the crypto bull markets is not hard. Keeping it is!”
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