Author: Luca Schnetzler Translation: Shan Oppa, Golden Finance

The crypto market has gone through a crazy journey in the past 18 months. In this chaos, we witness the rise of meme coins. While meme coins are not new – in fact, they are one of the oldest forms of cryptocurrencies – they once again prove themselves to be the best carrier for interacting with one of the most unique mechanisms of the crypto market (speculation).

Although meme coins are pure and artistic in nature, they also have a dark side. No, it’s not about insiders or manipulation groups here—this kind of problem runs through the crypto industry. The real problem, in my opinion, is the lack of effort, the failure to seize opportunities, and the complacency of people when building meme coins. Maybe I'm too naive, but my refusal to accept that the meme coins will stop there - at least, I hope it won't.

I firmly believe that the "Trojan horse" of cryptocurrency popularization is intellectual property (IP) because it can build trust in this industry that lacks trust and reputation, and memecoin is a form of IP, like NFT. Meme coins have huge potential to drive cryptocurrencies forward by integrating into the cultural perception of the general public. Instead of breaking through the boundaries of crypto-native characters, however, they stagnate, lack innovation, and even seem boring. If they continue to exist in their current form, I worry that they will ultimately do more harm than good. For this category to truly flourish, meme coins must evolve, and I think the direction of evolution is to become social currency—that is, to go beyond mere hype to become a scalable, memorable and widely loved IP asset.

I am not going to replace meme coins with social currency, but I hope to add the last step to the growth path of meme coins. Meme coins must be upgraded from the “unproductive image” on the chain to a productive and autonomous social currency, thus driving the crypto market forward. I think there are already some tokens on the market that meet this standard. In this article, I will explore the current status of meme coins, why successful meme coins should evolve into social currency, and the impact of social currency on the crypto market.

What is social currency?

Social currency is a tokenized asset that represents value within a specific community and is often used to incentivize interaction, reward participation, and enhance brand or community loyalty. It works similar to traditional currencies, but its value comes from social interaction, reputation and influence.

In layman's terms, social currency is a meme currency with fundamental value - it is a progressive and self-operable asset, focusing on creating a community that continuously creates viral transmission, rather than simply squeezing value from short-term hype.

Meme currency vs. Social currency

Meme currency does not create viral transmission - they just use the hot spots to spread until the popularity dissipates. Social currency is "conscious" and can continuously promote the spread of its own IP through various media, cooperation and integration.

The typical life cycle of meme currency:

Conception → Token release → Develop community → Community promotes narrative → Narrative extinction → Community extinction

The life cycle of social currency:

Conception → Token release → Develop community → Community promotes narrative → Brand creation → Brand expansion → Ecosystem formation → Become a globally recognized currency

In my opinion, every social currency was initially meme currency, but when it gained enough momentum, it needed to evolve into a social currency. The chart below clearly illustrates this.

I like this picture because it shows that social currency is not about replacing meme coins, but rather evolution of meme coins. In my opinion, social currency is a meme coins with real value support. Anyone can issue meme coins, but only a few can give it real value.

If you think that crypto assets with strong liquidity will still be held primarily by retail investors, then you believe meme coins and their success. If you think institutional capital will enter the altcoin market in the future, you must expect the return of fundamental value. Social currency combines the two: they have both the retail appeal of meme coins and fun enough to make institutional investors willing to participate. For me, social currency combines the best characteristics of meme coins and functional tokens, becoming a combination of the two.

When we analyze the disadvantages of meme coins, we can clearly see that their potential is much more than that, but the consensus in the industry makes people believe that "meme coins areIt should be so, that's their essence." I personally refuse to accept this. I don't want the future of meme coins to stagnate. To understand my frustration, we need to explore the current limitations of meme coins and how to solve these problems through the transformation of social currency.

The disadvantages of meme coins

•Stastes—Once the popularity fades, meme coins lose momentum.

•Stigmatization of meme coins—99% of investors end up losing money, they are not holding assets for a long time.

•Zerosum Game (PVP)— Meme coins rely on short-term trading, like a game of passing flowers, with funds flowing only between existing users.

• Lack of infrastructure to attract new users—not able to bring real net new users.

• Lack of real beliefs—no basic value support except for hype and unrealistic stories.

• Success is often based on fantasy and luck—no internal logic for sustainable growth.

Why is social currency better?

• Having "autonomous consciousness"— Social currency can create trends and keep up with trends, always maintaining relevance.

•Both the popularity of meme coins with real fundamental support—suitable for long-term holding, not just short-term hype.

•Positive-sum Game (PvE)——meaning to promote the development of the crypto industry and attract new users to the market.

•Continuously create demand——growing through content operations, brand cooperation and IP development.

•Building real and industry-leading value——providing holders have a deeper sense of identity and belief in the project.

•Success is not just about luck or hype— Instead, it is based on real fundamentals.

Automatic consciousness vs. Non-autonomous consciousness

For traders and investors, the core difference between meme coins and social currency is **"automatic consciousness" - that is, insuranceAbility to maintain long-term correlation. Social currency is conscious **, but meme coins are not. That's why traders and investors should pay attention to their differences.

Autonomy awareness = Relevance = Attention = Kinetic energy.

Unless you are a meme coin with a long-term cultural accumulation, any meme coin that lacks autonomy will eventually die.

You might think:

"I don't want my meme coins to be executed at risk."

This view stems from the psychological tactics of NFT art collectors in 2020, and to my surprise, this narrative still exists today. My rebuttal is simple: something without the risk of execution is essentially completely dependent on luck.

Execution risk is the only risk worth taking. If your investment does not depend on execution, then it is certain that your return will be much lower than those investors who bet on execution. 1 million out of 999999 times, all of them were the result (of course, I hope you are the lucky exception).

The future of social currency

Meme coins must add a last link in their evolutionary path: when they break through the growth bottleneck, they evolve into social currency.

Tokens that shape culture, build deep community connections, and incorporate real-world applications will become leaders in the new era of cryptocurrencies. It is not only necessary but inevitable to transform from a stagnant speculative asset to a dynamic and influential ecosystem.

Now, the question you need to think about is: Who will lead this change?