Celebrities Power Meme Coin From $BONK to Shiba Inu to DOGECOIN

It almost seems like ancient history to remember the time when Elon Musk was pumping out Dogecoin
DOZ
($DOGE) and Shiba Inu ($SHIB
SHIB
) and Matt Damon were doing high quality TV commercials for Crypto.com. On the other hand, just six months ago, Kim Kardashian was fined almost $1.3 million for EthereumMax shilling ($EMAX) and not disclosing her payment. Who can forget Justin Bieber and Eminem buying Bored Ape NFT? High achievers like to take risks – this is often what gets them to the top.

Ever since the cryptocurrency began receiving mainstream media attention when its price spiked during the 2021 boom, countless celebrities have been trying to get in on the action. Some have done a good job while some jobs have fined them. Now, at this very moment in the weird and wonderful story that is cryptocurrency, meme coins are playing the main character, enjoying their moment in the spotlight as celebrities get involved again.

Did Celebrities Accidentally Help Conceive Meme Coins?

I’d like to pause for a moment to tell you how I feel about meme coins in general. I think they’re fun, exciting, and accessible, even if they’re a little silly at times. I remember at the last bull run someone said to me “Novelty precedes usefulness” and that stuck with me. I am convinced that if we let meme coins flourish, they will bring millions of enthusiastic new users to the Web3 ecosystem, which will lead to more demand for innovation. Memecoins are an undeniable force, and those that really connect with investors often go on to do great things and develop real-world applications.

Dogecoin started as a joke, check it out now it’s an accepted payment method for businesses around the world and boasts a market cap of over $26 billion. Of course, there was plenty of celebrity support along the way. Indeed, without Elon Musk’s affection for the token, would it have gotten this far? Even the founder of DOGE sold all his possessions because he had no faith in it.

One project I would like to use as an example is $BONK. This is Solana
SOL
meme coin based on the cartoon noise made when someone gets hit on the head. Like $DOGE and $SHIB, it is characterized by the Shiba Inu dog breed. I first came across BONK when I read an article about the Solana Saga mobile phone which was suffering from low sales until phone owners were promised a BONK airdrop. Suddenly, everyone wanted the BONK and the Saga phone, causing the price of both to skyrocket. The utility of BONK then became clear – it could be used to motivate a Web3 community.

Each new Saga phone was released at 30 million BONK, with several thousand early phone owners claiming theirs. This airdrop cost around $700 when the devices got them before it went up to over $1000. It’s still around $700 as I write this, and its value has held up well because utility has followed novelty. “Bonk
BONK
boasts over 119 integrations across 10 separate chains, in categories ranging from DeFi, Gaming, NFT, Social and Wallets,” BONK’s website now claims. To get to this point, the Bonk DAO (a group of 12 Solana power brokers) had to spend millions distributing their own BONK holdings to Saga phone owners. They ended up giving away 50% of the total supply.

What does all this have to do with celebrities? Well, Solana has had her fair share of celebrity endorsements over the years. In 2021, Jason Derulo tweeted, “Bet on Solana in June. Wow, what a ride! #crypto”. Steve Harvey then got in on the action promoting the Solana NFT
NFT
collection to raise funds for his charitable foundation. Then, in early 2022, Mike Tyson said he was “all in” for Solana. These three guys combined have over 15 million Twitter followers and their sphere of influence extends far beyond that. The additional effect of crypto may be such that their publications in 2021 and 2022 contribute to the growth of Solana. This then contributed to the success of BONK and this fueled the meme coin craze. It’s a domino effect.

I feel that the crypto community is drawn to meme coin projects because they represent digital excitement, the randomness and spontaneity of memes, and the power of crypto to make overnight millionaires. And I’m not the only one. Jennifer Booz leads ecosystem development and growth for APhone, the world’s first decentralized smartphone that enables anyone to use high-performance, decentralized applications on any smartphone with a browser.

“Memcoins are a great example of demystifying decentralization,” says Jennifer. “They are inherently entertaining, but they also have a powerful educational role; the first step in users’ journey to understanding what the decentralized network is and how it works. At APhone, we see apps like memecoins and Web3 games as an incredibly compelling gateway to crypto, blockchain, and Web3 – one that can reach huge potential without the “hard sell” that has turned off so many potential users in the past. By gamifying the experience, and most importantly by making it fun, we can teach people powerful lessons about everything from the changing nature of ownership to protecting your identity.”

Perfectly said. I would add that they are also a gateway to utility, with many memecoin projects using their platform to build real innovation. All of these considerations make memecoins pretty likable in my book.

Misspelled names

While I’ve emphasized that celebrities can directly drive the growth of meme coins, sometimes they help grow the ecosystem without doing anything. However, celebrities can be the subject of a joke.

A new meme coin trend has emerged, using misspelled celebrity names to launch tokens. Some of the best Solana meme coin names I’ve noticed so far are ‘Jeo Boden*’, ‘Danold Tromp’, ‘Xi Jongpeng’ and ‘Berik Obema’. Away from politics I also saw “Mechael Seylor”, “Olen Mosk” and “Androo Tete”. The idea behind this comes from another meme, Spoderman, which is just a poorly drawn and misspelled Spider-Man.

Sometimes the creativity of a meme is in its simplicity.

*Jeo Boden reached a market cap of $49 million, with the token price rising by about 12,000%, just 3 days after launch.

The interplay between celebrity-driven endorsements and whimsical memecoins

Whether celebrities are actively pursuing crypto sponsors and endorsements (FTX-affiliated celebrities are now looking away), or are victims of harmless fun from the “meme lords,” the famous and influential have a role to play.

Celebrities and meme coins have one important thing in common – sometimes they make millions of dollars without having to do much. While some people look on with envy, most of us are just having fun. So if a celebrity’s brand of entertainment matches the level of humor of a meme coin, why wouldn’t they collaborate? I just hope that some real innovation comes out of it. This is a more difficult question.

The “Number goes up” mentality.

Rankings fly up and meme coins increase, bringing many new people into the space. This will help resolve any liquidity issues these projects may have. Memecoin
A MEME
the whales know that selling their holdings will affect the market, so for now many of them are just holding off. This means that there is some incentive for projects to play a bit longer and for investors to hope that utility actually arrives (along with liquidity) and not just significant profits for a select few.

It’s easy to get fixated on the financial numbers: volumes and value. But that’s ignoring what’s really exciting about meme coins (and what, by the way, will drive long-term value). Coins are not just currencies; they are the basis for entire communities. Michael Rubinelli, chief gaming officer at WAX – which, along with Solana, hosts WUFFI, a cross-chain meme coin designed to incentivize third-party game developers – emphasizes the role of these coins as the basis for user-controlled spaces where people can not only transact with each other, but can build communities on their own terms.

“It is extremely important that we never forget what the decentralization revolution is,” says Rubinelli. “It’s about taking power away from impersonal, unaccountable and often greedy centralized entities and returning it back to ordinary consumers. Of course, this requires token issuers to understand their users, share the same values, and be prepared to foster democratic and independent communities. But where it does – and games are a great example – the results are amazing. People are much more loyal to platforms where they feel they have a stake in the community.”

We’ve seen with Dogecoin that what starts as a meme can have a lasting impact, and I think by using celebrities and politicians there can be a synchronicity to help make that happen. For now, however, another crypto meme – “number go up” – may be more accurate.