There is no shortage of opinion when it comes to President Donald Trump’s grand launch of Solana Memecoin. The news and shocking performance in the days leading up to $TRUMP’s inauguration confirmed the dawn of a new era for our industry, emphatically declaring that the rules are now very different. Amidst all the drama, confusion and hot takes, I wonder: Did Bitcoiners blow the bag?
Last year, at block height 840,000, a significant change went into effect on the Bitcoin network — and I’m not talking about halving. Runes metaprotocol launched, making it possible to mine and trade fungible tokens on Bitcoin. The event was met with a record influx of volume, and thousands of sats/vb were briefly sent to the mempool. While the mania was short-lived, the existence of Runes and early indications of product-market fit showed that Bitcoin had an appetite to attract significant capital for the use case of tokens and memecoins, currently supported by Solana, Base, and Ethereum. is dominant Bitcoin miners could also have benefited from increased transaction fees (beyond the brief spike), and the urge to reduce network congestion may have led to even more rapid progress toward new solutions for faster, cheaper Bitcoin transactions. . In short, more people will use and learn Bitcoin.
Instead, our community was bitterly divided on the subject. Some expressed concern, labeling proponents of runes and tokens on Bitcoin as “shitcoiners”. These criticisms often stem from a deep desire to protect the integrity of Bitcoin – a valid and important consideration. However, what if, instead of dismissing these emerging trends outright, we explored ways to channel this enthusiasm into a productive, Bitcoin-aligned framework? An honest search for viable solutions to meet demand responsibly may find the way forward to meet market demand for tokens on Bitcoin. Perhaps we could have spent the last several months rallying around the development of a leaner UX, improved functionality and creative approaches to loss mitigation, on-chain implementation. Instead, we left these users to market competitors.
If we had guessed correctly and prepared for the reality that Bitcoin could attract economic activity on other chains, we would have seen yesterday’s $TRUMP transaction volume of $8.5B and nearly 1M new users on Bitcoin. would be in a better position to encourage doing business. than Solana. Many will say that “memecoins are not a business and this kind of volatility has no place on Bitcoin” — but that claim does not change the fact that by ignoring this economic phenomenon, we are ceding the ground and effectively Missing the opportunity to onboard users properly. Bitcoin by the millions.
Our PTSD of rug pulls, ICOs and pump and dumps can limit our imaginations. The truth is, no one knows where all this strange economic activity is going or how (if?) it will end. Many bitcoiners believed that DOGE would be dead by now, yet it currently boasts a market cap of $54B and is entering its 10th year in existence. It’s possible that what we call “memecoins” are becoming a fixture in the new, emerging economy, whether you like them or not.
The memecoin ecosystem undoubtedly has its pitfalls – scams, rip-offs and gambling to name a few. But I believe a reasonable case can be made to suggest a deeper explanation for the market’s appetite for unrestricted betting on what participants find funny, provocative, witty, timely, useful or popular. At the end of the day, much of our modern economy is reduced to various forms of gambling with varying degrees of sophistication and abstraction. Although the ultimate vision of hyperbitcoinization is to correct this, in the most optimistic scenario it seems realistic to expect a transition period and even some remnants of the fiat system. The fact is that as of today, you can buy $FARTCOIN or you can buy $TESLA call options. Either way you are betting based on a number of factors (albeit very different) factors that have convinced you that your position is shared by others or who will follow suit, leading to your bet/investment. The value will increase.
I don’t claim to know the roadmap for $TRUMP, and I admit that a lot could go wrong. But I find it interesting that 80% of the “pre-mined” supply is locked in for three years, which seems to indicate a clear intention not to “pump and dump”. It suggests a minimum commitment of 3 years to create value in some way, shape or form.
Perhaps a new reality is emerging where a high profile individual’s personal memecoin is a reflection of their relative performance or popularity in the public eye, the mechanics of a stock fluctuating based on relevant news or the release of a company’s quarterly earnings. is similar to If this thesis holds, then the highest quality memecoins will be managed by people and teams who have aligned incentives with their holders, such as publicly traded companies’ interest in doing right by their shareholders. keep
Bitcoin has always thrived when its community accepts challenges with creativity and confidence. Rather than dismissing Mimcoin as a passing trend, I’m interested in how Bitcoin can become the foundation of a better token ecosystem – rooted in security, transparency and user empowerment under a Bitcoin standard. Rather than missing the forest for the trees or throwing the baby out with the bathwater, it seems prudent to consider a more entrepreneurial approach to meeting the apparent market demand for memecoins. Are there productive ways for Bitcoin to filter out the noise while attracting the highest quality memes in the runes ecosystem, or is this just high-time priority thinking?
It’s not just DOGE and TRUMP’s combined $100B market cap that Bitcoin is losing. We’re also missing out on the mindset of the millions of people involved in these projects, the talent of the developers building these chains and the narrative that slips away from us when competing chains gain significant market share that Bitcoin can’t or won’t accept. Doesn’t seem ready for either. . By embracing innovation and thoughtfully addressing these emerging trends, Bitcoin can maintain its position not only as the hardest money, but as the basis for a dynamic economy, without compromising its core principles.
This article is a take. The views expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.
