Meme coins they're decisive absurd and The best performing asset class this Year by a country mile in q1 the sound Of people turning dog tokens into Lamborghinis became impossible to ignore And the fomo was spectacular haters Bears and people who take crypto too Seriously started capitulating left and Right the crazy part is it's not just Retail investors cathing in now some of The biggest Venture capitalists in Crypto are coming for your memes too This raises lots of questions such as Who which dog and how much and when a Bunch of Suits start bidding a joke is It still funny and what does this all Mean for the future of meme coins today We have all the Answers crypto is the only asset class In the world where returns of 10 50 even 100x or more are not only possible but a Regular occurrence for retail investors There's no guarantee it will ever happen To you but it happens to someone every Day and in no place in crypto is this More true than in the mcoin trenches Let's just say you pun $50 on a newly Launched mcoin on salana there's a good Chance that it's some kind of scam and You'll walk away empty-handed but if it Isn't then you might just see that $50 Balloon into 500 or in extreme cases Even $5,000 or More pretty neat right but now picture
This instead of you it's a venture Capital firm with $500 million in assets Under management and instead of $50 well Let's not go there folks this is the World that we're living in right now and The VC in question here is Stratos a Backer of early stage crypto projects Which recently boasted gains of 109% net For its liquid token Fund in q1 According to renit py one of Stratus's Founding Partners a certain beanie Sporting K9 has something to do with This performance just listen to this and I quote we're very pleased to share such High returns with our LPS who are Aligned with our investment philosophy Which is based on investing early and With conviction in high quality projects As an example we started buying with at Around 1 cent in December delivering a 300X return since then well when they Put it like that it does start to make Sense after all a VC's whole job is to Look around with dollar signs in their Eyes and find risky stuff to bet on but On the other hand not all VCS are ready To swallow their pride just yet and fomo In take Andreas and harvic the Prestigious crypto VC also known as a16z As the gatekeeper for some $42 billion In assets under management a gesture in One direction or the other from these Guys is enough to make real waves in the Industry that's why when it's CTO chimed
In to pour cold water on this year's Meme season it immediately hit headlines According to a16 Z's Edie lazarin meem Coins make the mockery of crypto he says And I quote at best it looks like a Risky casino and this deeply affects Adoption yeah no kidding has he seen the Act of addresses on base this year Lazarin comments came into response of Compound another VC who argued that Meme Coins cause more crypto developers to Throw in the towel than even the long Bear Market that the last couple of Years saw he added I see the damage Every day well after raising $450 Million for down only monkey nfts in 2022 it sounds like someone learned a Thing or two about risk management any Let's not get sidetracked all of this Species in fighting over memes begs the Question wait when did institutions Start bidding these things anyway I was Trapped inside a cage a cage made out of The Daily Grind I was so unfulfilled I Felt like a blank sheet of A4 paper Something was missing from my life but I Didn't know what but then I found what I'd been missing the coin Bureau deals Page was to answer to my prayers it had Everything I needed to make me complain Exchange sign up bonuses of up to $6,000 the biggest discount on the best Hardware wallets trading fee discounts Of up to 60% on the best crypto
Exchanges exclusive altcoin Alpha thank You coin Bureau for bringing me back to Life well let's see after Dogecoin birth The memec coin genre in 2003 It was for many years the only mecoin to Gain any traction in crypto so let's Start there and work our way forward Googling Dogecoin Venture Capital turns Up a small number of VCS including firms With both minuscule and quite major who Have allegedly held Doge positions at Some point but the only noteworthy name Among them is tier capital and sadly we Couldn't find any hard evidence of them Having made such an investment next now Of of course no discussion of big shots Betting on memes would be complete Without mentioning Elon Musk but despite His history of Shilling Dogecoin his Transaction history is a mystery last Year a lawsuit alleged that he was Behind the sale of $124 million in Doge in April but he has Denied association with any of the Wallets involved at one point musk Gladly accepted the honorary title of Dogecoin CEO but later denied that he or His associate Jared burchel had any Relationship with the Dogecoin Foundation which had listed ball as a Member of its board at any rate Elon Muste job is not VC so let's keep Digging after Dogecoin there was of Course she enu during its day in the sun
In the 2021 Bull Run she was shielded on Weebo by the Chinese American Billionaire XU manzi he actually is Aventure capitalist so the trail is Getting warmer but then again his social Media activity doesn't tell us anything About his VC portfolio and we don't know If he invested in Shiva enu in this Capacity by the way if you're enjoying The video so far go ahead and smash the Like button so more people can see it And while you're at it make sure you're Subscribed and have your bell Notifications turn on so you guys don't Miss the next one now back in 2021 we Actually did start to see major VC films Dabbling in memes but it wasn't dog Money that they were after no prizes for Guessing where all the VC money went That year it was of course nfts our case Study here was meme.com which is a bit Like a barebones brown coin market cap But for the meme adjacent nfts meme.com Was given access to an undisclosed Portion of polygon Labs 100 million nft Promotion fund and also rais $5 million From VCS including outli Ventures Digital Finance group Morning Star block Hype and Spark digital Capital now on The crypto investment scale $5 million Is basically pocket money but what's Notable is the list of VCS who thought Meme.com was worth a punt as Joanna Lang Head of Investments at digital Finance
Group put it and I quote we believe that Memes and meme markets such as meme.com Are a promising and Innovative way to Empower users who find or create trends That kind of age well kind of didn't Depending on whether you think they saw Potential of memes in crypto or they Were just throwing money at anything nft Related you can tell me lastly we have To give the honorable mention to bechain Like meme.com this one is an edge case Because it's not a mem coin bar chain is A d L1 ecosystem that began Life as a Collection of nft Of weed smoking Bears frankly we're not Sure if these Bears qualify as memes but They do have a shitcoin adjacent energy This is interesting because bar chain Recently raised $100 million in a Funding round with some of the top VCS In crypto it's hard to say whether bar Chain's image or origin story inspired VCS to invest in it but we can at least Conclude that The Vibes were not a Hindrance anyway you can probably tell By by now that we're clutching at straws Here historically VC investments in Actual mem coins were rare or simply Undisclosed so to answer the question When did VC's bid meme coins apparently Very recently indeed now before we jump To any conclusions about what this means For our memes let's walk through the Most recent history and discuss how
We've got to where we are today the Canary in the coal mine may have come in May 202 3 when the leading crypto Market Maker and investment firm DWF laabs Announced it would buy $5 million worth Of flaky token from the flaky ecosystems Treasury flaky is of course the name of Elon musk's Shibu but after the excitement around This announcement faded the market lost Interest in memes Pepe and the Gang went Into hibernation and there wasn't much To write home about for the rest of the Year you have to hand it for Stratos Forbidding with in December because at That time the real party was far from Starting that was until the 26th of February when the salana mcoin Bonk hit Escape velocity beginning a parabolic Rally that saw it gain an average of 45% every day for the next week and as It turns out Bon had fired the starting Gun for an unhinged mem coin season that Went on to steal the show in q1 the very Next day DWF Labs doubled down Announcing that it would buy another $10 Million worth of Floy over the next 24 Hours the total market cap of meme coins Increased by 27% by the end of the week Bonk was up More than 300% and pepe that had ripped A 5x by mid-march Peak Mania had set in A crowdfunding campaign to put dog with Hat on the Las Vegas sphere reached its
Goal in 4 days the total market cap of Memes broke $65 billion on a weekly Traded volume of $80 Billion according to coin gecko almost 5,000 new tokens were launched every day On salana and q1 and it appears that the Vast majority of these were memes over One 72-hour period $100 million was Raised in pre-sales in which budding Investors would send salul two random Wallet addresses posted on Twitter in The hopes of receiving an early Allocation amid this frenzied atmosphere Risk management turned into opportunity Cost there was no time for smart Contracts instead pre-sales operated on The trust me bro mechanism and needless To say people were getting rugged left And right this didn't seem to matter as There was always another pre sale Offering a shot at early retirement one Developer was in such a hurry to launch Their sloth meme that they accidentally Burned $10 million worth of soul that Had been sent to a pre-sale wallet this Turned out to be an extremely bullish Development and within hours of Launching the slur token recorded $1.7 Billion in trade volume and reached a $528 million market cap by the end of March generational filo had made Memecoins the best performing narrative In crypto during q1 it wasn't even close The top 10 mem coins printed an average
Quarterly gain of 1,300% making the mem coin narrative 4.6 Times more profitable than the second Best performing narrative realwood Assets as a venture capitalist it must Be hard to ignore numbers like these and As it happens Strat isn't the only VC That has been paying attention in late April the Shiva Eno team announced that It had raised $1 million from 18 top Crypto VCS in a private sale of its Newest meme token treat the Shino team Had said that this token will and I Quote unlock a new privacy focused Blockchain featuring fully homomorphic Encryption so I'm sure it was the tech That got the VCS to open their wallets Right well then there was this Bloomberg Story where the top macro hedge fund Brevan Howard ConEd that it had made and I quote a tiny investment in mem coins Braven Howard has $20 billion in assets Under management so you have to wonder What tiny means to them and come to Think of it it's interesting orbe it Unsurprising that the source for this Claim was Anonymous it makes you wonder How many financial institutions are Flipping mean coins on the download And are just too proud to admit it as Straight to's rck P puts it and I quote The unspoken truth is that if the fund Isn't doing it the people working at the Fund are doing it well there is no need
To speculate too much that's because More and more VCS have been coming out Of the woodwork and openly preaching the Memec coin gospel all at the very least Discussing meme coins with a straight Face although most species have sto Short of Shilling particular mem coins The site of massive financial Institutions even paying attention to Them has to be a kind of watershed Moment for crypto or perhaps it's a huge Top signal maybe both anyway our Favorite VC contribution to the mcoin Discourse so far has come from none Other than Franklin Templeton you know The Wall Street multinational with $1 And5 trillion dollar of assets under Management yeah That Franklin Templeton this Contribution came in the form of an Academic looking bulletin about meme Coins that Franklin Templeton shared With investors sandwich in between the Obligatory statements about how meme Coins have and I quote no inherent value And see a lot of price volatility the Author acknowledges that they provide Opportunities for investors to make Quick profits hear that that is the Sound of Wall Street preparing to Nuke The whiff chart look you might just Think that the author is just stating The obvious in the most an androne Language possible but you have to read
Between the lines until very recently The idea of a trillion dollar Wall Street investment manager dignifying Meme coins with a fancy bulletin full of Charts and footnotes would have been Unthinkable anyway the Crux of Franklin Templeton's Bulletin is that successful Meme coins aside from offering the Chance at quick profits generate a huge Amount of activity for their native Chains the author points to the example Of Bonk where a rally in the mem coin Coincided with a massive increase in Activity user addresses on salana so Whether they actively trade mem coins Themselves or not it's not hard to see Why VCS are paying close attention Active user addresses equals network Activity network activity equals Transaction fees fees equal blockchain Revenue it checks out right the Bootstrapping effect was a recurring Theme in the VC discourse on mem coins In q1 it also featured a lengthly blog Post written by a managing partner at Penta capital a leading crypto hedge Fund and VC with $4 billion in assets Under management after extoling the and I quote gigantic Market opportunities Presented by mcoin trading the blog Argues that mcoins can I quote greatly Enhance entire blockchains the author Ultimately concludes that mean coins are The Trojan Horse for crypto and I quote
The simplest gateway to onboarding the Next Generation to experience the latest Defi applications and introduced them All to web 3 then there was a think Piece penned by the co-founder of Variant a crypt VC whose early stage Investments have included polygon Phantom scroll and worldcoin in it Co-founder lyi argues that Meme coins Are the Pinnacle of Internet culture and Represent tokenized attention it seems Like the longer meme coins spend in the Spotlight the more VCS are trying to Intellectualize them the best example of This came last month in an essay length Tweet shared by Andrew Kang founder of The crypto Venture Capital firm Mechanism capital in which he talks up The potential of a new generation Generation of post animal coins That he calls culture coins so far this Category has been dominated by Politician theme memes like Gio Bowden And Dolan trmp but the category Described by K also includes meme coins Based on religion consumer goods sport Or lifestyle K goes on to reveal that Mechanism Capital has been buying Culture coins that and I quote We Believe can appeal two large real world Communities of exceptional culture and That have a strong team token Community Behind them and have compelling Marketing campaigns ahead so what are
These high conviction memes being Scooped up by mechanism Capital well in His post Andrew K shares that his own Highest conviction plays are consumer Brand inspired meme coins he drops a Pair of tickers along with a thesis About a Competitive Edge of this genre Over animal coins if you want to Investigate for yourself we'll leave a Link to his essay in the description Time will tell if his thesis plays out But for the moment we'll just note that Kang's memes of choice haven't exactly Been outperforming anyway in the same Way that Kang's culture coin essay was The local top for his memes the recent Flurry of VC's interest in meme coins Also turned out to be a pretty reliable Local top signal as BTC took a nose dive Not so long after their newsletters blog Posts and Twitter essays started Appearing we could keep going but it Seems like a good time to draw some Conclusions so inq1 memes brought Significant retail film to crypto for The first time in years there was a shot In the arm for their native Chains Onboarding new users and generating a Ton of new network activity in the Process they also stole the from exactly The kind of lowf flow Blockbuster token Launches and shiny airdrop coins that Are closely associated with VCS so we Probably shouldn't be too shocked then
When the VCS take notice and start Shuffling towards where the liquidity is But ultimately what we have so far is Mostly just euphoric sentiment fueled by Number go up at the moment there is a Lot of chatter and not too much evidence Of VC money flowing into meme coins or Not yet at least but until we start to See more and bigger VCS openly Allocating to memes then the Hat stays On the dogs are still funny and The Meta Probably still has room to run if you Want to take advantage while the mcoin Mattera is still here then whatever you Do just manage your risk and don't bear Any more money than you can afford to Lose it sounds mundane but you would be Surprised for for every millionaire Minuted someone gets wrecked beyond Recognition be careful out there folks And try not to become a Statistic well that's all for today's Video guys if you learn something new Then don't forget to drop us a like if You're in a meme Quin cult and you want To sh your bags in the comments well we Won't stop you and we can't anyway just Don't forget to a manage your risk and B Subscribe to coin buau as always thank You so much for watching and I'll see You next time this is Jessica over and Out [Music]
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