Dragonfly Partner: Are Meme Coins the True Success of GameFi in This Cycle?

Back in 2021, we thought GameFi should resemble something like Axie Infinity. This would mean embedding tokens into MOBA, MMORPG, or card games. However, most of these projects failed to attract users. Perhaps the most viral "game" in the crypto space has always been right under our noses: crypto trading itself. Crypto trading is a fun, viral social activity that has drawn millions into the crypto "game."

However, in recent years, crypto trading games have become less attractive to average players — volatility has decreased significantly, the technology has become more complex, and it now requires more specialized knowledge to underwrite these assets than ever before.

Now, let's talk about Meme Coins. Meme coins are gamified crypto trading simulators that retain only the most basic elements of crypto trading. There's no code auditing, no governance forums, and no technical roadmap — just the volatility, rug pulls, and memes. The rules are simple: follow some quirky figures on Twitter, focus on the spectacle, participate, and hope for the best. Like all viral games, meme coin trading is social, transcending language and culture, and it’s fun regardless of skill level.

I used to play an old NES trading simulation game called Wall Street Kid, where you would play a stock trader, buying and selling random fake stocks like "Yapple" or "Reebucks." There was no real research or analysis involved. It simulated a financial fantasy without requiring any real work.

Meme coins are the modern version of these trading simulation games — chaotic, filled with attractive fantasies, and incredibly addictive.

If you understand meme coins as a game, suddenly many of the narratives about them start to fall apart. The idea that meme coins are stealing market share from tech or venture-backed tokens is nonsense — it's like saying Axie Infinity is doing the same thing. Meme coin trading drives demand for blockchain space, just like any successful GameFi project. This is beneficial to all the underlying elements of meme coins!

Even at the height of meme coin mania, they weren’t the mainstream market. Before the U.S. presidential election, most trading still occurred in the “tech” crypto sector, with meme coin trading on Binance pairs peaking at around 25%. The industry is large enough to accommodate different players.

That’s why the story of financial nihilism around meme coins never made sense to me. Despite meme coins being fun, we must remember that most people don’t want to trade them. Meme coin enthusiasts find this hard to grasp, but most people enter the crypto world because they believe in the technology. Yes, they truly believe that crypto technology will change the world.

Why wouldn’t they? This is what we’ve been telling them — what Satoshi Nakamoto told them, what Elon Musk and Donald Trump told them. They believe in us. So it’s no surprise that they want to invest in the technology. Cryptocurrency is, first and foremost, a futurist project.

In recent weeks, with the return of volatility and the crazy trend of only upward price movements, meme coins have taken a step back. Traditional crypto trading pairs have become more appealing to retail investors, and recently, meme coin trading volume has dropped to 10% of Binance’s total trading volume. But at some point, meme coins will regain their allure, and for those who want to participate, they will once again become a more interesting game.

If you understand it as a game, you can clearly see meme coin trading’s place in the crypto ecosystem. Meme games work well because they leverage the strengths of cryptocurrency. They’re chaotic, disruptive, and the onboarding experience is fantastic, which explains why they’ve attracted millions into the crypto world. Meme coin trading taps directly into the fun, core fantasy of cryptocurrency.

So, we should abandon the idea that meme coins are a rebellion against the crypto industry. The correct understanding is that meme coin trading, like cryptocurrency itself, is rebellious in spirit. Meme coins aren’t a rebellion against crypto’s core beliefs; they’re a reimagining and celebration of them.