Every era needs its own spiritual leader, and so does the field of meme.

If Musk, the richest man in the world with Dogecoin in the last round, is an old-school meme preacher, Murad is a new generation of super fomo who advocates cult culture.

From a small number of Meme coin projects in 2017, it has grown to tens of millions by 2024, and gradually formed a huge market. At the same time, the market capitalization of many Meme coins broke into the billions of dollars and became an important part of the crypto market.

Murad Mahmudov, as a witness and analyst of this trend, proposed the concept of "Meme coin supercycle". In his view, the Meme coin is not just a pure speculative tool, but the most powerful user adoption engine in the crypto world. He provides an in-depth analysis of the key factors behind the success of Meme coins and details how social media and community power can drive the growth of these projects.

In this LBank Pulse Focus, we are honored to have Murad, a leading figure in the Meme coin space, share his insights on the future of Meme coins, especially his outlook on crypto trends in 2025 and beyond.

His sharing will help us gain insight into how the rise of Memecoins is driving the global adoption of cryptocurrencies and leading the future development of the market.

LBank: Can you tell us something about your career? From studying at Princeton, to working at Goldman Sachs, to becoming a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency space, how did it feel?

Murad: I am from Azerbaijan and studied in the United States and then in Beijing for one year. While in Beijing, I got to know a fourth OKX employee who introduced me to the cryptocurrency space. After graduation, I entered the traditional financial industry, working in options trading in Hong Kong and commodities trading in Singapore. In 2016-2017, I started working on ICOs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain, and realized that Bitcoin could be the next wave of revolution. Since then, I have devoted myself to the field of trading, investing, on-chain analysis, asset management, and now DeFi. In addition, I am also actively involved in meme-related projects.

LBank: You have a lot of insight into the current and 2025 "Meme supercycle", can you tell us more about it?

Murad: The origin of the Meme coin can be traced back to the Dogecoin in 2013. Each cycle, the size of the Meme coin continues to grow. In 2017 there was only Dogecoin, in 2021 there were 5,000 memes, and in 2024 there are tens of millions of memes, and I believe that this trend will continue until Bitcoin becomes the universal currency.

Looking beyond cryptocurrencies, persistent inflation and pressure on the global money supply are the main drivers. This pressure drives people to compete, outperform and move on.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is replacing many people's jobs, and competition in various industries is becoming more fierce. There is also a recognition that traditional communities and institutions in the real world are losing influence and meaning. All of these factors are working together to drive people to cryptocurrencies, Meme coins, and these crypto communities.

From within the industry, from 2015 to 2017, people were able to buy high-quality projects such as ETH and BNB, which were only valued at $30 million at the time. Now, some projects, once launched, are worth as much as $30 billion. In the past, successful crypto projects were supported by a very strong core community. The key to the formation of a core community is the ability of ordinary people to participate early at a low price, and thus gain wealth.

The core idea of my strategy is that 10,000 people holding $1,000 each is far better than one person holding $10 million, or 10 million people holding $1 each. The greater the percentage of such holders in a community, the more media attention, passion, and influence it generates. This is the key to the development of the Meme coin.

LBank: What characteristics do you think are required for a successful Meme coin?

Murad: The key concept is "critical mass" - that is, the conditions for a community to explode. For example, it has 100,000 holders, a market capitalization of $500 million, and is gradually starting to go live on major exchanges. In my opinion, Meme coins with large market capitalization usually rise steadily with less downside risk; The risk of small-market Meme coins is higher, and the probability of success may be less than 1%. , by contrast, provides the best value of Meme currency risk returns, especially those with strong and sustained growth of the community in the value of projects, such as 6900, GIGA, MOG, SPX POPCAT, APU and HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu, etc.

LBank: How important is community engagement to the success of the Meme coin? Are there any specific strategies?

Murad: The activity of the community is crucial, and the indicators of the health of the community can be analyzed from both the supply side and the demand side.

On the supply side, I look at several key factors: first, the proportion of "diamond hands" (the proportion of long-term holders), followed by the degree of decentralization, the fairness of the distribution of holdings, and early performance. I would like to see a higher percentage of holders holding more than $1,000 or even more than $3,000 in tokens, as they are the "core force" most motivated to drive projects. In terms of on-chain behavior, I would prefer these coin holders to be more committed, rather than frequent speculative trades.

On the demand side, price is a key factor, with rising prices indicating that communities are actively attracting new members. At the same time, it is also necessary to pay attention to distribution channels, cross-chain Bridges, partnerships and exchange launches.

Finally, the influence of social media, especially X and TikTok, cannot be ignored. In fact, YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook are also playing a growing role. A successful Meme coin must have a wide exposure on these platforms and continue to expand its influence through these platforms. Those Meme coins that perform well usually put a lot of effort into this area and achieve significant results.

LBank: How do you see crypto trends evolving in 2025 and beyond?

Murad: I think we need to distinguish between long-term storage trends and short-term hot trends, especially those that have a lasting "meme culture." Memes like Doge, Pepe or GIGA, for example, have been around on the Internet for years. At the same time, some hot spots are short-lived. In TikTok's case, the key is to determine whether a meme will survive for years or disappear in just a few months.

My overall view is that the crazier and more inspiring the meme, the better. Because the stronger the inspiration, the more money, time, effort and labor the community members will invest. I believe that the crypto trends in 2025 will be different from those in 2024, but still full of opportunities.

LBank: Do you think Meme coins will drive mass adoption of cryptocurrencies?

Murad: The core of crypto assets will have Bitcoin (BTC) as the primary store of value, with other Layer 1 projects, such as Ethereum and Solana, playing a relatively small role. Stablecoins are expected to persist for the next 20-30 years.

Before the rise of Meme coins, the positioning of altcoins has been relatively vague. The rise of Meme coins divides crypto assets into two categories: tokens with cash flow, which gradually evolve into "stocks" on the chain; The other category is tokenized assets based on crypto culture, community, speculation, and belief.

LBank: Do you personally think Meme coins can drive the adoption of cryptocurrencies around the world?

Murad: Meme coins will be the biggest driver of cryptocurrency adoption this cycle. Many people get their first taste of cryptocurrencies through Phantom, Metamask, or exchanges, and Meme coins appeal to people of all ages and cultures thanks to their simplicity - no white papers, complicated technology, or cumbersome re-pledge concepts. Its universal nature makes it the best entry point to the crypto world.

Users will then gradually be exposed to core assets such as wallets, DeFi exchanges, cross-chain Bridges, stablecoins, and BTC. Meme coins serve as an entry point to attract users into the crypto industry, and these further explorations will encourage them to stay in the ecosystem for the long term.

LBank: Looking ahead to the next five years, do you think Meme coins will still exist?

Murad: Dogecoin, as well as some other Meme coins, have proven that Meme coins can survive multiple cycles and persist. They keep hitting new highs. I do think Dogecoin will go to $1 this cycle and make another all-time high. In addition, some Meme coins will be launched into ETFs in the future.

LBank: Do memes need real-world utility to survive in a bear market, or can they remain purely speculative?

Murad: In a bear market, practicality is a positive. But in a bull market, practicality can become a constraint. In a bull market, purity will make the Meme perform better; In a bear market, practicality can provide support for prices, but also limit upside. Projects like Shiba Inu and Floki have proven this by adding utility in bear markets. Future memes will add DeFi functionality, evolve into investing DAOs, and even create fashion and lifestyle brands.