Howdy!

Happy Halloween, spooky Lightspeeders. Today, we’re talking memes. Specifically, David Canellis of the Empire newsletter is convincing us that a memecoin market flippening may very well be underway:

Canary in the meme mine

They say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.

But you should totally judge a chain by its memes. And Solana memecoins are collectively at an all-time high.

There are 57 memecoins with at least a $75 million market cap on CoinGecko. Sixteen of those are native to Solana, 18 are on Ethereum, and the remaining 40% are scattered across chains like Base, Bitcoin, Avalanche and Binance Chain.

It turns out that this particular selection of Solana memecoins have never been valued higher: $9.84 billion on Wednesday and slightly below that today.

Ethereum memes are otherwise sitting at about $19 billion, although shiba inu makes up nearly 60% of the total. 

What’s on CoinGecko probably doesn’t encompass the full scope of memecoinery, as it doesn’t reflect everything on Pump.fun. But those coins would probably only make a marginal difference in the end.

Still, it’s telling that Solana memecoins are still gaining ground while Ethereum’s are stagnating at 35% below where they were when bitcoin peaked in March.

And if that doesn’t satisfy your Ethereum bloodlust, consider yourself lucky you’re not a Bitcoin or Base memecoin maxi.

Base still only has two primary memecoins — DEGEN and BRETT — and together they’re stuck at about a $1 billion market cap.

Bitcoin otherwise has three Runes with market caps over $75 million. For a brief moment in May, Bitcoin’s memecoins were more valuable than Base’s, but today the two ecosystems are practically neck-and-neck.

In any case, the fixation surrounding a potential Ethereum flip by Solana has us all watching DEX volumes and fee spend, to see the signs ahead of time.

I’d watch for a flippening of memecoin markets instead.

— David Canellis

Meow, founder of Jupiter exchange, recently gave Crypto Twitter an unfiltered glimpse into the occasional mental toll that comes with building in the space. He candidly shared, “I felt really overwhelmed … [by] the token, the product.” After the Breakpoint conference, the combined load of market volatility, personal pressures, and crypto’s relentless grind had Meow considering something often seen as heretical in Web3 — taking a break.

“I literally went up to every founder and said, ‘Dude, I’m depressed,’” he recounted. He went on to say, however, that sharing his struggles with others in a similar position was “actually really helpful.” It seems one of Solana’s most ambitious builders learned first hand that letting go, even briefly, can keep you going longer. “Crypto is really 24/7," he said, "you need a very strong support structure.”

Posters on X quickly rallied around Meow. @0xSenseiSOL pointed out that while “we love what we do,” Web3 makes it easy to forget that “everyone needs some rest … it’s as much needed as the work itself.” @KevinWSHPod agreed, noting how many founders are “suffering in silence, especially in this industry.”

@0xErbil praised Meow’s “selfless” dedication to Jupiter, adding, “he cares SOOOO much about the Jupiter ecosystem, working literally 24/7 so the whole community can thrive.” @Drish1978 said, “True leadership isn’t about hiding struggles; it’s about facing them with courage,” commending Meow for “openly discussing your experiences with depression and fatigue.” And @mbolorman advised, “it’s okay to feel this way and helps reduce stigma. The key is to seek help in whatever way works for you, as Meow did. We all cope differently.”

— Jeffrey Albus