#Gate广场创作者新春激励 MEME Coin 2026 Wave: Frenzy Returns, But What's Different This Time?

Recently, the noisiest corner of the crypto market has been ignited by MEME coins again. Trading volume and market cap are surging in sync, as if overnight, the market's risk appetite has returned. But is this the beginning of a new bull market, or another fleeting "bull market trap"?

Recent data shows that the total market cap of the entire Meme coin sector has exceeded $45.3 billion, achieving significant growth in the short term.

The recent MEME coin craze highlighted by "Laozi" (up over 730x intraday) and "I'm Coming, F***" (market cap broke through $20 million) on the BSC chain is the result of multiple market forces catalyzing together.

To help you quickly grasp the full picture, here are the core drivers behind this wave:

1. Market Sentiment Bottoming Out and Rebounding

· Core Reason: The market has shifted from extreme pessimism to cautious optimism.
· Specific Manifestation: At the end of 2025, market liquidity dried up, causing MEME coin market cap to plummet over 65%. As the new year arrives, funds begin seeking high-volatility targets to test risk appetite, with the most heavily declined MEME coins becoming the first choice.

2. Technical Correction and Sector Rotation

· Core Reason: Technical rebound after overselling and historical patterns of capital rotation.
· Specific Manifestation: Major MEME coins like PEPE and DOGE remain down roughly 80% from historical highs, leaving room for recovery. When Bitcoin moves sideways, capital has historically rushed into high-volatility MEME sectors first.

3. Leverage and Derivatives Capital Acceleration

· Core Reason: Leveraged capital amplifies volatility.
· Specific Manifestation: Open interest in futures contracts for coins like DOGE and PEPE increases significantly in sync with price increases (rising 45.41% and 33.32% respectively), indicating real long leverage capital entering and accelerating gains.

4. Community Sentiment and Narrative Propagation

· Core Reason: KOL opinions and community FOMO sentiment ignite the market.
· Specific Manifestation: Influential traders issue aggressive bullish predictions on coins like PEPE, massively fueling community sentiment. Social discussion heat and on-chain trading volume surge in sync.

5. Structural Opportunities and Low-Cost Experimentation

· Core Reason: Chains like BSC provide extremely low issuance and trading costs.
· Specific Manifestation: Coins like "Laozi" and "I'm Coming, F***" were born on the BSC chain. Ultra-low costs allow massive speculative experiments, with a few success cases attracting enormous attention and imitation.

🔥 Core Drivers Behind the Frenzy

This wave is a classic "risk appetite probe." After prolonged sluggishness, the market's "smart money" needs a tool to test the waters. MEME coins, due to their high volatility, insensitivity to fundamentals, and being driven entirely by sentiment and liquidity, become the perfect tool. They're like a stone thrown into a still pond—the ripple effect suggests larger market activity may be beginning.

⚠️ Cold Warnings Behind the Excitement

In the frenzy, you must soberly recognize the following:

· This is a rebound, not necessarily a reversal: Analysis shows that MEME coins' market cap share among altcoins remains at historical lows, with retail speculation heat not necessarily fully returning. This looks more like an early signal of the market exiting extreme pessimism, rather than a bull market confirmation.
· Leverage is a double-edged sword: The leverage capital that pushed the rally will trigger equally violent "deleveraging" crashes and cascading liquidations when sentiment reverses.
· "Rug pull" risks hit extremes: On BSC, such coins soaring and crashing are the norm. "Laozi" rises 730x in a day and could just as easily go to zero the next day. They are fundamentally attention games, with no connection to any value creation.

💎 Rational Guidance

Facing this wave, the rational approach is:

1. Participate with an entertainment mindset: Only invest funds you can completely afford to lose, viewing it as purchasing a "participation ticket" rather than an investment.
2. Deep dive into contracts and liquidity: If you must participate, check whether the project has locked liquidity pools and whether they renounced contract permissions. This is key to distinguishing scams from "relatively legitimate" MEME coins.
3. Set strict stop losses: The only rule for surviving volatility is presetting exit points and executing them rigorously.

In summary, this MEME coin wave is a composite product of market sentiment repair, leverage capital push, and community narrative resonance. It may be a prelude to broader market activity, but in itself remains the highest-risk speculative corner of the cryptocurrency space.

$I'm Coming, F*** $Laozi ‌