Bitcoin vs Meme Coins

Bitcoin is crypto’s oldest asset and the digital era’s equivalent of gold – a bearer asset that allows holders to store their wealth over longer timeframes. Meme coins, on the other hand, are by nature highly speculative, running on attention and mindshare, and their sole utility is to make holders rich. How have such diverse assets become the leading players in the current cycle?

Key Takeaways 

• Societal and economic undercurrents are driving investors towards alternative stores of value and high-risk gambits.

• Bitcoin has cemented its role as the digital era’s gold, and the passive ETF bid from TradFi has enabled its outperformance, leading to an explosion of innovation on and adjacent to the network. 

• Meme coins have been the dominant vertical to date this cycle, and these leveraged plays on the underlying ecosystem, while being zero-sum, have proven that they are here to stay, and investors must adapt accordingly.

Every cycle has its idiosyncrasies, and this cycle’s leading characters are Bitcoin and meme coins – assets that occupy polar opposite positions on the risk spectrum. Is this bifurcation a social commentary? Have VCs played a role in this increasingly fragmented and divided capital allocation?

*Note: This article reflects the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of CoinGecko.