When currency starts telling stories: The financial truth behind the Meme coin roller coaster

When retail investors start writing scripts

During the National Day holiday, the A-shares market is closed, and retail investors are crowded in tourist attractions taking photos to post on Moments. Meanwhile, a magical realism drama is unfolding in the crypto world.

In the ecosystem of a leading exchange, several Meme coins with names that sound like jokes—Meme4, PALU, and one called “XX Life”—have seen their market values multiply by dozens within just a few days. Early players have easily made over a million dollars in paper profits, and the Chinese-speaking community has exploded, as if the big accounts on Twitter have discovered a new world.

However, the good times did not last.

Starting from October 9, these tokens plummeted like a roller coaster. Some coins dropped 95% in a single day, with over 100,000 traders being liquidated, totaling an astonishing $621 million. The myth of getting rich overnight instantly turned into a blood and tears complaint conference for the retail investors.

This scene seems familiar.

Americans have long played this trick.

Do you remember the GameStop incident in 2021? Retail investors on Reddit teamed up to push the stock price of a nearly bankrupt game retailer up by over a thousand times, causing short-selling institutions to question their lives. The chairman of the U.S. SEC said at the time that this was a “milestone in behavioral finance”—as long as the trading is real and the information is public, even if the prices are outrageous, it is still “part of the market.”

The logic of the United States is very simple: let the bubble burst on its own. Because they believe that bubbles are an inevitable path in the evolution of the market.

If this wave of Meme coins happened on Nasdaq, the outcome would be completely different. Wall Street would immediately launch a “Meme Stock ETF”, quantifying social heat into an investment factor; The Wall Street Journal would write long articles praising the “victory of retail investor capitalism”; the SEC might study whether “social media counts as market manipulation”, but the final conclusion would most likely be: this is not called fraud, this is called the collective financial expression of group sentiment through algorithms.

And what about in China?

If similar incidents occur in the A-shares, regulators will issue risk warnings immediately, media will call for rational investment, and the entire event will be defined as “speculative fluctuations,” becoming a live teaching material for investor education. The underlying logic of the Chinese market is “stability first”—it can be lively, but it must be orderly; innovation is encouraged, but the risks must be borne by yourself.

Meme coins live in a third world.

The harsh reality of the crypto market is that it is neither regulated by the SEC nor constrained by the securities regulatory commission. This is a lawless land, a gray financial experimental arena formed by self-organizing code, liquidity, and narratives.

Here, the American-style social speculation mechanism ( is spread virally through information + collective momentum ), and the Chinese-style popular wealth psychology ( resonates with grassroots + community frenzy ), magically merging together.

The trading platform is no longer neutral, it has become a “story-making machine”; influencers are no longer bystanders, but have become price amplifiers; retail investors are caught in a deadlock of algorithms and consensus, enjoying themselves while also consuming themselves.

What is the most fundamental change?

Prices are no longer determined by cash flow, but are supported by the speed of story dissemination and the density of consensus. We are witnessing the birth of “emotional capital”—a new form of capital that has no financial reports, only cultural symbols; no company fundamentals, only consensus curves; that does not pursue rational returns, but only seeks emotional release.

Data doesn't lie

Look at these cold numbers:

In the first nine months of 2025, 90% of the top Meme coins' market value collapsed; in the second quarter, 65% of new tokens lost over 90% of their value within six months. It's like the gold rush of the digital age—most miners lost everything, while only those selling shovels quietly profited.

The problem is: when currency starts telling a story, the underlying logic of global finance is being rewritten.

In traditional markets, prices reflect value.

In the cryptocurrency market, price creates value.

This is both the ultimate embodiment of decentralization and potentially the dangerous boundary of disresponsibility. When narrative replaces cash flow, and emotions become assets, each of us is a little mouse in this social experiment.

Where is the way out?

The Web3 industry is at a crossroads. Should it continue to indulge in the short-term stimulation of “emotional capitalism,” or should it shift towards the long-term construction of a “value-driven ecosystem”?

The real solutions may include:

• Strengthen community autonomy
• Introduce a more transparent regulatory framework
• Establish a systematic investor education mechanism

Only in this way can decentralized technology truly promote global financial equity, rather than becoming a tool for a few to harvest retail investors.

The next time you see a big influencer wildly recommending “hundredfold coins”, you might want to pause and ask yourself: Am I participating in financial innovation, or am I paying for someone else's financial freedom?

When currency starts telling a story, what you need most is not the FOMO( fear of missing out), but the ability to think calmly. After all, in this market, the boundary between retail investors and the scythe often lies in a single thought.