Original | Odaily Planet Daily (@OdailyChina)
"The two-day on-chain bull market has ended," is the general sentiment in the Meme community today.
Following the surge of Chinese Meme coins in October last year, the trend reignited in January this year on BSC, giving birth to many tokens that have been embraced by the community (Related reading: From "Life K Line" to "Laozi," a look at the top 5 hottest BSC "Chinese Memes") . However, according to GMGN data today, popular Chinese Memes have generally seen a pullback recently, with "I’m Coming" down 30% in 24 hours, "Laozi" down 25%, "Life K Line" down over 20%, and "Main Host Xiao Ni" down over 40%.
Every feast has its end, and the Meme trend cools off particularly quickly. The Chinese Meme craze that started in October lasted a whole month after the National Day holiday, but this time it ended so swiftly. What exactly went wrong?
Rejection of "Shandong Studies" Affects Community Unity
This round of Chinese Meme craze was kickstarted by a tweet from He Yi, who celebrated the New Year on January 1 with the caption "2026, I’m Coming" on the X platform. Within a week, the eponymous Meme coin began to ferment, eventually launching on Binance Alpha, igniting the Chinese Meme community.
However, this was accompanied by widespread discussions in the community about "the Shandong Studies in the crypto circle, who is the fish head facing?" directly pointing to the entire Meme launch mechanism surrounding CZ and He Yi on BSC. CZ and He Yi do not need to personally command or even be aware of these tokens; from developers to the community to the Binance Alpha team, everyone automatically "awakens," and the life and death of a Meme is decided in a single tweet.
In February 2025, CZ first interacted with a worthless BSC test token TST, marking the beginning of the formation of this Meme launch model on BSC. Later, after iterations of small cycles of BSC Memes such as CZ's dog dispute and Dubai narratives, the community figured out the "human relationships" necessary for a round of BSC Meme craze from cold start to climax.
In such an ecological culture, wanting to make money means, to put it nicely, learning from the top and excellent people; to put it bluntly, "you must never stand still."
“Is this time really different?” When this round of Chinese Memes reached a climax again, countless bloggers asked on social media. This is not just a simple play on words; it genuinely reflects the psychological shadow left on the community by this "Shandong Studies" since 2025.
When enough shadows accumulate, they will form a rejection. Some have complained that the BSC ecosystem is "licking" unscrupulously, blindly extracting content from CZ and He Yi's tweets, even giving birth to tokens like "Mama," "Papa," and "Laozi," making Chinese Memes increasingly crude.
Previously, Odaily Planet Daily also analyzed the community debate triggered by "I’m Coming" launching on Binance Alpha, stating that it "seriously undermines the true Chinese Meme culture." (Related reading: How to evaluate "I’m Coming" launching on Binance?).
When the rejection of "Shandong Studies" is significant enough, searching for community Meme coins without the endorsement of CZ and He Yi becomes a force within the community itself. Crypto blogger Honest Mai (X: @Michael_Liu93) bluntly stated, "Everyone really doesn't want to lick anymore." (This blogger holds 1% of the Life K Line token)
However, regardless, such a diversion will still impact the unity of the BSC Meme community, and funds cannot form a collective force. When a leading community consensus cannot be quickly established, Meme sentiment will accelerate its decline.
Lack of External Liquidity
To maintain a round of Meme small cycles, there must be an increase, and to sustain that increase, new buying must exceed selling. One possible reason for the lack of momentum in this round of Chinese Memes is the lack of external liquidity injection; the market cap is primarily driven up by the Chinese community on BSC, without attracting overseas communities or the Solana Meme community to take over.
The Chinese Meme craze in October last year had an unprecedented spread. Many overseas Meme influencers sought help on the X platform on how to join the Chinese Meme community, and the "Dog Fighting WeChat Group" suddenly saw an influx of many English-speaking newcomers. This wave of enthusiasm also prompted other chains to reach out to the Chinese Meme community, with Base blockchain head Jesse inviting the Chinese community to build on the Base chain, and Solana founder Toly and Solana Foundation chair Lily Liu promoting the Solana Chinese Meme coin "Solara."
These influences spilling over from the wealth effect of Chinese Memes can also translate into substantial on-chain purchasing power, extending the duration of the October Chinese Meme craze.
However, the Chinese Meme craze in January this year lacked such externality, still revolving around CZ and He Yi's tweets. The only Chinese Meme with a bit of externality, "Life K Line" (reported by CCTV on January 3), had its brilliance quickly overshadowed after "I’m Coming" launched on Alpha.
One piece of evidence for the lack of external liquidity in this round of Chinese Memes is that when using language filters on the X platform to search for recent popular Chinese Meme coins (like I’m Coming, Laozi, Small Shareholder, etc.) in the English section, it is found that, apart from the high view counts of exchange listing announcements, discussions in the English section about these Memes are quite lacking.
X platform English section "Laozi" hot posts are all exchange listing announcements
Chinese Memes Themselves Are No Longer Surprising
A ping-pong ball falling from a height always bounces lower and lower.
Chinese Memes themselves are no longer an attractive narrative.
Odaily Planet Daily asserted at the end of October last year that although the Chinese Meme craze in October had ended, Chinese Memes themselves would never disappear but would exist as a fixed Meme category, with periodic peaks still to come. (Related reading: After Binance Life, Chinese Memes move from hits to segmentation)
This also means that if a Meme coin merely has a Chinese ticker and some "butt determines head" logic for rising, it is destined to be insufficient for the long term.
Since October last year, the only surviving Chinese Meme coins are Binance Life and Hakimi, while customer service Xiao He, Xiu Xian, and Nai Long have all disappeared into the annals of history. The representative Chinese Meme tokens in this wave are all strongly bound to CZ and He Yi's "Shandong Studies" tokens, and without breaking free from the "Two Saints" halo to form an independent culture, they are destined to lack the vitality to transcend any previous similar tokens (Theoretically, Life K Line does not belong to this category, as its explosive popularity was driven by CCTV's coverage).
When Chinese Meme narratives first emerged, a Chinese Meme coin would be pushed up simply due to its novelty; now, Chinese Memes have become an unremarkable fixed category. When Chinese Memes are fully integrated into the BSC Meme cycle iteration assembly line, accompanied by the market gradually "clearing up" this set of gameplay, the ecosystem will revert to a "run fast" mode, and the entire Meme cycle will be accelerated, relying on "imperial edicts" for cold starts, deceiving continuous interactions, and finally pouring it onto Binance Alpha…
This round of Chinese Memes is just a microcosm of that.
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