Author: Alan, iteye content team
The cryptocurrency circle has a preference for ugly things, which is actually nothing new.
From meme veteran Pepe and Shib, to the distorted political memes on SOL (Jeo Boden, Doland Tremp), and to the crying horse on BSC, it's hard to associate them with traditional aesthetics.
But attention often has a paradox: What people generally adore is usually shaped by a long-standing environment and habits, without a burst of Attention; while things that shock people’s eyes with ugliness, weirdness, or curiosity often create a wave of attention.
"Niulai" is an extreme example of this paradox.
Before August 14, it had only grossed 7,169 yuan in nine days; as of noon on August 19, its total box office had exceeded 24.3 million yuan. Meanwhile, the eponymous meme on BSC had soared from a market value of several tens of thousands of dollars to over 50 million dollars, setting a new historical high.
The Web2 world is responsible for creating attention, while the blockchain is responsible for transforming that attention into price. Only by overlapping the two timelines can one see the complete lifecycle of "Niulai".
Full Review of "Niulai" Meme Lifecycle
1. Phase Process Overview
Phase 1: Deployment (8.13—8.14) → Market Cap $45,000
Phase 2: Explosion (8.14—8.15) → Market Cap $500,000
Phase 3: Viral Spread (8.15—8.16) → Market Cap $25 million
Phase 4: Nationwide Discussion (8.16—8.18) → Peak Close to $50 million
Phase 5: Alpha Amplification (8.18) → Breaks $50 million ATH, then falls back
2. Overview of the Five Phases
According to gmgn, there were relatively few well-known KOLs who entered early for the "Niulai" meme, with the speculation concentrated after the heat breakout.
3. Detailed Breakdown of Stages
1⃣Deployment: The Hype Hasn't Come Yet, but the Contracts Arrive First
August 13, 11:59: The main account 0xbeea...7777 created on Flap.
August 14, 16:07: Migration completed, market cap approximately $45,100.
External Status: The film remains an underperforming niche with a box office of less than ten thousand yuan.
KOL/Funds: No identified KOLs have entered yet; the focus on-chain remains on main account and Dev identification.
"Niulai" premiered on August 5, with 245 screenings on the first day and a box office of 3,420 yuan. By the ninth day of its release, the accumulated box office was only 7,169 yuan, with 236 viewers, and the theater screening count had dropped to single digits. External attention mainly stemmed from the contrast between ink wash posters and the quality of the film, yet a large-scale dissemination had not formed.
However, the "Niulai" meme contract appeared during this phase, in fact, earlier than the hot searches on the Chinese internet.
On-chain nodes this stage: Creation, Migration, Main Account Identification, Dev and Associated Address Verification.
2⃣Explosion: Heated Discussion Attracts the First Batch of Buyers
External: "Niulai box office 7,352 yuan not even ten thousand" tops the Chinese social media hot search, gaining exposure through official media, and the crude visuals, along with "Mom" and other catchy lines, start to spread.
On-chain: August 15, 00:15, market cap first crosses $500,000.
Action: Dream thief yz enters the market with approximately $450,000 market cap, posting analysis 14 minutes later.
On August 14, a video mocking the crude modeling and frame-penetrating scenes of "Niulai" broke into the viewing circle. "Niulai box office 7,352 yuan not even ten thousand" soon ascended to the hot search. According to media statistics, nearly 40 Weibo hot searches related to the movie appeared that day.
China's state media, the Beijing News, summarized the initial dissemination as a release of audience dissatisfaction over rough production, while The Paper used the headline "Niulai was launched by netizens" — the film had almost no promotion prior, and materials after the hot search mainly came from the audience.
As state media increased the exposure of "Niulai", the participation of related topics on Chinese social media officially explosively increased. Platforms like Douyin, Xiaohongshu, and WeChat video accounts showcased clips — a young cow shouting "Mom" with a coarse voice, Cow Mom repeatedly shouting "Niulai", a young cow being tripped, and herds of cows appearing in a copy-paste manner. Screen-captured segments, mocking texts, and memes began to circulate repeatedly on short video and social platforms.
On-chain, the price of the "Niulai" meme rose simultaneously. "Niulai" first crossed $500,000 on August 15, 00:15. Dream thief yz's labeled wallet secured holdings first, and approximately 14 minutes later, the account only posted an analysis regarding the film's low box office, high topicality, catchy lines, and financialized title.
Corresponding relationships this phase: short video diffusion, hot search explosion, main account breakthrough of $500,000, first batch of KOL entries & recommendations.
3⃣Viral Spread: KOLs and Real Plot Pass the Baton
External: Single day box office rose to 484,000 yuan, number of screenings increased from 21 to 359; derivative creations like "Niulai" as seating choice, and rising K lines emerged.
On-chain: August 15, 19:00 crossed $5 million; August 16, 03:15 crossed $20 million.
Funds: KOL principal escalated from hundreds of dollars of small trial positions to thousands, tens of thousands of dollars.
On August 15, audiences began buying tickets to "see just how ridiculous it is." The single-day box office jumped to 484,000 yuan, over 600% compared to before; screenings rose from 21 to 359. Cinemas also shifted from merely attracting traffic to participating in the dissemination: in Guangzhou, a cinema manager dressed in a cow costume opened the show, while in Hangzhou, staff dressed as matadors encouraged the audience to shout "Niulai." Collective mockery and laughter in the theater, along with applause when the film ended, were filmed as reaction videos. Watching the movie transformed from consuming content to offline team building, and the cinema itself became a new source of content.
The seating chart on ticket purchasing software turned into another form of derivative creation. Because "Niulai" naturally aligns with the "bull" market and rise in the financial market, some A-share investors used purchasing "Niulai" movie tickets to arrange a "bull" character and rising K line in the theater, taking screenshots to post back to Xiaohongshu, Weibo, and short video platforms. Each new screening increase, box office milestone, and cinema activation would generate new dissemination materials.
On-chain during the same period crossed two nodes: August 15, 19:00 first crossed $5 million, August 16, 03:15 first crossed $20 million.
From identified wallets, it could be seen that smart money entered with increasing principal as market value rose: initially, many were a few hundred dollars, but at the $5 million—$20 million stage, it increased to several thousand or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Corresponding relationships this phase: reversal of box office and screenings, market cap breaking through $5 million and $25 million, mid to late-stage KOL relay.
4⃣Nationwide Discussion: Prices Begin to Generate Attention
External: A-shares of Luoniushan hit the trading limit, and the "bull" stocks entered the hot list; derivative creations like "Milai" and "Xuelai" emerged from major commercial brands.
On-chain: Market cap surged from $25 million to nearly $50 million.
KOL/Dissemination: During this phase, screenshots of earlier KOL profits, growth rankings, and transaction volumes attracted new buyers through reverse FOMO.
On August 17, the first trading day of A-shares after the movie became popular, Luoniushan hit the trading limit, Jinniu Chemical touched the limit, Tongniu Information's intraday increase was around 8%, and Bull Group rose over 2%. In the popularity list of individual stocks on Tonghuashun, Jinniu Chemical ranked first, while Bull Group and Tongniu Information entered the top five. These companies had no business ties to the film; the market was simply trading on the word "bull" in their names.
By noon on August 18, the cumulative box office of "Niulai" had exceeded 18 million yuan, entering the top ten in the 2026 list of box office for Chinese domestic animations. Initial social news focused on "quality controversy" gradually shifted to financial media covering box office growth, screening increases, and market heat.
Major commercial brands also began to reuse similar phrases: Tmall Supermarket changed it to "Milai," Mi Xue Bing Cheng changed it to "Xuelai," and Miniso changed it to "Minglai." "Niulai" transformed from a movie title into a template replaceable at the beginning.
On-chain, this stage entered a period of speculation, not a straight line up. Because news over the weekend stated that Chinese theaters would fully ban "Niulai," the market cap of the Niulai meme once retreated from about $29 million to about $10 million, followed by a V-shaped recovery; the 24-hour transaction volume once reached about $37.6 million. By August 17-18, with theaters screening normally and discussions continuing, the intraday high had approached $50 million.
Prices, KOL earnings, and transaction volume screenshots subsequently flowed back to social media, forming a complete and closed-loop meme dissemination chain:
External Events → Main Account Buying → KOL and Price Confirmation → Profit, Growth Screenshots → New Attention → (Cycle Back) Main Account Buying
Corresponding relationships this phase: box office reaches tens of millions, A-shares and brands relay, market cap deeply retreats before surging toward $50 million.
5⃣Binance Alpha: ATH and Listing One Occurring Simultaneously
Platform Catalyst: On the afternoon of August 18, "Niulai" officially entered Binance Alpha for display and trading entry.
Price: The short-term market cap of "Niulai" broke through $50 million and set a new ATH; however, as of around 17:50, the corresponding market cap of the mainstream liquidity pool had returned to about $37.3 million.
Chips: The address at the top of the profit list Qwerty @Quanterty continuously sold during the price surge window, yet retained more than half of its position.
The on-chain activities of the top address Qwerty can be replayed into three sets of numbers:
Corresponding relationships this phase: decentralized entry expands accessibility, price refreshes ATH, and profit topping is synchronously distributed, bringing "Niulai" from attention expansion period into high turnover period.
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