During this cycle, Memecoins, especially those based on Solana, have become the leading narrative of the cryptocurrency market. These tokens have overshadowed investor attention and outshined the performance of many large-cap altcoins.

Some experts have assessed the market’s performance over the past year, discussing what has made meme-based tokens the leading narrative of the cycle and what may be next for the industry.

The value of Solana’s “interactive culture coins”.

Qiao Wang, co-founder of Alliance DAO, common his thoughts on market dynamics that led to the most critical narrative of each cycle. In the post, X noted that in every cycle, retail has an “opportunity to outperform professionals.”

Alpha is about getting retail involved at a time when the career risks are too great for professionals to get involved.

Retail investors outperformed professionals during the first cycle by “simply” Bitcoin, Wang explained. In the second cycle, investors benefited from the Ethereum narrative, while in the third cycle, decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) emerged as leading retail opportunities.

Solana and “intersubjective culture coins,” as Wang called memecoins, have dominated the ongoing cycle. The popularity of meme-based tokens has often been criticized for their lack of utility and “content”, often resulting in a “quick profit” for their creators and the first few purchasers.

Nevertheless, Wang is apparently suggesting that the value of these tokens is based on the common culture behind them, which is an argument previously discussed by experts and industry figures.

As reported by NewsBTC, cryptocurrency traders Ansem and Kel debated the value of memecoins on the Unchained podcast. In the interview, traders explained that memes and culture on the internet have value, which makes comparisons with other altcoins “pointless.”

They added that the crypto community is “very internet-centric” because its members understand the financial aspect and are highly well-read about online culture. As a result, cryptocurrency investors have realized that there is an opportunity to “finance” the virality of memes in the industry.

They further pointed out that the “shared experience of linking” is another key factor driving the meme-based token craze, as seen with Solana-based memecoin communities such as dogwifhat (WIF) and Popcat (POPCAT).

Memecoins have “absorbed” the market’s energy

Also on Sunday was Chris Burniske, co-founder of Placeholder he took it X to express your opinion on the memecoin craze. According to him, “You only have to watch Memecoin’s triggering trend to know that in the coming expansion they will be bigger than we expect.”

In the post, Burniske revealed that he thinks “the trend is clear” that the cultural importance that NFT collectibles had in 2021 will be surpassed by some of the memecoin sensations of this cycle.

It is worth noting that on October 7, Solana’s total memecoin market capitalization exceeded $10 billion, as SolanaFloor reported.

Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko he replied Burniske, sharing his theory on why memecoins have become the leading narrative. Yakovenko believes that previous cycles “were also 90% memes and 10% products.”

However, he suggests that the sector has now monopolized the energy that fueled different narratives during other cycles: “My theory is that today’s memecoins have completely absorbed the meme energy that fueled other cycles, such as the DeFi summer,” noted the Solana co-founder.

Based on this, Yakovenko believes that products must now “generate purely on value”, which could be a positive for the wider industry.

At the time of writing, Solana (SOL) is trading at $151, up 4% in the last 24 hours.

Featured image from Unsplash.com, chart from TradingView.com