Memecoins will no longer be mere speculative assets, but will also serve as digital assets that combine entertainment, cultural identity, and community consensus.
Author: JE Labs
1. Overview
The Memecoin market has rapidly developed globally in recent years, with distinct ecosystems forming in regions such as the United States, China, South Korea, and Europe. In these markets, KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) have a significant impact on community activity, market sentiment, and trading trends. This article will focus on the six major markets of the United States, China, South Korea, Europe, Japan, and Russia, identifying the most representative Memecoin KOLs in each region and analyzing their trading activity, dissemination methods, and community influence. By studying the characteristics of KOLs in different markets, we can better understand the dissemination logic and trading patterns of Memecoins globally.
1.1 Research Objectives
Compare the development of Memecoins in different regions—comparing trading volumes, regulatory policies, KOL influence, etc.
Select representative KOLs from various regions—identifying the most influential KOLs in the Memecoin markets of the United States, China, South Korea, and Europe. Additionally, studying the discourse power, dissemination methods, and audience preferences of KOLs in different regions to identify market differences.
Summarize the characteristics of active community KOLs—analyzing the social media strategies, community interaction methods, and their impact on trading trends, thereby providing references for projects looking to enter the respective markets.
1.2 Logic for Selecting Research Regions
In the global cryptocurrency market, Memecoins, as a unique crypto ecosystem, exhibit significant regional differences due to their community-driven nature, cultural influence, and market speculation. This report selects China, the United States, Europe, South Korea, Japan, and Russia as the main analysis subjects for the following reasons:
United States: As the core region for global cryptocurrency trading, it has long dominated the liquidity and trading volume of Memecoins. Many well-known Memecoins (such as $DOGE and $SHIB) originated in the United States and have formed a large ecosystem globally.
China: With a large investor base and highly active community, despite regulatory restrictions, users remain enthusiastic about trading Memecoins through DeFi and CEX platforms. The speculative nature of the Chinese market often drives short-term trends and even gives rise to locally distinctive meme tokens.
South Korea: Historically one of the most active cryptocurrency markets globally, particularly excelling in short-term trading and community operations. South Korean investors tend to engage in high-frequency trading and exhibit a FOMO mentality, causing local Memecoins to experience extreme market fluctuations in a short time. Additionally, South Korea's K-Pop culture provides a rich source of creative inspiration for Memecoin narratives.
Europe: Compared to the more speculative Asian markets, European users tend to favor cultural identity and long-term value investments. Many local Memecoins incorporate elements of political satire and social movements, forming a unique market style.
Japan: The Memecoin market is significantly influenced by ACG (Anime, Comics, Games) culture and the effects of two-dimensional brands, with project content often centered around anime characters, internet memes, and VTubers, creating a local meme model distinct from other countries.
Russia: Influenced by international sanctions and the local social environment, the Russian Memecoin market exhibits distinct closed and speculative characteristics. High inflation and ruble depreciation drive demand for safe-haven assets, making cryptocurrencies an alternative investment tool for speculation and hedging against asset shrinkage.
2. Global Memecoin Market Overview
2.1 Memecoin VS Traditional Crypto Projects
While Memecoins and traditional crypto projects (such as public chains, DeFi protocols, Dapps, etc.) both belong to the cryptocurrency domain, they exhibit significant differences in core values, driving forces, and the ways the market understands and reacts.
Comparison of Memecoins and Traditional Crypto Projects
2.2 Comparison of Market Characteristics in Different Regions
The development of Memecoins in different regions is influenced by culture, regulation, and market preferences, leading to significant differences in market characteristics:
Comparison of Market Characteristics in Different Regions
United States: The U.S. has a large base of cryptocurrency investors, with a diverse investor structure that includes institutional and individual investors. Institutional investors tend to invest in mainstream cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH); however, individual investors, especially the younger generation, show strong interest in Memecoins.
China: Due to strict government regulations on cryptocurrency trading, domestic exchanges have been shut down, and investors mainly participate through OTC or overseas platforms. Chinese investors remain interested in high-risk, high-return investment opportunities.
South Korea: According to a survey by the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit (KoFIU), the number of cryptocurrency investors in South Korea is estimated to exceed 6 million, accounting for over 10% of the total population. Most trading occurs through centralized exchanges (CEX), with Upbit holding about 80% of the market share in South Korea. South Korean investors show strong interest in high-yield potential altcoins and tend to accept the associated high risks. This is also considered one of the reasons for the high proportion of altcoin trading in the South Korean market.
Europe: The acceptance of cryptocurrencies in Europe is gradually increasing, with a relatively relaxed regulatory environment. However, investors tend to prefer stable investments, focusing on mainstream cryptocurrencies. Although Memecoins are traded in the European market, their overall proportion may be relatively low.
Japan: Influenced by ACG culture, anime-themed tokens are popular, but overall trading activity is low to moderate. Strict regulatory requirements mandate that exchanges hold licenses, and discussions mainly occur on platforms like 5ch and X.
Russia: The market is driven by sanctions, with active DEX and P2P trading. Telegram communities exhibit strong speculation on Memecoins, but long-term sustainability is low, with occasional appearances of politically related tokens.
3. Analysis of Memecoin Ecosystems in Various Regions
3.1 United States
Top Narrative Drivers—Trump and Musk: The top narratives of U.S. Memecoins revolve around two core figures, Trump and Musk. Traders delve into their social media dynamics, seeking potential narrative opportunities from profile pictures, signatures, retweets, and tweet content to create and hype corresponding Memecoins. Changes in Musk's profile picture, Trump's campaign statements, or even a brief tweet can spark the birth of new meme tokens. For example, when Trump's X signature was "45th President of America," many predicted he would change it to "45th & 47th President of America" when he ran for president again, leading to the emergence of many coins like $47 and $4547 on the Solana chain.
Political, Economic, and Social Events Drive Secondary Narratives: Secondary Memecoin topics also involve influential figures from politics, technology, and other fields, such as Steam founder Gabe Newell and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. Additionally, the U.S. Memecoin ecosystem is closely tied to economic policies, political events, and social news. For instance, Trump's promise to pardon Ross (Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht) spurred the market for $FreeRoss; similarly, Trump's claim to release the "Lolita Island" list made related token names a hot topic for speculation. In terms of social news, the trial of Luigi triggered a rise in $LUIGI, making it a top celebrity coin.
Positive and Uplifting Narrative Core: A significant portion of U.S. Memecoins carries a positive and uplifting narrative core, evoking universal resonance. For example, Trump's shout of "FIGHT" during a shooting incident evolved into the similarly named Memecoin $FIGHT, symbolizing an unyielding spirit of resistance; $FAFO (Fuck Around and Find Out) stems from a critique of the corruption and inefficiency of the U.S. government system; the squirrel coin $PNUT features a mascot that symbolizes justice and perseverance in religion, gaining high recognition in Western culture.
Community-Driven, Long-Term Holding: Compared to other regions, U.S. Memecoin traders are more inclined towards long-term community building rather than just short-term speculation. The Memecoin $FAFO, based on Trump's policy statements, has fostered a strong community, with many holders being steadfast "diamond hands" who hold long-term. This narrative-driven consensus and community-supported value model gives the U.S. Memecoin ecosystem a strong sense of durability and influence.
3.2 China
Dominated by Western Trends, Lacking Local Narratives: The Memecoin market in China primarily follows Western trends, with traders inclined to invest based on overseas market movements, resulting in a lack of localized narratives. However, many popular meme images from the West lack recognition in the Chinese market, making it difficult for local users to resonate with them. For example, the meme token $PEPE, which became a sensation in Western markets, was not well understood by Chinese traders due to cultural differences and language barriers, leading to relatively low participation during the early development of $PEPE. Additionally, as information in the crypto market primarily circulates in English, many Chinese retail investors struggle to access timely information, which can result in delayed entry into the market. Furthermore, the vast majority of tokens are named in English, making it challenging for many local narratives to achieve global consensus, further limiting the development of local Memecoins in China.
Weak Local Memecoin Ecosystem, Short-lived Hotspots: Although there are localized Memecoins in the Chinese market, their overall popularity is limited, often lacking long-term narrative support and relying more on transient hotspots, resulting in short lifecycles. For instance, when Shen Teng mentioned $DogeKing in a Spring Festival gala skit, a CEX had a token of the same name, leading to a temporary surge in market capitalization. Each year, a Spring Festival segment for Memecoins is initiated, where retail traders look for angles to trade during the gala. Additionally, domestic IPs like Nezha, when released in North America, spawned tokens like $NEZHA and $AOBING, attracting attention for a short time. Some early Chinese derivative token projects had meme attributes but failed to persist due to regulatory restrictions and market conditions, such as Pangu Coin, which was defined as a pyramid scheme by the government and ultimately disappeared due to regulatory issues.
Focus on AI and Technology Sectors: Chinese traders show interest in the latest trends in the AI and technology sectors when selecting Memecoins, tending to invest in line with technological developments. AI-related Memecoins have garnered significant attention in the Chinese market, such as the local AI token DeepSeek and AI Goku developed by the University of Hong Kong, with multiple Memecoins of the same name appearing in the market. In contrast, many overseas on-chain platforms or AI tools issue tokens through official teams for TGE on exchanges, enhancing the long-term value and credibility of the projects. This difference makes AI-themed Memecoins in the Chinese market more speculative, requiring investors to be more cautious in their assessments to avoid falling into the trap of short-term hype.
3.3 South Korea
High-Risk Investments: South Korean society has a rigid class structure, leading investors to prefer high-risk, high-return investment methods to quickly accumulate wealth. This mentality drives South Korean investors, especially young people in their 20s and 30s, to be interested in VC-style investments, making Memecoin trading one of their primary choices. The trading of Memecoins in South Korea is characterized by fast-paced, high volatility, and intense community enthusiasm, but with very short profit windows, with market operations leaning more towards short-term speculation rather than long-term value investment.
Strong Association with Pop Culture: South Korean Memecoin traders often combine K-pop idol culture, film works, and internet memes to drive market speculation. For example, the film "Crypto Man," released earlier this year and based on the cryptocurrency theme of $LUNA, sparked a craze due to the mention of the fictional token $MOMMY, with the concept being speculated upon, leading to a peak market capitalization of 5 million for the token. Additionally, rumors that the second season of "Squid Game" would involve a certain cryptocurrency name also triggered a speculative frenzy for altcoins on-chain. However, such phenomena are often accompanied by extreme short-term speculation, with market participants relying on information asymmetry to rapidly drive up prices, creating a "wealth effect," but the subsequent sell-offs can be equally severe, leaving non-core traders as the ones left holding the bag.
Highly Volatile Market with High Turnover Rates: Due to the preference for short-term speculation among South Korean investors, the turnover rate of Memecoins in the South Korean market is typically much higher than in Western markets. The rapid flow of funds leads to significant short-term price fluctuations, which is one of the main characteristics of Memecoin trading in South Korea. The trading volume of South Korean Memecoins is often highly correlated with social media buzz, with investors frequently sharing trading strategies, market sentiment, and hot discussions in Telegram, Twitter, Naver Café, and KakaoTalk groups, creating a strong network effect. When a particular meme topic becomes popular in the community, the corresponding Memecoin trading volume usually surges within hours. Conversely, if market attention on a project declines, its trading volume can quickly dry up, entering a prolonged state of stagnation.
3.4 Europe
Diverse Cultural Narratives with Strong Regional Meme Influence: The Memecoin ecosystem in Europe is significantly influenced by regional cultural factors. For instance, the French and Belgian markets show some acceptance of Memecoins featuring comic characters like Asterix and Obelix, while the German market prefers memes with political satire, such as tokens related to EU policies, energy crises, and inflation. Additionally, the football culture is prevalent across European countries, with a surge of football-related Memecoins like $RONALDO, $MBAPPE, and $MESSI during events like the World Cup and UEFA Champions League, often resulting in short-lived but explosive market trends.
Driven by Political and Social Issues: Compared to the U.S. market's focus on personal cults (like Musk and Trump), the European Memecoin ecosystem leans more towards political issues, social topics, and collectivist sentiments. For example, during the retirement reform controversy in France in 2023, a token named $MACRON briefly gained popularity, mocking President Macron's reform policies. Furthermore, the strong anti-establishment sentiment in Europe has led to investment surges for tokens like $EUBUREAU, which satirizes the EU bureaucracy, and $GRETA (featuring environmental activist Greta Thunberg), which mocks carbon tax policies, both of which have sparked investment frenzies at specific times.
Integration of NFTs and Memecoins, Enhancing Artistic Attributes: With a strong artistic cultural tradition, the Memecoin ecosystem in Europe is more likely to integrate with NFTs, forming collectible NFT assets. For instance, Web3 communities in France and Italy tend to launch meme tokens that incorporate classic artistic elements, such as $MONA based on Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" or $VANGOGH based on Van Gogh's works. These tokens are often issued alongside NFTs to enhance market recognition and collectible value. Additionally, Europe's digital art market is relatively developed, making the combination of Memecoins and NFTs more acceptable in the market, leaning towards culture and art rather than pure speculation.
Low-Risk Investment Preference with a Strict Regulatory Environment: European investors generally have a lower risk appetite, and their trading methods for Memecoins are more cautious, typically avoiding large-scale FOMO-style speculation. The Memecoin ecosystem in Europe is more robust, favoring low-volatility Memecoins and combining community consensus for long-term holding.
Lower Social Media Influence with Slower Market Dissemination: The dissemination of Memecoins in the European market primarily relies on Telegram, Reddit, and Discord, while the influence of X and TikTok is relatively low. This results in a slower dissemination speed for Memecoins, with less explosive potential compared to the U.S. and South Korean markets. For example, some Memecoins that became popular in the U.S., like $PEPE, were accepted in Europe much later, only entering the view of European investors after the market heat had passed. This slower dissemination model means that the European Memecoin market rarely experiences rapid surges and declines within short periods, instead leaning towards community consensus and a slow accumulation development model.
3.5 Japan
Incorporating Anime, Games, and Two-Dimensional Elements: The development of Memecoins in Japan is influenced by local culture, particularly anime, games, and light novels. Japan has the world's most mature ACG (Anime, Comic, Game) industry, and many Memecoin projects draw inspiration from well-known IPs or popular internet memes. For instance, there have been Memecoins themed around characters from "Attack on Titan" or "Neon Genesis Evangelion." However, due to Japan's strong copyright awareness, many of these tokens face significant legal risks due to copyright issues, making it difficult to sustain long-term.
Influence of Social Media and VTubers: In Japan, the VTuber (virtual streamer) culture is thriving. Many traders pay attention to VTuber comments and live streams, and some well-known VTubers may inadvertently mention certain internet memes, triggering a Memecoin craze. For example, a VTuber from Hololive mentioned "kusa" (草) during a live stream, a Japanese internet term originating from "warai" (笑い), leading to a brief and intense surge in the $KUSA token. Additionally, platforms like X, Niconico, and the 5ch forum are major channels for Japanese Memecoin traders to obtain information.
Seasonal Memes and Holiday-Specific Memes: The Japanese Memecoin market has a strong seasonal cultural characteristic, with corresponding themed Memecoins often emerging during specific holidays or events (such as cherry blossom season, Tanabata, Halloween, the Red and White Song Festival, and Comiket). For example, during the cherry blossom season, tokens like $SAKURA and $OHANAMI (お花見) saw a surge in trading, combining real festive culture with virtual assets, creating a phenomenon of "short-term meme trading."
3.6 Russia
Local Social Platforms Dominate, Active TG Communities: Due to restrictions on Western social platforms like X and Instagram in Russia, the dissemination of local Memecoins primarily relies on Telegram and VK (a Russian social platform) for information sharing and market manipulation. This community culture leads Russian Memecoins to favor a closed-circle dissemination model, which spreads more slowly compared to Western markets but has a stronger community consensus and more loyal holders.
Limited Liquidity Due to Sanctions: As Russia faces international sanctions, many mainstream exchanges have imposed restrictions on Russian users, resulting in lower liquidity for local Memecoins and difficulty entering international markets. Consequently, trading of Russian Memecoins relies more on local CEXs like EXMO and YoBit. Additionally, due to payment system blockages, Russian users face higher trading costs in overseas markets, limiting the trading activity of some Memecoins and making it hard to form a global consensus.
Coexistence of Hedging Demand and Speculative Psychology: Due to long-term high inflation, ruble depreciation, and international sanctions, the cryptocurrency market has become an alternative hedging asset for many investors to counteract ruble depreciation and avoid asset shrinkage. Especially during periods of economic turmoil and currency exchange restrictions, trading volume in the crypto market often surges, with users inclined to chase high-risk, high-return meme projects to compensate for losses from fiat asset depreciation.
4. Summary of Memecoin KOL Characteristics in Various Regions
4.1 Western Countries
Representative KOL in Western Countries — Murad @MustStopMurad
Murad's Insights on Memecoins: Memecoins have long been viewed as copycat tokens due to their lack of technical support and practical application, relying more on market sentiment and community consensus. However, Murad has imbued the narrative of Memecoins with deeper value. He believes that a good Memecoin serves to provide fun, reduce loneliness, foster identity recognition, and bring resonance, emotional connection, a sense of mission and meaning, entertainment, and happiness.
Murad's Insights on Memecoins
Murad's Criteria for Selecting Memecoins
Market Cap Range: Focus on mid-cap coins with a market cap between 5 million and 200 million USD.
Chain Selection: Prefer projects on the Solana and Ethereum chains, excluding projects on chains like Base, Ton, and Sui.
Project History: Choose tokens that have existed for at least six months and have experienced at least two 70% price drops.
Murad's Recent Investment Performance: Four months ago, he purchased 10.25 million $SPX tokens at a cost of about 98,000 USD, which has now risen to approximately 7.89 million USD, yielding a return on investment of about 7900%. However, recently his crypto asset portfolio shrank by about 45% in half a month, with a net loss of 11.1 million USD, primarily due to the price of his main holding $SPX dropping from 0.72 USD to 0.40 USD.
Characteristics of Memecoin KOLs in Western Countries
Profile Pictures and Identity Positioning: KOLs typically have unique visual symbols in their profile pictures to establish their identity. They often use images related to Pepe, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Milady NFTs, or pixel-style cartoon characters like CryptoPunks, indicating their deep involvement in the meme space, early participation in the crypto market, and a certain level of financial strength and industry influence. Their X bios usually contain keywords like: Meme, Memecoin, gem, gem hunter/finder, 100X, degen, altcoin, alpha, to convey their focus and speculative style to the market.
Content Operation and Promotion Strategies: Western Memecoin KOLs typically have the following operational models. Continuous Promotion: KOLs usually post about a specific Memecoin repeatedly over one to two weeks, rather than just posting multiple new projects daily. Multi-Angle Marketing: They not only issue simple "buy" signals but also combine market sentiment, KOL dynamics, and relevant news to create more attractive narratives. If a Memecoin is related to Elon Musk or Trump, they amplify the connection to enhance the FOMO effect. Guiding Market Sentiment: When a Memecoin enters a critical rally phase, KOLs may hint at a potential price surge, influencing the FOMO crowd. Conversely, when market capitalization retraces, they shift to phrases like "long-term holding" and "community consensus" to maintain investor confidence.
Tweet Interaction: In tweet operations, besides directly recommending projects, they often interact with fans. For example, they might post open-ended questions like What is the next 100x Memecoin? along with relevant hashtags #Memecoin #100x #crypto. Such tweets guide fans to recommend tokens in the comments, creating a highly interactive discussion atmosphere. The advantage lies in attracting traffic, enhancing community stickiness, and helping KOLs identify market hotspots.
Community Management Model: Western KOLs build their private domains on TG and Discord, with a relatively centralized community management approach, resulting in a KOL-led dissemination model, specifically manifested as follows:
Fixed News Push: Community operators (KOLs or assistants) post Memecoin-related news, market dynamics, and KOL opinions daily.
Mute Mode: Many Western TG communities adopt semi-closed management, where ordinary members cannot freely chat and interact in the group but primarily express support through likes, hearts, and retweets instead of free communication.
Creating FOMO within the Group: KOLs send market sentiment information within the community, including large purchases, celebrity attention, or tokens about to be listed on CEXs, to improve conversion rates. Overall, the operational model of Western Memecoin KOLs is more stable, emphasizing brand building and long-term holding rather than solely relying on short-term hype to attract market attention.
4.2 China
Representative KOL in China — 0xWizard @0xcryptowizard
Narrative Perspective on Meme Coins: 0xWizard believes that the AI sector + Meme narrative is the new trend in the future crypto market. He emphasizes that the value of Memecoins is not just a reflection of market sentiment but also includes community resonance, emotional connection, and a sense of mission. He views AI Meme projects like $ACT, $GOAT, and $BMT as a renaissance of AI, believing that future AI will no longer be a simple assistant but a free soul with self-awareness.
0xWizard's Criteria for Selecting Memecoins:
1. Decentralized Chips: Prioritize tokens with decentralized capital distribution, avoiding community coins with high control by a single entity or team.
New Narratives, New Sectors: He emphasizes that Memecoins should not be mere emotional speculation but should possess innovative narratives and emerging market opportunities. For example, $ACT combines meme coins with the AI sector.
Active Community: 0xWizard values community building, believing that a successful Memecoin must rely on strong community consensus, prioritizing projects with high user stickiness, active interaction, and a strong sense of belonging.
Small Market Cap, High Growth Potential: He selects projects with relatively small initial market caps, as these coins can create greater wealth effects for investors in both primary and secondary markets driven by market sentiment.
Timeliness: Prioritize projects that are trending in the market, controversial, or experiencing explosive growth. For example, $ACT combines the AI sector with meme culture, perfectly aligning with the current heat in the AI field.
Influence of 0xWizard: Wizard has pinned a Memecoin Beginner's Guide on Twitter, expanding his audience and making it friendly for newcomers, encouraging more people to follow his investment ideas. Unlike typical high-frequency KOLs, Wizard shares his in-depth insights into the industry in his daily tweets, making his influence extend beyond just Memecoin investors to a broader audience of Web3 practitioners. After successfully promoting the Memecoin projects $ACT and $GOAT, his market influence and calling effectiveness have reached new heights. He entered these projects during their early small-cap stages and, through community marketing and precise calls, ultimately brought these two coins to exchanges. These two successful cases not only validate his investment vision but also increase market trust in his recommendations. In the Chinese community, Wizard has become a top KOL with successful calls, deep insights, and strong community influence, combining trading and branding.
0xWizard's X Page
Characteristics of Chinese Memecoin KOLs
Business Model: Compared to the content-driven and community-building KOL model in Western markets, many KOLs in the Chinese community collaborate with Trading Bots (GMGN, PEPE, UniversalX, PinkPig). KOLs also establish partnerships with CEXs (Binance, Bybit, OKX) to earn commissions by inviting new users to register and trade. This collaboration model provides KOLs with a stable source of income and ample participation in the market. Chinese KOLs focus more on short-term gains and user growth, attracting users through high-frequency promotions, airdrop activities, and trading incentives.
Content Operation and Promotion Strategies: The content operation strategy of Chinese Memecoin KOLs is traffic-oriented, leaning towards quickly capturing market hotspots rather than long-term deep engagement with a single project, emphasizing "traffic capture" and "hotspot following." One of the main operational methods is the high-frequency release of multiple CA posts, utilizing Twitter's traffic mechanism to maximize short-term traffic benefits. When a popular Memecoin appears in the market, KOLs quickly follow up, adding tags (#Token or $Token) to their tweets, allowing them to enter the traffic pool of that topic. This method can lead to higher views and exposure, enabling more potential investors to see the tweets and rapidly increase followers in a short time.
Community Management Model: Telegram or WeChat communities operated by Chinese KOLs are usually very active. Unlike the "mute + information transmission" model adopted by Western KOLs, Chinese communities allow members to communicate freely, with chat content including not only trading shares but also industry gossip, fund movements, and even daily life matters. This high-interaction community atmosphere means that KOL influence is reflected not only in information dissemination but also in real-time discussions and emotional interactions among community members.
Community Structure typically presents a pyramid-like hierarchy:
Core Managers include the group owner or assistant managers, with a few core members responsible for managing the community, maintaining high-frequency interactions, and promptly releasing newly discovered Memecoins or important market information.
Active Contributors include experienced traders and alpha information sharers, frequently monitoring on-chain dynamics, "dog-walking" users, and traders who fervently promote a token after buying it. These individuals have a strong sensitivity to market trends and are willing to continuously contribute.
Ordinary Members, who are the largest group, include followers and observers. They may not speak often but will trade in line with market sentiment at critical moments.
4.3 South Korea
Summary of KOL Characteristics in South Korea
Smaller Population Base, Wide Content Distribution: Due to a relatively small population base, KOLs in South Korea have not formed clear vertical divisions in the crypto field like those in Western or Chinese markets. Most KOLs cover a wide range of content, often posting airdrops, industry news, BTC trends, secondary market research, on-chain hotspot tracking, and macroeconomic assessments all on one account. This "broad net" content strategy can attract different levels of audiences and reflects the relatively concentrated yet diverse user demands in the South Korean market.
Lack of Specialized Memecoin KOLs: Unlike Western or Chinese markets, South Korea has not yet formed leading KOLs focused specifically on the Memecoin sector. While some KOLs may mention meme-related projects, they do not delve deeply, follow up long-term, or establish dedicated meme communities.
Multi-Platform Operations — TG, YouTube, Instagram: South Korean KOLs are not limited to a single platform but enhance exposure and influence through multi-platform content operations. For example, on YouTube, they primarily produce market analysis videos, often featuring candlestick charts and strong visual elements that are highly clickable; Instagram serves as a supplementary dissemination channel, frequently posting trading screenshots, opinion summaries, and event previews. Many South Korean KOLs use a unified cover design style and brand visual identity system to enhance content recognition and professionalism, gradually establishing their own brand image.
Page of a South Korean Crypto YouTuber
4.4 Japan
Representative KOL in Japan — LUCIAN|るしあん @lucianlampdefi
Dominance of Two-Dimensional Elements: Japanese KOLs prefer using anime-style avatars, and their background images, AMA promotional posters, and brand promotion posters typically adopt two-dimensional or cyberpunk styles to attract young Japanese audiences. Influenced by Vtuber culture, some KOLs use virtual avatars instead of real photos for social interactions, a trend particularly evident in the NFT field, where many Japanese KOLs use anime-style PFPs or even AI-generated characters to enhance their personal brands.
Content Style: The content style of Japanese KOLs is usually more refined and aesthetically focused, avoiding overly flashy marketing and instead leaning towards narrative and visual appeal to attract viewers. When promoting Memecoins or blockchain games, they often employ immersive storytelling in an anime style. Their fan base has a high recognition of two-dimensional culture, so KOLs also cater to this by using anime emojis and two-dimensional memes in their content.
LUCIAN's X Page
4.5 Russia
Characteristics of the Russian Crypto Community:
Users Highly Depend on TG: The Memecoin market in Russia is affected by national restrictions on social media platforms, with Twitter being banned and local users unable to access the platform directly. This has led KOLs in Russia and CIS countries to turn to other social platforms (TG/Discord), forming an ecosystem different from the global mainstream market. Russian KOLs primarily disseminate and promote tokens through TG groups or channels, with the community adopting a semi-closed management style, making their dissemination methods more discreet compared to Twitter. Some communities use a subscription model, where users must pay to enter VIP groups to access internal information. Overall, compared to Western markets, the promotion model of Russian KOLs is more low-key and decentralized.
Content Curation and Interaction: KOLs typically curate trending content from Twitter, such as crypto news, new token listings, airdrop information, etc., and share it in their TG channels, using images and text for publication. Community members can like, comment, and interact with the messages, creating an interactive ecosystem. Unlike KOLs on Twitter who focus on posting, Russian KOLs are less likely to directly promote Memecoins in their TG channels and are more inclined to share market dynamics and investment information.
Influence of YouTubers: Russian KOLs may collaborate with CTO communities to create YouTube videos for certain tokens, with the pricing for these videos typically being low, around 300-500 USD each, making them more cost-effective compared to the Western market. Although Russian crypto users rely more on TG, the influence of YouTube videos is limited, yet it remains one of the promotional and revenue channels for KOLs.
Conclusion
From the United States, South Korea, Japan, China to Russia, the Memecoin markets in different countries and regions exhibit distinctly different cultural genes. Local narratives and trading logic are always key factors in whether Memecoins can quickly break through and sustain momentum. For project teams, to penetrate different regional markets, it is essential to understand the community culture, dissemination channels, and trending narratives in each area and develop targeted marketing and community strategies.
In the future, Memecoins will no longer be mere speculative assets but will also embody entertainment, cultural identity, and community consensus as digital assets. JE Labs will continue to monitor changes in the global Memecoin ecosystem, helping more projects achieve breakthrough growth in Asia and even globally.
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