The Meme Coin Super Cycle: An Interview with Murad Mahmudov

Every era needs its own spiritual leader, and the meme domain is no exception. If the last round of hype around Dogecoin's world billionaire Musk was the old-school meme evangelist, then Murad is the new generation's super FOMO advocate for cult culture.

Every era needs its own spiritual leader, and the meme domain is no exception. If the last round of hype around Dogecoin's world billionaire Musk was the old-school meme evangelist, then Murad is the new generation's super FOMO advocate for cult culture.

From a handful of meme coin projects in 2017 to tens of millions by 2024, a massive market has gradually formed. Meanwhile, many meme coins have seen their market capitalization exceed billions of dollars, becoming an important part of the crypto market.

Murad Mahmudov, as a witness and analyst of this trend, has proposed the concept of the "Meme Coin Super Cycle." In his view, meme coins are not just pure speculative tools but the most powerful user adoption engine in the crypto world. He has deeply analyzed the key factors behind the success of meme coins and elaborated on how to drive the growth of these projects through social media and community power.

In this edition of "LBank Pulse Focus," we are honored to invite Murad, a leading figure in the meme coin space, to share his profound insights on the future of meme coins, especially his outlook on crypto trends in 2025 and beyond.

His sharing will help us understand how the rise of meme coins is driving the global adoption of cryptocurrencies and leading the future development of the market.

LBank: Could you share your career journey with us? From studying at Princeton University to working at Goldman Sachs, and then becoming a well-known figure in the cryptocurrency field, what has that experience been like?

Murad: I come from Azerbaijan and studied in the United States, later spending a year studying in Beijing. During my time in Beijing, I met the fourth employee of OKX, who introduced me to the cryptocurrency field. After graduation, I entered the traditional finance industry, working in options trading in Hong Kong and commodity trading in Singapore.

From 2016 to 2017, I began participating in ICOs, cryptocurrencies, and blockchain-related work, realizing that Bitcoin could become the next wave of revolutionary change. Since then, I have devoted myself to this field, including trading, investing, on-chain analysis, asset management, and now developing in the DeFi space. Additionally, I personally actively participate in meme coin-related projects.

LBank: You have some insights on the current and 2025 "Meme Coin Super Cycle." Could you elaborate on that?

Murad: The origin of meme coins can be traced back to Dogecoin in 2013. Each cycle has seen the scale of meme coins continuously expand. In 2017, there was only Dogecoin; by 2021, there were 5,000 meme coins, and by 2024, the number of meme coins has reached tens of millions. I believe this trend will continue until Bitcoin becomes a global universal currency.

From outside the cryptocurrency realm, persistent inflation and global monetary supply pressures are the main driving forces. This pressure compels people to compete, surpass their rivals, and keep moving forward.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is replacing many jobs, and competition across industries is becoming increasingly fierce. Additionally, people are realizing that traditional communities and institutions in the real world are gradually losing influence and significance. All these factors are driving people towards cryptocurrencies, meme coins, and such crypto communities.

From within the industry, from 2015 to 2017, people could still purchase high-quality projects like ETH and BNB, which had a market cap of only $30 million at the time. Now, some projects launch with a trading market cap as high as $30 billion. Successful past crypto projects have all been supported by very strong core communities. The formation of a core community hinges on ordinary people being able to participate early at a low price and thus gain wealth.

The core philosophy of my strategy is: 10,000 people, each holding $1,000, far surpasses 1 person holding $10 million, or 10 million people each holding only $1. The larger the proportion of such holders in a community, the more media attention, passion, and influence it will bring. This is the key to driving the development of meme coins.

LBank: What qualities do you think successful meme coins need to possess?

Murad: The most critical concept is "critical mass"—that is, the community must have the conditions for explosive dissemination. For example, having 100,000 holders, a market cap of $500 million, and starting to gradually list on major exchanges. I believe that high market cap meme coins usually rise steadily with lower downside risk; whereas low market cap meme coins carry higher risks, with a success probability of less than 1%. In contrast, mid-cap meme coins offer the best risk-reward ratio, especially those with strong and continuously growing communities,