「這是一種純粹的賭博形式」：迷因幣的驚人繁榮

這是注意力經濟的一個寓言。完全由社群媒體創造的名人「鷹圖阿女孩」哈莉·韋爾奇 (Haliey Welch) 幫助推出了一種加密資產，該資產引發了病毒式的狂熱，然後又熄滅了。

Social media star Haliey Welch, who became an internet sensation after her response to a racy interview question went viral earlier this year, has now been accused of scamming her followers with a cryptocurrency launch.

社群媒體明星哈莉·韋爾奇(Haliey Welch)今年早些時候對一個生動的採訪問題的回答在網路上引起了轟動，現在她被指控通過推出加密貨幣來欺騙她的追隨者。

Welch, who is known as the “hawk tuah girl” because of her distinctive laugh, helped launch a memecoin called Hawk on Dec. 4. The coin was named after Welch’s catchphrase, which translates to “spirit of a hawk.”

韋爾奇因其獨特的笑聲而被稱為“鷹圖阿女孩”，她於12 月4 日幫助推出了一種名為Hawk 的模因幣。過來就是「鷹的精神」。

But the launch quickly turned sour, with Welch’s critics accusing her team of selling off their Hawk coins and crashing the market. The memecoin was valued at US$490 million hours after it launched, but now has a market capitalization — the value of all Hawk coins in circulation — of US$17 million, according to CoinMarketCap, which monitors crypto prices.

但這次發行很快就變糟了，韋爾奇的批評者指責她的團隊出售了他們的鷹幣並導致市場崩潰。根據監控加密貨幣價格的 CoinMarketCap 的數據，memecoin 推出後的估值為 4.9 億美元，但現在的市值（所有流通中的 Hawk 幣的價值）為 1700 萬美元。

Welch, a Tennessee native, has denied the allegations, saying her team “hasn’t sold one token.” Her representatives have been contacted for further comment.

田納西州人韋爾奇否認了這些指控，稱她的團隊「沒有出售任何代幣」。我們已聯繫她的代表尋求進一步評論。

The furore has taken place amid a boom in memecoins, which were valued at about US$20 billion in their entirety at the beginning of the year but are now worth US$118 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. And they are flooding the market place in their thousands. At one point in November, the memecoin platform pump.fun launched 69,000 tokens in a day, according to data from the crypto analysis firm Dune.

據 CoinMarketCap 稱，這場風潮發生在迷因幣的繁榮時期，年初的模因幣總價值約為 200 億美元，但現在價值 1,180 億美元。成千上萬的人湧入市場。根據加密分析公司 Dune 的數據，去年 11 月，memecoin 平台 Pump.fun 一天內發行了 69,000 個代幣。

Experts say memecoins, the latest darling in a crypto field whose true economic worth is endlessly queried, have no fundamental value.

專家表示，迷因幣是加密貨幣領域的最新寵兒，其真正的經濟價值受到無休止的質疑，但它沒有基本價值。

“It’s just a phrase attached to a digital coin. There is no value whatsoever,” says Carol Alexander, a professor of finance at the University of Sussex.

「這只是數位硬幣上的一個短語。沒有任何價值，」薩塞克斯大學金融學教授卡羅爾亞歷山大說。

Memecoins riff on two prominent features of the digital economy: memes and cryptocurrencies. The former is an online image or video clip that is endlessly tweaked and recycled on social media to capture the zeitgeist (think Moo Deng the hippo or, more timelessly, distracted boyfriend). A cryptocurrency is a digital asset built on top of a blockchain, a decentralized ledger that tracks the ownership of a cryptocurrency or other digital asset.

模因幣體現了數位經濟的兩個突出特徵：模因和加密貨幣。前者是線上圖像或影片剪輯，在社交媒體上不斷調整和回收，以捕捉時代精神（想想河馬 Moo Deng，或更永恆的分心男友）。加密貨幣是一種建立在區塊鏈之上的數位資產，區塊鏈是一種追蹤加密貨幣或其他數位資產所有權的去中心化帳本。

Sam Baker, a UK-based memecoin trader, says a lot of the coins’ launches are based on Internet trends “you have never even heard of” and rely heavily on influencers to push them on a range of channels from Discord to X and Telegram.

英國 memecoin 交易商 Sam Baker 表示，許多代幣的發布都是基於「你從未聽說過」的網路趨勢，並嚴重依賴有影響力的人在從 Discord 到 X 和 Telegram 等一系列管道上進行推廣。

He acknowledges there is “no intrinsic value” in memecoins and there is no “rhyme or reason” to which ones will succeed. Recent launches include coins based on the new Squid Game series on Netflix and on the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

他承認模因幣“沒有內在價值”，也沒有成功的“規律或理由”。最近推出的硬幣包括基於 Netflix 新《魷魚遊戲》系列和敘利亞巴沙爾·阿薩德政權垮台的硬幣。

“It is a pure form of gambling,” says Baker. “It is like buying a lottery ticket. But some of them are going to rise by 10,000 percent or 20,000 percent.”

「這是一種純粹的賭博形式，」貝克說。 「這就像買彩票一樣。但其中一些將會上漲 10,000% 或 20,000%。

Memecoins, says Baker, are a merger of two digital economy cornerstones that span different eras of the online boom.

貝克表示，迷因幣是跨越網路繁榮不同時代的兩個數位經濟基石的合併。

“It’s monetizing people’s attention from social media,” he says. “It’s a crossover from Web 2.0, which is social media, to web 3.0, which is decentralized finance and crypto. Although they are bonkers, memecoins represent the modern monetization of the attention economy.”

「它利用社群媒體上人們的注意力來賺錢，」他說。 「這是從社群媒體 Web 2.0 到去中心化金融和加密貨幣 Web 3.0 的交叉。儘管它們很瘋狂，但模因幣代表了注意力經濟的現代貨幣化。

There is also a link with meme stocks, or shares in publicly listed companies that posted huge gains after being hyped on social media and bought by amateur investors. The classic example is GameStop, a struggling video games retailer that surged in value after a Reddit community piled into the stock.

這也與模因股票有關，即上市公司的股票在社交媒體上大肆宣傳並被業餘投資者購買後大幅上漲。典型的例子是 GameStop，這是一家陷入困境的電玩零售商，在 Reddit 社群中大量買入該股票後，該公司的股價飆升。

The renewed popularity of memecoins can be traced to Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election, with the market doubling in value since his win. Trump is strongly associated with crypto, having pledged during his campaign to end the “persecution” of the industry. Bitcoin, the most valuable digital asset, has been the big beneficiary, with its value crossing $100,0000 for the first time a month after Trump’s win.

模因幣的重新流行可以追溯到唐納德·川普在美國總統大選中的勝利，自從他獲勝以來，市場價值翻了一番。川普與加密貨幣有著密切的聯繫，他在競選期間承諾結束對該行業的「迫害」。最有價值的數位資產比特幣成為最大受益者，川普獲勝一個月後價值首次突破10萬美元。

Cryptocurrencies appeal to influential figures on America’s political right such as Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley billionaire, because they eschew the establishment by flying under the radar of regulators and having no underpinning from a central bank. Memecoins are also cheap for retail investors, with many of the tokens costing a fraction of a cent.

加密貨幣吸引了矽谷億萬富翁彼得·泰爾等美國右翼政治人物的青睞，因為它們避開了監管機構的監視，也沒有中央銀行的支持，從而避開了當權派。 Memecoin 對於散戶來說也很便宜，許多代幣的價格不到一美分。

Creating them is relatively simple, according to Alexander: just mint, say, US$4,000 worth of tokens on a blockchain (Solana is especially popular with memecoin creators) and advertise them across social media, with the hope of selling them at a profit. Once bought, they can also be traded on exchanges.

Alexander 表示，創建它們相對簡單：只需在區塊鏈上鑄造價值 4,000 美元的代幣（Solana 特別受 memecoin 創造者歡迎），然後在社交媒體上為它們做廣告，希望透過出售它們來獲利。一旦購買，它們也可以在交易所進行交易。

One of Trump’s key backers, Elon Musk, is a longtime supporter of the first ever memecoin, Dogecoin, based on a meme featuring a shiba inu dog.

川普的主要支持者之一 Elon Musk 是有史以來第一個模因幣 (Dogecoin) 的長期支持者，該幣基於以柴犬為主題的模因。