Meme Magic or Market Mania? Community Building at KBW2025

Welcome.

Hello everyone.

Morning.

Morning.

Hello.

Hello. GM.

Couple nights in Korea. Our voices are almost gone, but we're going to get this one done. It's going to be good energy. So, we have a really unique panel here. I think memes are the one thing that we can all agree are probably one of the more fascinating things of this industry.

And with blockchain, we're able to see charts and representations of how much people really love these things beyond just social virality. So, today we're going to talk about a little bit regarding community. We're going to talk about what is the impact of memes and communities, the commonalities. And we have a really unique set of panelists here. So, I'd like them to go ahead and just give a quick introduction, who you are, what you do, and let's hear your favorite meme as well.

Sure. Uh, well, I'll start. Uh, my name is Gabriel, uh, based in Singapore. I run this community called ARC. We are basically the largest curated, uh, community in crypto.

Uh, most of our members are based in Asia. And, uh, great to be here.

Uh, my name is Anelie Young. Hi, I am the co-founder and CCO of Collaband. We are a community ma crypto community management tool on Discord and Telegram. Just celebrated 5 years and 50,000 communities.

Hi, my name is Jordan Jefferson. I'm a software engineer, founder. Uh built my Doge, the number one Dogecoin wallet, and now building Doge OS, which we call the app layer for Dogecoin.

Awesome. So going into this a little bit more, uh there's often times the chicken and egg in crypto, what comes first, the community or the meme, right? Uh memes, one thing, if you think about memes, uh there's a psychological element to it. We see it, we think they're unique, and it makes us look twice and want to know more about it. It makes us feel a certain way.

And when you get somebody that ultimately you're able to have that similar interest, you know that they have the same humor as you. You then have a friend and you have somebody who has a shared interest. So Angelique, I I I think that you have a very unique perspective on this considering the amount of projects you work with. What are your thoughts on what really defines the community and how like do you feel that the community often precedes the meme or that the meme follows the community?

Yeah, that's a good question. I think the community really does follow the meme and the reason is a comm what's a community? Community is people that are in connection with each other, in relationship with each other. How do they connect? Why do they connect?

And can they what can they make together? And memes are inspiring. I mean, part of what makes memes fun is that we're all kind of reworking the meme, right? Like when you asked earlier about like what's my favorite meme? I didn't answer.

I'm sorry. I was thinking of like the blonde girl and pointing at the cat and then the cat sitting at the table. Do you guys know that one?

Yes. Yes. The woman woman yells at cat. W y

A. Yeah. The woman is yelling at the cat. And I love cats and cat memes. And you see those being used all over the world in all different cultures in all different languages.

And that's kind of the idea, right? Like we want something that's going to bring people together. And like you said, memes are attention. And so communities form around attention. And that's what memes do.

Memes gather attention.

So what was it about the woman yelling at a cat that you liked? What What was it that stuck?

Oh, I love it. I mean, the cat is so indifferent.

How did it make you feel when you saw

You need to shed a CA for the cat.

I'm sorry.

You need to shed a CA the coat so people know which one to buy.

What What did it make you feel when you saw that the first time?

It makes me feel like it's a bit pointless. All of it. Anger is pointless. Pointing at someone is pointless. Um, and the cat is like superior.

So, I do believe that cats are superior.

So, there's the irony, the humor in it that ultimately that that's really the unique thing. And it applies. It applies to so many different situations. I mean, that's kind of the beauty of memes, too, right? Like you can kind of make them what you want them.

It's relatable.

Totally.

And when you can relate and get humor, but we're all driven by emotion. So, at the end of the day, if something makes us laugh, laughter is one of the greatest feelings. So, when you share that comedic, I guess you could say relativity with other people, that's kind of a unique community aspect. So,

yeah. Absolutely. I mean, Doge, look at that. Started as a meme, right? What was Doge, right?

No. Oh, yes. Doge, of course.

It's a famous cat meme.

Oh, the cat one. Yes. Yes. Uh, so Gabriel, I'd like to talk to you a little bit more because I think that you have a unique perspective on the Asia market and ultimately how memes circulate. Do you feel that the communities in Asia, I guess, relate more to certain memes than other ones?

And what are the differences you see in in your experience in that? I I first of all I don't think there is much difference. I think no matter where you are and how memes you know the the whole how memes actually brings people together for the right or wrong reasons doesn't really differentiate much east west anything like that. Um where memes are a little bit more unique I guess in this part of the world is localization. So, for example, you guys probably have never heard of it before.

Um, there was this, everybody heard of this meme on Solano. It's called Kok. See, nobody has heard of Coco or probably not a lot of people have heard of Coco. It's basically a meme made off of cockroach and it started by a team that's based in Thailand. It's huge in Thailand.

People stream about it. People create merch, people create um insecticide, everything by the offco literally literally like like they did they did a community event in Vietnam, right? And like the dog give was basically insecticide basically bug spray. They were giving it out, right? And the thing is is that I doubt any of you or at least maybe one or two of you have even heard of it, right?

And but they were huge in time. They were streaming on Facebook live, right? Like it sounds freaking boomer, but they were streaming on Facebook live. So there's a lot of these kind of localization. There's also a lot of I think very different kind of um uh perspectives about it.

Why do you think it was so successful for that country?

Oh, very easy. Because um there is this kind of like trading k um he does all his content in Thai. His name is Shri Siam for example. He was one of the guys who basically the guy started it, they founded it, you know, he saw it, they gave they basically sent it to his wallet, right? just as a meme like just to troll him and everything like that and suddenly it became his problem and he was like what the hell is going on here right and then the whole thing just went up and everything like that right so people in Thailand people in Indonesia know about it anybody else knows about it nobody knows about it the only reason I know about it is because we have members in Thailand Indonesia and they told me about it I've got no freaking idea about it and everything so I I think that's you know probably one thing is a bit more unique um I think language culturally is one of the biggest issues uh to break past that uh Okay, so that's the good side.

The bad side of it is that obviously with their ambition, they want to break into the more western, more English speaking market. That's their biggest struggle, right? And I think that's something that they're going to have a lot of trouble. They've been trying to do it for the last four months, right? And they face a lot of trouble trying to break into the more

language can be pretty tough. There's always barriers to relationships and then there's magnetism to relationships, senses of humor, things of that nature. So,

I mean, also, I mean, it's a meme, right? So at the end of the day even though they've got a community it's also I think something we must acknowledge is that you know we talk about memes as a you know meme one community but it's also very common especially from our experience and our observations we've got a we've got a community within art right called underground people just trade memes talk about memes and they are in art but they're also in other communities as well right so it's the same thing as well you have one community that's probably in three or four different meme communities at the same time as well right and you know I think it als Also, I think one thing people don't talk about memes is that it doesn't allow you just to be in one community. It actually allows you to be in a multitude of communities or a community that's in a multitude of memes as well at the same time. You know, each representing a very different thing. You've got one guy who's talking about Doge, but at the same time, he's also got a bag of useless, for example, because it's something that resonates with him.

Absolutely. Thank you for the answer on that. I I think that you really shed some interesting insights that we can probably spend more into. I want to come over to Jordan because Jordan, you're you're with Doge OS. Doge is the biggest meme on this planet.

So that what it comes to with blockchain, just for me to dial back the blockchain fundamentals, the reason that many projects continue in price is that the more that the chain is used for whatever purpose, the more that the price increases. Memes, unfortunately, uh get to this uh I guess you could say penultimate moment where no longer are people talking about it. Everybody that related to it already bought it, right? So that when there's no utility, it kind of falls to the ground. Now, Doge is still a massive market cap coin.

So, I'm really curious to hear where you feel that there's a balance between, okay, you have to have something that links everybody together. It has to be fun, but what needs to change?

Interesting question. I mean, I

that was a big one.

Yeah. So, in the sense of, you know, how has Dogecoin endured and the Doge meme endured? I think, you know, there's a couple things about the meme that, you know, make it special and kind of forever. I mean, one, it's it's not um it's not related to a certain famous person where maybe people grow up and now, you know, younger people don't get it. It's not political in nature.

It's just a really cute iconic dog. So, in that sense, the meme is kind of timeless. You know, it'll last forever. Everyone's kind of seen that image, loves it. Even if you're a cat person, you're like, "Okay, that's a cute dog."

If you're a dog person, you obviously love it. Um, but I think it really comes down to community. And I think, you know, why I fell in love with Dogecoin was that the community aspect is something unlike anything else in crypto because it sort of happened super organically, supernaturally before anyone knew about memecoins, really before memecoin was a word, I'm pretty sure. And definitely before anyone knew that, you know, you could create a memecoin that went to even a hundred million, let alone, you know, 40, 50, 60 billion. And so I think you, you know, you found a community that just fell in love with the meme.

The meme was first. the meme was massive all over the internet, which is why, you know, Billy Marcus saw it and thought, "Okay, that's the funny thing I'll make this coin about." Um, but I think the the real, you know, endurance of it kind of comes from the fact that it did become super super hyped and then fizzle out. And if you don't have, you know, if your community hasn't gone through a massive hype cycle and then a fizzling, um, you don't really know if the community can last. and the people left over after that kind of 2021 Elon Musk on SNL Dogecoin all-time high crazy moment where the world went, "Oh, whoa, this this joke thing is actually really crazy."

The people left over were, you know, real community who just loved the meme or they found friendship or they um, you know, bought some Dogecoin, just thought it was really silly and they didn't even sell when it went to, you know, 70 cents from fractions of a penny. And I know tons of people like that. They didn't buy it with the intention of making money and so they didn't sell even when it became a lot of money. They just wanted to be part of the community and keep the joke going and you know send it to their friends and that kind of thing. So I think the like long-term community building in an organic way I guess you know helps it endure and then it there's a question of the meme itself or the coin, right?

I think the Doge meme is much bigger than the coin. I mean there's a Department of Government efficiency named after the meme. There's a Doge coins named after the meme. people know the meme who's never who don't even know anything about crypto. And so, I mean, you do need a you do need an iconic meme, I guess, as the cornerstone of it all.

Well, it's hard to come back from when Elon is the chaperone, so to speak. You don't get much bigger than Elon, right? So, how do you get more hype into something when the one of the biggest people in the world have already brought it to such heights? So, oftentimes people think, "Oh, the glory days of Doge are gone. We can never get there again."

How do you think we solve that? I mean, I I think that, you know, you're trying to build something long-term and sustainable, then, you know, a moderate amount of hype is fine and something so crazy like that that moment um may never happen again. But that's how and I mean that's how you have steady sustainable growth. That's how not only the community, but maybe the coin, but maybe, you know, businesses, apps, the ecosystem that we're trying to build um you know, can actually be sustainable and kind of grow slowly. But at the same time, I'd also say, you know, this is this is crypto and um you know, if it starts to pump like crazy again, like it'll be a whole another wave where everyone starts jumping on and there there could be another hype cycle.

Can I just can I just add one thing before the people don't realize this?

The reason we're even on this stage talking about memes and communities, if Doge didn't have the success it did, like it or not, we wouldn't be on this stage having this conversation in the first place. I think the whole thing about like so-called non-utility tokens, meme and after that so-called meme coins and everything, I think if that if Doge isn't in the position it is right now, we we probably wouldn't be here having this conversation.

I absolutely agree. However, like Jordan was saying, it's really the community like who keeps you stable after the Elon moment? Who are the people that are building now? Those are people that probably held Dogecoin. Another thing about Dogecoin, which I love because the dog is so cute, but people use it for onboarding.

You send it to your friends, like you said there, like meme coins are something people understand because people understand memes. And so memes themselves can be an entry point for crypto, onboarding crypto.

Yeah, you actually you hit on a few really key points there and it ties back also to what Jordan was saying. There's the authenticity layer, right? You know, when all the noise fades, you get left with the quality and the people that were there for the reasons. I'll ask the audience who hopes to make money in crypto for those that are that's why we're here right

I would say everyone there the money brings us in but it's the family that keeps us right you know you continue with the projects you build relationships you build bonds and when you have that that same shared interest you're basically investing in a company with somebody and when you share that you share all the emotions that you have with them so the unique layer of what Jordan what you were mentioning there is is you know obviously we all want to make money but at the end of the day what makes us human is our ability to connect and communities like Doge for example I feel like that is a perfect example of okay here's this ridiculousl looking dog one of the cutest dogs in the world rest in peace that ultimately brought all these people together with this satirical sense of humor and it was also led by the founder the creator Billy who had the the humor that defined that that people otherwise admired and wanted to follow a leader. So I think with what dojo s is really unique in that element is is that you're balancing this combination of absurdity that you're maintaining with what you're doing in that community while bringing that utility into this into it. So it how do you keep the balance though is what I think and do you I guess what I would ask is is do you guys feel that meme cycles are gone or do you feel that they're going to evolve?

I don't think we're going to have the type of meme cycle we had in early 2024. That one was pretty wild. Um but like what Jordan was saying, you kind of have to have a peak in order to get back to it. Like you need to have that moment. And if you guys remember in January through, I don't know, April of 2024, it was meme season.

Every single memecoin was coming out and Collaband was there for the communities. And so we were seeing this like what is happening? Um, but now we kind of have a history of that and so they're going to maintain and especially if we want to be onboarding new people. I mean, I think memes are the way like other than you know, we had 2021 with the NFTts. Yes.

But now what's sustained? People may feel one way or the other about NFTTS. However, how do people feel about memes? It's the language of the internet. It's not going anywhere.

It's very true. And I mean there's power in numbers, right? Uh we've seen this with GameStop. We've seen it with Bitcoin. We've seen it with Dogecoin.

Uh there's something interesting in which it's that rallying factor of everybody jumping into something and having fun together. Why do we party? Why do we do these things? No more partying in Korea for me. I'm done with that just to be clear, Jordan.

Uh well, you have that one tonight. But but to that end, I just wanted to thank the panelists. I I think that this is a a subject that we could have spoken on much more thoroughly. Um and thank you everybody for listening to us.

Any final words?

Uh it's more fun to make money together.

It is.

Exactly. I think if you go in for the money, you're more likely to lose money. And if you go in for fun, you're you're better off, you know.

Absolutely. You come in with good intentions and be with the right people. Find the niche. Find the one that feels genuine and authentic. But

that's right. Money is kind of the drug that pulls you in, but you're going to stay for the community, which is really the secret of crypto and a little bit for the revolution.

I think crypto is the Yes, I think that crypto is exactly what you're saying. So, thank you everybody so much. Our time's up. Thank you. Thank you to our panelists for the memes, for the culture.