In the bull run of 2020-2021, early players really could rake in hundreds of thousands from airdrops.

During the NFT boom in 2021, many people went all-in on blue chips and flipped them for 10x.

The inscriptions for BRC20/Solana in 2023-2024 have fed a lot of early players.

Meme coins from 2024-2025 are even more purely driven by emotions; grab any Doge, Cat, or alt-meme coin and you could see a 100x.

Every time it's early info blackout + FOMO vibes that create big results, but when everyone rushes in later, it turns into a major chop fest.

Now it's 2026,

Now it's time for tokenization of US stocks (the RWA stocks/ETF segment). The NYSE and NASDAQ are pushing for on-chain stocks, with platforms like Ondo, xStocks, and Habit Trade bringing Apple, Tesla, NVDA, and QQQ directly on-chain for 24/7 trading, T+0 settlements, and stablecoin payments. Regular folks can buy US stocks right in their wallets without needing a Hong Kong card or Robinhood. Institutions and smart money are already positioning themselves: on-chain US Treasuries, stocks, gold, and derivatives are seeing TVL growth in the hundreds of billions, with TradFi truly migrating on-chain.

Everyone says exchanges need to abandon meme coins; there's no path forward for them. How can meme coins survive? In the short term, it’s indeed tough; attention and funds are being siphoned away—people realize that 'buying on-chain NVDA is way safer than buying random dog coins, plus you get real dividends/appreciation'. RWA has fundamentals, while memes are pure narrative + emotion, inherently unequal.

But meme coins will always have a way to survive, and the reason is four words: human nature never changes.

1️⃣ RWA is 'serious money', while memes are 'fun money'. Institutions and old money buy on-chain stocks for preservation, returns, and compliance. Retail traders, especially the degens, will always crave stimulation, the fantasy of 100x returns, and the thrill of sleepless nights refreshing the charts. No matter how hot RWA gets, it can't quench the primal desire to get rich overnight. Historically, after every major narrative (DeFi, NFT, GameFi) cools down, memes always make a comeback because they represent the 'entertainment zone' of crypto.

2️⃣ New strategies for meme coins (2026 version)

1. Don't go against the mainstream narrative; leverage it: create RWA-themed memes to convert institutional FOMO into meme culture. Early RWA projects might also spawn meme companion coins.

2. Find new sub-tracks that aren't widely known yet: AI agent memes, political memes (after US stocks are tokenized, policy impact will be greater), new chain cultural memes, cross-chain meme wars… as long as there’s a new chain, new tools, and new slang, there’s new alpha.

3. Extreme execution in the early stages: now memes have evolved to 'launch equals peak'. The key to altcoins isn't 'copying', but being faster, bolder, and better at storytelling. Community management, KOL synchronization, sniping tools, etc.—in the 0-1 phase, whoever captures the mindset first wins. The 99% who jump on the bandwagon later become cannon fodder, but the first to create the 'XX concept meme' always has a chance.

4. Cycle rotation is a hard rule: when RWA becomes so popular that everyone knows about it (which might take until 2027), funds will always cycle back. When people realize that on-chain stocks are 'just okay' (volatility isn’t smaller than memes and comes with regulatory risks), during emotional lows, memes will again become a 'safe haven' for funds—history has proven this repeatedly.

So, US stock tokenization is fueled by institutional and long-term value money, while meme coins feed on retail greed and FOMO. These two tracks are not zero-sum; they coexist. The real challenge is to always stay in the state of 'knowing the next big thing first' rather than waiting for it to become 'common knowledge' before diving in.

Even though RWA is currently the main battlefield, memes will never die; everyone is just waiting for the next wave of 'underdog narratives', and then suddenly it’s 1000x.