First, let’s clarify the conclusion: this wave of enthusiasm is neither tech-driven nor a long-term ecological expansion deliberately orchestrated by 'big companies'; it is an explosive event of culture + community + liquidity short positions.
The starting point can be traced back to a social media phrase that ignited the emotions of the Chinese community (the 'Binance life' topic), driven by the secondary creations and FOMO of the Chinese community, with the main battlefield being BSC, which has low fees and a large user base; XLayer had the conditions to take over, but due to the 'conservative/rational' signals communicated by the founders/operators, it only produced a fleeting firework.
Let’s clarify the situation thoroughly and provide actionable/observable checklists.
1) Starting point and motivation: How a single sentence ignited the market
The 'first sound' of this round of Chinese memes comes from a series of highly disseminable events in the Chinese social circle — short phrases/memes that carry cultural flavor and are easy to re-create (media and on-chain reports highlight topics like 'Binance Life' as the cultural starting point of this trend). The community amplifies emotions into on-chain funds through images, short videos, group chats, red envelopes, and airdrop discussions. Media tracking shows that tokens related to the 'Binance Life' theme have experienced increases of hundreds to thousands of times in a short period, with participants ranging from thousands to hundreds of thousands.
This set of logic is simple yet dangerous:
The community first generates topics (Chinese memes) → community re-creation, KOLs spread to a larger audience → some tokens/small projects use memes for packaging → small funds quickly enter → community drives more entries → prices soar → market making and liquidity support visibly or invisibly continue to expand influence.
Key point: The speed of dissemination far exceeds the speed of value verification, which is the direct reason BSC can serve as a battlefield (low fees + a large number of Chinese retail investors).
2) Why BSC (rather than Solana / Base / ETH)?
To put it plainly, three reasons turned BSC into the 'stage' for Chinese memes:
Threshold and cost: BSC has low fees, fast token listing speeds, and low trial-and-error costs, making it suitable for large numbers of small-scale speculators.
User base: Chinese users make up a large proportion on BSC, and WeChat groups, TG groups, and KOLs in the circle are more accustomed to initiating community actions on this chain.
Cultural tolerance: BSC has long been 'inclusive', with less strict filtering of memes and meme coins (compared to some chains or larger exchanges that have more conservative listing logic).
These 'soils' work together, allowing Chinese memes to be amplified by the community and to instantly attract funds on-chain. On-chain and media data also show that BSC's meme issuance and trading activity during this period were significantly higher than those of other chains.
3) Three representative paths
I will only focus on the paths that truly represent this round of logic over the past three months.
Path A — 'One-sentence narrative + collective re-creation' (Binance Life type)
Characteristics: Relying on cultural resonance, the dissemination path is social media → group chat → on-chain token issuance.
Why can it catch fire: People spontaneously participate when they see their stories being 'meme-ified', forming a strong sense of community identity. In the short term, funds flood in, causing extreme amplification.
Risk point: Without product/technical support, once the emotional tide recedes, the price drops much faster than it rises.
Path B — 'Gamification / Cultivation Narrative'
Characteristics: Gamify holding behaviors (cultivation, monster hunting, tribulation, merit points, etc.), giving holders a sense of growth.
Why can it catch fire: it resonates with the Chinese cultural psychology of 'advancement/leveling up', enhancing the stickiness of holders and community interaction.
Risk point: Many times, it's just a 'psychological retention tactic', with no real cash flow or ecological model. Once the novelty wears off, participation drops quickly.
Path C — 'Function boast + Meme packaging'
Characteristics: The project claims certain 'AI coin selection', 'automatic dividends', or 'community gameplay' functions, but the focus still relies on meme dissemination.
Why can it catch fire: rationalizing speculation, making retail investors feel that 'they can play memes and have tools to support them'.
Risk point: Many functions are merely conceptual, with weak actual implementation. Once funds withdraw, it crashes.
4) Why did XLayer (OKX's public chain) only achieve 'flash in the pan' despite having the conditions?
XLayer became a hot topic in a short time — the reason is simple: it is a public chain with an exchange background (OKX), and the timing window, technology (zkEVM / PP upgrade), and ecological funding combined allowed a batch of memes to be quickly ignited on-chain. During the peak, media even reported that the total market value of memes on XLayer exceeded tens of millions of dollars in a short time.
But it couldn't sustain, and the decline was rapid and decisive. Why?
a. The 'cooling effect' of the founders' and executives' stances on market sentiment
OKX officials and executives, in public forums, media, and official articles, discuss both XLayer's long-term roadmap (stablecoins/DeFi/developer support) and explicitly warn of meme risks (OKX's official articles include educational content on meme risks). When executives continuously emphasize 'long-term construction, compliance, and risk', the speculative enthusiasm of retail investors is diluted by 'rational warnings'—especially in the Chinese community, where many interpret 'the attitude of large factory founders' as 'this chain does not encourage short-term trading'. This serves as an immediate psychological cooling agent.
Practical embodiment: When a chain's official attitude is not 'flooding/tolerance', but rather 'construction and compliance first', short-term speculators (airdrop followers, yield farmers) will prioritize seeking more 'casual' places (like BSC).
b. The popularity of XLayer largely relies on 'external traffic' rather than spontaneous cultural growth
The traffic source for XLayer largely comes from the exchange ecosystem (airdrop expectations, wallet integration, exchange announcements). This kind of popularity can bring short-term trading outbreaks, but lacks a 'bottom-up' meme creation culture (i.e., KOLs + ordinary users spontaneously re-creating memes, creating meme documents, and producing meme culture over the long term). Without this 'cultural soil', popularity is like a bubble blown up by a balloon, popping at the slightest touch. OKX's roadmap and announcements indicate a long-term strategy focused on DeFi and RWA, rather than encouraging quick, superficial meme-based dissemination.
c. Concentrated funding and market making, with exit mechanisms rapidly amplifying declines
Many meme projects on XLayer rely on a few market makers or exchanges for liquidity. Once external emotions cool down or market makers withdraw, selling pressure appears, leading to a sharp drop. On-chain data and media can observe this: during the peak period of XLayer, transactions and holdings were highly concentrated, and the loss of heat resulted in immediate bloodshed.
d. Mismatch between technical narrative and 'meme culture'
The narrative of ZK/L2 is more technical, focusing on long-term value construction; Chinese memes emphasize emotion, re-creation, and rapid cycles. The two are not on the same channel. OKX's push for XLayer aims for 'long-term construction and compliant integration', which inherently conflicts with the speculative logic of 'playing memes casually and overturning the market in 24 hours'—and the result of this conflict is that 'popularity comes quickly and leaves just as fast'. The official announcements regarding XLayer's long-term positioning and upgrade path confirm this point.
In summary, XLayer's failure can be encapsulated in one sentence: it had money, technology, and users, but if you want a 'spontaneous meme culture', you must allow users to freely play with memes on-chain as 'culture'; however, OKX's official positioning does not encourage turning the chain into a short-term speculative paradise. The result: it became the most beautiful firework.
5) Quantitative signals of the market over the past three months (who is buying, who is running, when the market turns from hot to cold)
Here are a few quantifiable signals that can be observed to help you determine if it's time to 'disperse' and provide review tools:
The number of newly launched memecoins vs. first-week trading volume: In the past three months, the number of new meme launches and the peak trading volume in the first week on BSC have been significantly higher than on other chains, indicating that the issuance side is still flourishing, but the quality varies.
Concentration (top 10 wallet holding ratio): In most projects that experience short-term surges, the top 10-20 wallet holding ratio is high, indicating that 'early large holders + market makers' are the main drivers of the surge.
Exchange / market flow: In the case of XLayer, much of the popularity comes from the push of the exchange ecosystem (airdrop expectations + on-chain and exchange integrated functions), with strong exclusivity and faster exits.
Derivatives/leverage changes (risk induced by macro pressures): The large-scale deleveraging and liquidation events in early October (market-level turmoil) caused memes to become the first asset class to be abandoned, with CoinGlass reporting the scale of liquidations and the decline in market sentiment during that period.
Action suggestions (if you want to observe the next round of outbreaks): set up automatic monitoring
New project first-week trading volume × community activity × top 20 wallet holding ratio
When 'high first-week volume + low top 20 wallet ratio' is detected, it indicates a healthy outbreak with broad participation; otherwise, it indicates 'manipulation' or 'market maker dominance'.
6) Why is this wave a lot about 'fantasizing + short-term speculation'?
'Fantasizing' refers to: someone telling a token story about how the future will be, but in reality, the story has not materialized or the cost of materialization is extremely high. Common methods of fantasizing include:
Packaging a meme into a 'brand': for example, 'We want to create the Binance Life ecosystem', but the white paper and the landing area are very different.
Mistaking community activity as product competitiveness: a lively community ≠ sustainable product.
Using airdrops and KOLs to create hype as a substitute for actual usage scenarios: many people grab airdrops, but they don’t buy long-term holdings.
In these three months, many projects have relied on these methods to pile up narratives and inflate prices, but once external buzz cools down, prices fall back. Both media and on-chain data indicate that the profit effect of meme coins is concentrated in the early adopters and a few individuals in the short term, while in the long term, most are the ones left holding the bag.
7) Practical predictions and strategies for the next round of Chinese memes
The next explosive point of Chinese memes will still come from cultural touchpoints + KOL ignition, not technological breakthroughs.
For XLayer-type 'exchange chains + technical narratives' to become meme incubators, official rhetoric and governance strategies need to change (more tolerance, more user autonomy space), otherwise, it is difficult to spontaneously form a culture.
Operational suggestions for three types of people
Short-term speculators
Small positions to test, strict profit-taking (for example, try to take half at 30–50%)
Monitor the movements of large wallets on-chain and market-making depth
Don't go all in, don't borrow high leverage
Community operations / Project party
Truly making the 're-creation' mechanism a tool for user participation (e.g., on-chain tasks, NFT re-creation incentives, short-term challenges)
Transparent liquidity strategies to avoid single market maker support
Content creators / Observers
Focus on whether the 'meme can be replicated and can be re-created' rather than how impressive the 'white paper looks'
Focus on the chain's friendliness (low fees, community density) and the official attitude (encouragement vs condemnation)
8) Conclusion — Remember these facts
This season of copycats is a party organized by the Chinese community itself, with BSC as the stage; it's hot quickly, and cools down just as fast.
XLayer is a beautiful firework: it has the backing of an exchange and a narrative of technological progress, but the 'calm and realistic discourse' from officials and founders dampens the imagination of speculators, making its popularity fleeting. Official announcements and roadmap descriptions provide direct evidence of this.
Most stories of sudden wealth are backed by a very small number of early participants + extremely high risks; if you are not an early mover and do not understand the field, don’t treat memes as long-term investments. On-chain data and market liquidation events illustrate this point.
