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IntermediateLesson 3 of 7 · 3 min read

Where trends come from

Most metas start outside crypto, on X, TikTok or in the news, then spread through Telegram groups and trading apps within minutes.

On this page
  1. X (Twitter)
  2. TikTok
  3. The news
  4. Telegram and group chats
  5. Quiz

A meta needs attention, and attention comes from a few places. Knowing them helps you understand why a coin is moving and how much fuel might be left behind it.

X (Twitter)

X is still the main room of memecoin trading. Big traders, called KOLs (key opinion leaders), post what they buy. Celebrities, company founders and even AI bots post things that people turn into coins within minutes. One post can start a whole meta, like the AI bot behind GOAT in October 2024 or Binance's founder in October 2025.

The catch: by the time a post reaches you, coins have usually been launched on it already. Some bots create a coin automatically a few seconds after a big account posts, using the same words or picture. Other bots buy the first seconds of those launches. A person reading the post is late by design.

A sniper's timelineA price line over four phases after a launch. In block zero, the very first moment, snipers buy. In the next seconds early buyers arrive. Over the next minutes the crowd piles in and pushes the price up. Then the snipers sell into the crowd and the price falls.PriceBlock 0Snipersbuy firstSecondsEarlybuyersMinutesThe crowdpiles inThenSnipers sellto the crowd
On a hot trend, bots and snipers buy in the first seconds. A human reading the post arrives after them.

TikTok

TikTok reaches people who have never bought a coin. When a meme is big there, the crypto version can run on new money from outside the usual traders. Chill Guy, a cartoon dog in a sweater, was a TikTok trend in November 2024. The CHILLGUY coin launched on pump.fun on November 15 and went from about $10 million to about $488 million in market cap between November 18 and November 20.

TikTok stories have their own risk: the person who owns the meme may not want a coin. Within days of the run, the Chill Guy artist said publicly that he would issue takedowns against for-profit uses of his character. The Italian brainrot characters, starting with a shark in sneakers posted on TikTok in January 2025, inspired a string of wild, short-lived coins, many with near-identical names.

The news

Real-world stories become coins too, especially ones about animals or politics. The news keeps feeding the story for days, which can keep a coin's attention alive longer than a single post.

Example

PNUT: from a news story to $1.3 billion

A sad local news story turned into one of the biggest memecoins of 2024.

  1. Step 1: October 30, 2024: New York state officials seize Peanut, a pet squirrel with a big social media following, and put him down to test for rabies. The story spreads fast.
  2. Step 2: About a day later, a coin called PNUT launches on pump.fun.
  3. Step 3: November 2: Elon Musk posts about the squirrel, and the story reaches even more people.
  4. Step 4: Before Binance announced on November 11 that it would list PNUT, the coin's market cap was around $128 million.
  5. Step 5: By November 13, less than 48 hours after the listing, it was about $1.3 billion, roughly ten times higher.
  6. Step 6: What drove it: the news gave the coin days of attention, and a big exchange listing brought in buyers who had never touched a launchpad.

Telegram and group chats

Telegram is where coins get passed around once they exist. Call channels post contract addresses to thousands of followers. Private groups share what their members are buying. Many trading bots live there too. Telegram usually does not start a meta, but a lot of the early buying is organised there.

Next: vamping, when a coin gets a second run

Check what you learned

0 of 4 answered

  1. Question 1Why can a TikTok trend push a coin harder than a joke that only crypto traders know?
  2. Question 2TrickyA celebrity posts a word you think will become a coin. You search the name on a launchpad and find 14 coins with it. What is true?
  3. Question 3What happened to PNUT's market cap after Binance announced it would list the coin in November 2024?
  4. Question 4What role does Telegram usually play in a meta?

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This guide is for learning. It is not financial advice. Most memecoins go to zero and most people who trade them lose money. Only ever trade what you can afford to lose.