National Day Holiday Meme Coin Roller Coaster: When Emotion Becomes Currency, Who's Paying for the Party?

During the National Day holiday, while the A-shares are taking a break and stockholders are squeezing through crowded tourist spots, a surreal drama is unfolding in the crypto world.

Within the ecosystem of a leading exchange, several meme coins with names that sound like a joke—Meme4, PALU, and something called “Life”—have seen their market caps multiply dozens of times in just a few days. Early entrants easily saw paper profits soar past a million dollars. The Chinese-speaking crypto community went wild, and KOLs on Twitter were shouting louder than anyone.

And then?

Starting October 9, these coins plunged like divers. Some dropped 95% in a single day, over 100,000 people were liquidated, with a total loss of $621 million. Overnight dreams of getting rich turned into blood-soaked ledgers for retail investors.

This Script Has Played Out Before

Think it’s crazy? Look back at GameStop in 2021.

Retail investors on Reddit banded together and drove up the stock price of a nearly bankrupt game store, causing short-selling institutions massive losses. What did people in the US say? “A milestone for behavioral finance.” No matter how irrational the price, as long as the trades are real and information is transparent, it’s part of the market.

The American logic is simple: let the bubble come, because bubbles are the fuel for market evolution.

What if this meme coin boom happened on the Nasdaq? Wall Street would launch a “Meme Stock ETF,” packaging social buzz into an investment product; The Wall Street Journal would write long articles celebrating “the victory of retail capitalism”; the SEC would study it for a while and might eventually conclude—this isn’t fraud, it’s a financial reaction driven by group sentiment and algorithmic matching.

What about here?

If “Life Coin” showed up on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, regulators would immediately issue risk warnings, the media would call for rational investment, and the whole thing would be labeled a “speculative market anomaly” and used as a case study for investor education. The underlying logic of the domestic market is “seeking progress while maintaining stability”—hype is fine, but rules must be followed; innovation is welcome, but you bear your own risk.

Meme Coins Live in a Third World

The crypto market is regulated by neither the SEC nor the CSRC.

It’s a no man’s land, a gray financial experimental field built by code, liquidity, and narrative. American-style social speculation—information diffusion + collective momentum—collides and merges with the Chinese-style grassroots wealth mentality—community participation + resonance effect—right here.

Exchanges are no longer neutral platforms; they’ve become “narrative factories.” KOLs are not bystanders; they’re price amplifiers. Retail investors find themselves in a loop of algorithms and consensus, hyping themselves up and burning themselves out.

What’s the most crucial change?

Prices are no longer determined by cash flow, but by the speed of narrative and the density of consensus. We are witnessing the birth of “emotional capital”—no financial statements, only cultural symbols; no company fundamentals, only consensus curves; no pursuit of rational returns, only the release of emotion.

The Data Doesn’t Lie

In the first nine months of 2025, 90% of top meme coins’ market value collapsed; in the second quarter, 65% of new tokens lost more than 90% of their value within six months.

It’s like a digital gold rush. Most prospectors lose everything; only the ones selling shovels always win.

Here’s the problem: when money starts telling stories, the fundamental logic of global finance is being rewritten.

In traditional markets, price reflects value; in crypto markets, price creates value. This is decentralization taken to the extreme, but also possibly the ultimate test of irresponsibility. When narrative replaces cash flow, when emotion becomes an asset, each of us is a guinea pig in this experiment.

Where’s the Way Out?

The Web3 industry stands at a crossroads.

Will it continue to indulge in the short-term frenzy of “emotional capitalism,” or turn toward the long-term construction of a “value-driven ecosystem”?

The real solution: strengthen community governance, introduce more transparent regulatory frameworks, and establish investor education mechanisms. Only then can decentralized technology truly empower global financial fairness, rather than becoming a tool for a few to harvest the masses.

Next time you see a KOL hyping a “100x coin,” ask yourself this:

Am I participating in financial innovation, or just paying for someone else’s financial freedom?

When money starts telling stories, what you need most isn’t FOMO, but the ability to think calmly.