Let’s face it: we have now entered the era of meme investing, where people literally buy into memes and choose their investment strategies based on what’s been considered laughable on Reddit lately. While the impact of this paradigm shift in crypto remains to be seen, one thing is for certain: in an investment landscape like this, knowing your memes as a crypto investor is just as important as KYC procedures are in banking.
At the same time, crypto has become saturated with memes to the point where newly converted enthusiasts can often no longer fully comprehend the iconography surrounding their topic of interest.
They don’t know their memes well enough and therefore require a point of reference, which is exactly what this article (and the ones that may follow it) are intended to offer. In short, if you happen to be a crypto neophyte wondering what those weirdos on Reddit or any other given platform are memeing about, this course is for you.
Alright, let’s begin with some of the more prominent ones first:
1. HODL & HODLERS
Here’s an ironic thing about “HODL”: while an intentional misspelling of the word “hold”, the creation of this meme was probably very much unintentional. The word was accidentally coined by Bitcointalk user GameKyuubi, who submitted a post titled “I AM HODLING” during a bitcoin crash in 2013:
A captivating mix of self-irony, self-hatred, and resentment towards other (seemingly more competent) traders as this post is, the most fascinating aspect about it is that GameKyuubi’s doesn’t just mint a new cool term — he also finds a way to aptly channel what it’s like to be a HODLER through his text.
It perfectly captures the bizarre lengths an inexperienced investor can go to in order to justify their bad decision-making: they keep holding on to their rapidly depreciating assets not because they think that’s an appropriate strategy, but rather because that’s the only strategy they are capable of coming up with. Continuing with this course of action is unlikely to do them any good, and yet, knowing this in their heart, HODLERS nonetheless choose to maintain the only strategy they’re good at they hold.
It’s also important to note that resorting to the HODL approach doesn’t automatically make you a HODLER.
To hodl is simply to resist a psychological impulse to sell your holdings in response to market fluctuations, and there is nothing wrong with doing so if you genuinely assume that the asset will generate sensible returns in the long term (and have substantial evidence to support your assumption).
It’s a general lack of critical thinking and analytical capacity that distinguishes a HODLER from a conscious crypto investor; to be a HODLER, therefore, is to be pitiful.
All in all, HODL is one of the earlier memes related to crypto out there, and it remains just as relevant today as it was in 2013. It has already outlived a ton of other memes from its age and is likely to outlive a ton of newer ones. It is not going anywhere — not until crypto investors around the world no longer have any shitcoins to HODL on. Which is probably never, meaning that we are destined to continue memeing about HODL and HODLERS ’til the end of time.
2. NOT A LAMBO
This meme can be regarded as congenerous to the previous one in the sense that it somewhat captures the consequences of sticking to the “mindless investing” mentality on the individual’s welfare.
Showing off a car like Lamborghini screams financial success, which is something that a typical crypto investor will never experience — but they can at least poke fun at what they might actually afford to purchase with their cryptocurrency:
That said, not every Lambo post on the Internet is an ironic self-deprecating show-off of toy cars and lego figures — some of them are actual humble braggings from those who (allegedly) have made decent money from trading crypto. For instance, here is the Reddit post that is believed to have given birth to the meme:
Indeed, that’s not a Lambo. Quite impressive nonetheless.
2. FUNDS ARE SAFE (SAFU)
This one calls for a quick history lesson. According to Binance:
During unscheduled maintenance, Changpeng Zhao (CZ), the Binance CEO, tweeted out to users stating: “Funds are safe”. After this, the phrase “Funds are safe” became regularly used by CZ to ensure users were aware that their funds were, in fact, safe. Later, on May 19, 2018, a content creator named “Bizonacci” uploaded a video titled “Funds Are Safu” on Youtube. The video quickly spread and became a viral meme. The phrase “Funds are safe” was no longer used, and instead, the community began using the phrase “Funds are safu”.
That video, by the way, could easily be one of the most ingenious pieces of crypto-related visual art the world will ever see. It somehow manages to reference almost every popular crypto meme of its age, so if you’re not familiar with it, do yourself a favor and watch it now — you will not regret it.
As for the meme itself, there’s really not that much to dissect — this one is pretty much self-explanatory.
Now that you’ve learned so much about the intricacies of crypto memeology, it would be a good idea to go out there and try to decipher a couple of fresh crypto memes, — or even attempt to make your own ones! After all, what’s the use in having all this knowledge if you don’t put it into practice? We’ll be back with new memes for you in no time, so stay tuned — and remember to know your memes!
Originally published at https://coinjoy.io.
