Crypto traders’ relentless desire for new narratives has fueled the growth of a new category of meme coins underpinned by AI, according to crypto exchange Gate.io.
The launch of AI meme coin Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) earlier this year and its subsequent rapid growth could create “a new super cycle narrative” for the category, said Gate.io researcher Charle Y in a recent blog post.
GOAT was originally suggested by semi-autonomous AI Twitter bot Truth Terminal, which uses a tweaked version of Meta’s Llama 3.1 model. In October, the bot began prophesying about a religion based on an infamous (and obscene) 2004 meme, which subsequently provided the inspiration for a meme coin created on Solana launchpad Pump.fun.
The project soon gained traction after Truth Terminal began interacting with GOAT’s community, endorsing the meme coin and creating its own crypto wallet. The cryptocurrency has since soared to hit a market cap of over $842 million, per data from CoinGecko.
Charle Y added that the Moonshot platform, which enables the direct purchase and sale of meme coins using fiat currency, played a “key role” in the rise of GOAT.
goatseus maximus is a spiritual successor to goatse. it's the same hermetic, Gnostic, and Catharist themes but for the age of AI. it's about the goatse of things, the void that gives birth to all things and into which all things are returned
The project has hit some roadblocks during its rise, including “discussions about whether the Truth Terminal is a real person,” with some suspecting that it’s “a complete conspiracy,” said Gate.io’s Charle Y. GOAT was also rocked by a hack of Truth Terminal developer Andy Aryey’s Twitter account, which was used to promote a crypto pump-and-dump scheme.
Other AI-based meme coins have received a boost from the emergence of GOAT, with Charle Y singling out TURBO, an earlier AI meme coin coded using GPT-4, as well as GNON and MEDUSA. Gate.io also included the AI concept memes PROJECTSID, LUNA, TEE and IB among 12 cryptocurrencies listed on the exchange in early November.
While conceding that there are risks involved in the AI meme coin sector, including “the market’s immaturity and regulatory lag,” Charle Y lauded the category as a “completely new investment field with great imagination.”
Gate.io Launches Pilot Trends
To meet growing demand among crypto traders for access to rapidly emerging on-chain trends such as AI meme coins, Gate.io has launched the Pilot Trading section.
Pilot Trading, a newly launched independent transaction section within Gate.io, provides access to trading in tokens for “community and chain innovation projects,” enabling users to “invest in the early value of the project,” the exchange said in an announcement. The Pilot Trading zone offers a low handling fee of 0.2% and enables users to participate in trading without a Web3 wallet or private keys.
