Memecoins have more potential upside than blue-chip governance tokens, according to VC

Episode 20 of Season 6 of The Scoop was recorded with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Variant Co-Founder & General Partner Li Jin.

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Li Jin, co-founder and general partner at Variant, a venture capital firm focused on crypto and internet-native business models, joined Frank Chaparro on The Scoop, The Block's podcast, for an April 2024 conversation making the case that memecoins can offer more potential upside than many established blue-chip governance tokens.

In this episode, Li analyzes the memecoin phenomenon that has recently swept over the crypto market, and explores how different types of memecoins capture and monetize attention.

Outline

00:35 Memecoin Zeitgeist
04:04 The Attention Economy
10:58 Classifying Memecoins
17:40 Trading Memecoins
21:05 Are Memecoins Productive?
23:14 Memetic Analysis
29:10 Memecoins & Marketing Strategies
34:42 Closing Thoughts

Jin, who previously worked in venture roles focused on the creator economy before co-founding Variant, brought a lens rooted in attention economics to the discussion, framing memecoins not simply as jokes or pure speculation but as assets that succeed by capturing and monetizing cultural attention in ways that governance tokens, often tied to protocol usage and slower-moving fundamentals, structurally cannot.

On the episode, Jin walked through a framework for classifying different types of memecoins based on their origin, community dynamics, and distribution mechanics, distinguishing opportunistic launches from tokens that manage to build lasting cultural relevance and sustained trading activity. She discussed the mechanics of memecoin trading, including how liquidity, social media virality, and narrative momentum interact to drive price action that can dramatically outpace that of more established, fundamentals-driven tokens, particularly during periods of retail-driven speculative enthusiasm.

Jin also addressed the frequently asked question of whether memecoins serve any productive economic purpose beyond speculation, arguing that their ability to bootstrap attention and community can itself have real value for the broader crypto ecosystem, even when the underlying asset lacks a traditional product or revenue model.

The conversation touched on effective marketing and distribution strategies employed by successful memecoin projects, and how those tactics differ meaningfully from the venture-backed, roadmap-driven launches typical of layer-1 and DeFi governance tokens. Rather than dismissing the memecoin trend as a passing fad, Jin encouraged listeners and fellow investors to take the category seriously as a distinct, attention-driven asset class with its own investment logic, one that she believes deserves a more rigorous analytical framework than it typically receives from traditional crypto venture investors.