When foreigners start learning Chinese to trade cryptocurrencies: A cross-continental Meme culture wave

In the past two weeks, a surprising wave of Chinese Meme frenzy has swept across the BSC chain. Honestly, the scene is quite surreal—when a bunch of foreigners start learning Chinese furiously just to trade cryptocurrencies, you know something unusual is happening.

Foreigners Also Starting to “Involve Themselves”

When Barry from WOK Labs, a Polish guy, talked to me about this, his tone was full of amazement. He said he was stunned the first time he saw a Chinese-labeled coin reach a market cap of 20 million USD. By the time it surged to 60 million or even broke 1 billion, their European group was already buzzing.

A bunch of people rushed to fund BSC Meme coins, but they had no idea why prices were rising. Prices kept flying, and they could only watch in disbelief.

The data is even more astonishing. On October 8th, the transaction volume on the BSC chain skyrocketed to 6.05 billion USD, nearly matching the frenzy of mechanism coins in 2021. Over 100,000 new addresses jumped into Meme coins, nearly 70% of whom actually made money. Active addresses increased by 1 million compared to last month.

This might be the first time in crypto history that Western players entered the market only after prices took off, and only afterward did they “look up” Chinese language to understand what was happening.

Two Different Approaches, Completely Different Strategies

Because Barry had previously collaborated with Chinese teams, he managed to see through this gameplay early on. He found that Meme trading in the West is more like a “conspiracy theory game”—big KOLs or teams control large amounts of chips, pump and dump quickly. This model builds communities slowly but carries huge dumping risks, making it hard to sustain long-term.

Chinese communities, on the other hand, follow a completely different logic. Emotional resonance, storytelling, endorsements by opinion leaders—these are used in WeChat groups to “tell stories” and gather popularity, which theoretically makes it easier to form a lasting community atmosphere.

A typical retail trader’s operation is quite representative: within 7 days, they rotated through 65 Chinese Meme coins on BSC, each time throwing in 100 to 300 USD to test the waters. Once the momentum built up, they added more. Over a week, they netted 87,000 USD in profit.

This high-frequency “net-casting” approach is indeed common among many Chinese retail investors—fast, precise, and aggressive, jumping on hot spots. Now, Western players are also getting smarter, starting to abandon small caps below 500,000 USD and focusing on targets starting from 5 million USD.

Intermediaries like Barry, connecting Chinese and Western markets, are becoming more sought after—helping Asian projects enter the West and assisting European teams to land in the East.

From Dogecoin to Chinese Meme, Cultural Genes Are Completely Different

Looking back, the pioneer of Western Meme coins was Dogecoin in 2013—created by two programmers as a joke based on Bitcoin. Initially, it was satire and humor; later, with endorsements from celebrities like Elon Musk, its market cap surged to 88.8 billion USD in May 2021.

Pepe is similar—born from the 4chan community, it quickly surpassed 1 billion USD after launching in 2023. The project openly states: “No intrinsic value, purely entertainment.”

This nihilistic value system dominated many Meme projects on Solana—names like Fartcoin and Uselesscoin clearly reflect that. Western internet culture tends to favor subversion and dark humor.

However, Chinese Meme coins follow a completely different path. Coins like “Humble Little One” or “Customer Service Xiao He” play on self-deprecating humor about workers; “Xianxia” series reflect escapism fantasies; “Binance Life” directly projects the dream of overnight wealth.

In essence, this is about “broadening the road.” For Chinese users, it’s a viable approach, but for many Western players, it means the ceiling is controlled by the “system”—whether the official is willing to pump the coin becomes a key factor.

The Exchange Drama

In mid-October, a public relations battle unfolded within the community.

CJ, the founder of a prediction market project, revealed on Twitter that to list on a major exchange, they needed to pledge 2 million BNB, airdrop 8% of tokens, do marketing, and provide a 250,000 USD margin. He compared several platforms, implying some exchanges charge “listing fees.”

This stirred up a hornet’s nest. The named exchanges quickly issued statements denying the claims, calling them “completely false and defamatory,” even threatening legal action. But later, they issued more restrained statements, admitting their initial reaction was over the top but insisting they do not charge listing fees.

Interestingly, Jesse, head of Base chain, a compliant US platform, stepped in and said: “Projects should be able to launch with zero fees.” As if to show defiance, this platform officially announced support for competitors’ mainnet tokens—marking a first in history.

CZ welcomed this on Twitter, encouraging more projects to list on BSC. CJ also started to make friendly overtures. Jesse’s attitude did a 180°, posting a demo video of the Base App, even using “Binance Life” as an example, joking in Chinese: “Activate Binance Life mode on Base App.”

This move is interpreted as a “diplomatic breakthrough” between the US and Chinese crypto camps, also bringing some “Golden Dog” to the Base chain.

Language Becomes a New Barrier

Mainstream Western media paid close attention to this event. Many Western retail investors in groups lamented, “We can’t understand the price rise,” as most only rushed to buy after prices soared.

Even Barry, who has deep cultural exchanges with Chinese communities, often encounters the problem of “knowing the meaning but not the significance” when predicting culturally loaded Meme coins. Many foreigners have developed Chinese-to-English translation tools, and some even produce videos teaching “how to learn Chinese to buy Meme coins.”

This might be the first time Western investors need to understand Chinese culture to participate in this feast. Language itself has become a layer of value resource.

Barry believes this wave of Chinese Meme market is nearing its end. “The longer it lasts, the more PTSD traders will accumulate. These coins are already evolving into smaller market caps and faster sector rotations.”

But he also notes, “English and Chinese are now the main components of the Meme market, and this situation won’t change in the short term. The Chinese market is bigger and more emotionally driven. European markets tend to lag behind. I think English tickers will return, but they will become more integrated with Asian culture—humor, symbolism, aesthetics—all becoming more Chinese.”

Final Words

AI translation can help spread memes and translate updates, but it cannot replace deep cultural understanding.

The future of crypto may become more polarized. Chains like Base and Solana will see more Chinese tickers like “Golden Dog.” East and West communities will both merge and diverge.

And within these cultural gaps, there may be new opportunities waiting to be discovered.