The hot anticipation for the next crypto bull run has seen an explosion of interest in a relatively new corner of Cryptocurrency, the emergence of the ‘memecoin’. One of the most notable of these memecoin’s is the firm favourite of Elon Musk, Dogecoin, which has been hitting headlines now for nigh on four years. Dogecoin was, and still is, the meme with the highest market cap, almost reaching an eye watering $90bn back in 2021, but there have been challengers to this crown beavering away since then, such as another coin based on a dog, Shiba-Inu, Pepe (based on a frog and beloved of most ‘degens’) and WIF…yet another dog-based coin.

Oh wait, before I continue and before you zone out and ask for a TL:DR, be happy for me or sorry that it happened, there is a point to all of this and it’s worth your time to stick with me to the end, just sayin’.

Now, where was I, ah yes…

What is perhaps unique about this relatively new category of blockchain based token is the tech behind them…or rather complete lack of it. Whereas other cryptocurrency tokens, before memecoins, were considered new forms of digital currency, governance tokens for new chains or protocols or tokens to support projects that sought to develop new and emergent technologies, memecoins are, by and large, just representative of Web2 meme’s and with it are just as vacuous in terms of real-world value. Virtually anyone can create a ‘memecoin’, all they need is their own Web3 wallet, a little cryptocurrency, in some cases just a few dollars’ worth, and a keen eye for notable news events from which to derive a token.

The upcoming US presidential election has spawned dozens, if not hundreds, of these coins based on Donald Trump, Joe Biden and lately Kamala Harris, as well as other notable political figures. In some cases, the coins have rocketed in market cap after certain savoury and unsavoury events, such as the attempted assassination of Trump, as people quickly sought to profit from the news-cycle. A baby hippo goes viral on Tiktok on the other side of the world? You better believe that before the day is out, there will be several tokens doing the rounds. A young woman describes how to keep a man in a suggestive manner? Well, before the week is out she is being invited to crypto conventions and is making headlines and millions of dollars, which people virtually bet on with all their savings as to which coin named after her will reach $100m market cap.

Whether you like it or not, this is dumb money, not the kind of dumb money that Wall Street calls retail investors, you know; mom and pop, the kid on the corner or the casual stock trader, no, I mean real dumb money. Literally people betting on other people choosing their version of a coin with a cat photo over another coin with a cat photo…and all based on, well, absolutely nothing else really. Maybe the developer (or Dev) is known, maybe they have a track record of success with other coins, maybe one of the numerous Twitter, sorry ‘X’, influencers might reveal they’ve ‘aped’ in to the coin, but that is as far as it goes. Madness. But, there is money to be made even in the world of asylums.

So why, might you wonder, would someone like me who has a scathing view of this genre of crypto, be in any way interested in this particular wing of the asylum? Well, amongst all the dogs and cats and goodness knows what else, there are hidden gems. Projects that transcend beyond just being a meme and have the potential to offer that real-world value in more ways than one. Arise yonder oh chosen one, or two or three or four. You see, amongst all the detritus that is memecoins, some projects actually have a roadmap, a plan for the future. One such project is Bets.

It’s not a coincidence that I mentioned dumb money above, nor Wall Street and by extension the association to Roaring Kitty, Gamestop and the subreddit that made them famous, Wall Street Bets. That’s because Bets, or rather All Street Bets to give it it’s full title, is the brainchild of Wall Street Bets founder Jamie Rogozinski and his co-founding partner Samdude who have set out on a mission to recreate that Web2 subreddit and bring it bang up to date in decentralized form in the name of freedom of expression, freedom to transact, and freedom to be, well, free! Something that Wall Street Bets never was. What was billed as a memecoin to early investors, and the reason for their investment, has in six short months grown exponentially in terms of its ambition…or rather that ambition is gradually becoming evident. According to Sam, this was always the plan.

Back in 2023, Coinbase, the world’s second largest crypto exchange, launched its own blockchain, conveniently call Base, as a Layer 2 extension to the Layer 1 Ethereum blockchain. For those unfamiliar, Ethereum (second only to Bitcoin in terms of value) is somewhat limited in terms of capacity to process transactions, much like most early blockchain networks. This capacity is paid for with Gwei (or gas) which users pay to use the chain. The busier the chain, the more gas you pay. At times of extremely high demand, users could pay hundreds of dollars just to process a single transaction, something that anyone familiar with NFT summer of 2021 is all too familiar with. Layer 2 blockchains operate separately to Ethereum and are not so constrained. Ethereum L2’s use Ethereum as their governance token and so transactions are in Eth, but they are fast (almost instantaneous) and gas, albeit still payable, is typically pennies or fractions thereof. Base has been designed to be hugely scalable, efficient and above all, hyper-fast. The team at Bets therefore chose to launch on Base for this very good reason.

You see Bets, unlike 99.99% of other memecoins, aims to do something quite different. Sure, it’s a token that appreciates and depreciates in value like any other depending on how much is bought or sold, but Bets is also cultivating a culture within its community, they’re partnering with other exciting Web3 projects like Wire (more on that later), branching out into other industries, educating the masses on trad-fi (traditional finance, such as stocks and shares) and donating to charities that exemplify the ethos of freedom, in particular those fighting to eradicate human trafficking. I mean, those are just the headlines. Both Jaime and Sam aren’t here to pump some silly ‘shitcoin’ to $100m and then dump their wallets on the community for a quick profit, they’re here to grow the brand of All Streets Bets into something that far outstretches cryptocurrency.

A couple of months ago I found myself on an open VC (Video/Voice Call) with Sam in their telegram. He sometimes does this, just opens a VC whilst he works in the background and if people join, he’ll happily just talk to them, share his ideas, take feedback, casually. Anyway, on this occasion Sam was alone, I was the only person in the VC, which at a time after all the hype of launch has subsided, isn’t unusual. I spoke with him for an hour or so, just two dudes chillin’. He told me about how he grew up in the UK (where I live) before moving to the US, we discussed the relative merits of US chocolate and how Cadbury’s is way better (don’t argue, this is fact), how he was craving a battered sausage and chips from a chippy, etc. Like I say, two dudes just chillin’ as they went about other stuff. Of course, we discussed Bets and his plans, and let me tell you, I could feel his energy through the phone. His passion for the project. This isn’t some six-month gig, this is a decades long endeavor (evidenced by the 2 year personal token lock and 10 year LP lock for starters). He’s not in this to make a few million. His hunger is for billions, yet at the same time, he wants to make a mark on this world, like Jaime has to some extent, but bigger, grander, by joining forces. In 10 years’ time perhaps people won’t be talking about WallStreetBets, they’ll be talking about AllStreetBets, unencumbered by the bounds of Wall Street. We’re talking every street, for the culture.

So, besides being a memecoin, sorry, culture coin, it’s fascinating to see the breadth of value being added which leads one to think that currently this project is significantly undervalued. As I sit here writing this, reflecting on what Sam and Jaimie’s plans are, just in the first 12 months, I can’t help but wonder where they are going wrong given the market cap currently sits at around $2m from an all-time high of around $48m shortly after launch? I mean, is the marketing not working? Is the branding wrong? Do people just not get it? It’s hard to pin down, but the reality is crypto in general is going through a rough patch and the customer base of Bets hasn’t really arrived yet. The people that made Wall Street Bets so successful, the so-called Wall Street ‘dumb money’, just hasn’t really made the switch to cryptocurrency, at least not in this cycle. Retail hasn’t turned up yet and the community Bets has built so far (and it’s a loyal one) hasn’t reached a critical mass where it can influence much. It’s all a question of time and timing.

Jaime and Sam have zero desire to ‘pump this coin’, which goes against the ethos of most people who trade memecoins on a daily basis. They want to get in, ride the pump and get out. This is why most memecoins crash and burn and those that don’t, they go through an endless cycle of up and down at a frequency that would make most hedge fund managers have kittens. That means Bets only looks attractive to people who HODL, people who invest over long periods. But, what awaits those people who invest in Bets, I think, is a nirvana we haven’t really experienced yet in memecoins, to be perpetually ‘up’. Like I said earlier, there is a long-term vision here. So, what, might you ask, does Bets have planned? Here is a little list:

• One of the biggest products is a wallet built alongside their partners, Wire Network, that will utilize cutting edge AI to allow you to trade your tokens across chains in a single transaction, something most people thought (and probably still think) is impossible, an ‘Omnichain wallet’. No more bridging to different networks, just buy your Bitcoin with Solana and then sell it for Ethereum in two easy steps and all powered by Bets, possibly, the finer details are being ironed out, but the wallet exists right now and is being tested. This is a huge innovation, make no mistake, it’s ground breaking stuff.
• Bets will also be doing what it says on the tin, creating a betting platform, again, probably powered by the Bets token. This is also at an advanced stage of development.
• Bets has also taken a big step into gaming having already enjoyed success on the new ESMX online gaming tournament platform together with a venture onto Nifty Island, a popular Web3 gaming environment.
• Bets has already launched an NFT that will form a series in collaboration with popular Web3 artist, Arsonic. More artist collaborations are planned as well as associated NFT drops. Incidentally, Bets airdropped a small amount of $BETS to around three quarters of a million wallets that held certain types of cryptocurrency and/or NFT’s back in the Summer, which at the time was thought to be the biggest airdrop of its type ever attempted. This allowed those wallets to mint the Arsonic NFT…but you had to be paying attention.
• There is also talk of a rewards system for $BETS holders but what that might be and what it might encompass remains to be seen.
• On top of this Bets has a small but thriving community in their Telegram channel and their growing Discord, where Jaime regularly conducts calls to educate those who care to listen in and various trading principles and techniques as well as sharing his thoughts on the market. They also have a number of ‘call’ channels where respected members share details of other tokens they think have potential. This aspect is rapidly growing into narrative of extraordinary success.

I’ve barely scratched the surface to be honest, I didn’t even place any emphasis on Bets’ charitable contributions which now total over $100k, all paid for by a 3% tax on purchases and sales. Many people baulk at the thought of a buy/sell tax on a crypto coin, but when you see the good that tax is doing and how it enables the project to sustain itself into the future, it’s really hard to argue against it.

As I was writing this article I was wondering how I was going to finish it off and it’s a little longer than I had hoped, but there was so much to fit in. There isn’t really a conclusion to the story. All Street Bets is still in its infancy. They’ve gone through some tough times during the initial rundown following their all-time high, but are now trending upwards. All I can really say is that for now, Bets is somewhat of a hidden gem glinting in the shadows. As each day passes though, it shines a little brighter. Jaime and Sam are on a mission and as long as they continue to execute as they have done to date, there can be no doubt that their mission will take them, and their community, to the moon.

One final thing, when talking to Sam and telling him I intended to write this article, he was in London with Jaime. After giving him an outline, he simply came back to me with the following from quote Jaime and I’ll leave you with this: “Coming into this, we needed to show we’re really here to stay. To build a lasting community. That we’re not just here to “pump my coin”, because it’s so much more than that. But it’s almost time to do the pump my coin thing too…”

$BETS is currently sat at around $2m market cap.

The contract address is: 0x42069de48741db40aef864f8764432bbccbd0b69

Disclaimer: The author of this article was not a pre-sale investor but invested in $BETS shortly after launch and currently holds a reasonable number of $BETS tokens.

– Montgomery Andrews