by M.Z.A
Introduction
This essay explores the nature of the dynamic archive through the phenomenon of memecoins, revealing a power play between human belief in the crypto financial market—one of the most absurd cultural products in human history. This essay applies the dynamic archive framework to capture the fluid nature of memecoin markets, tracking price shifts, trading volumes, and online discourse in specific periods. Unlike static financial analysis, this approach treats data as an evolving process, reflecting the market’s ephemeral dynamics, and uncovers underlying power structures.
The object of this essay is what I term as the pinnacle of postmodernism manifestations, a term that collides the concept of meme and, a transaction token, coin. A meme, described by Brodie, R (1996), as a “virus of ideas,” because of the rapid evolution of technology and civilization, has articulated into a currency (an instrument of exchange) and, in some extreme cases, a store of value, held in speculative markets. In certain contexts, memecoins have even functioned as speculative capital.
Since the practical implementation of blockchain technology by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 through Bitcoin, one of its earliest and most significant adaptations has been in the realm of finance, giving rise to decentralized finance (DeFi). DeFi, as defined by Harvey et al (2021), introduces the possibility of financial transactions without intermediaries such as banks or other financial authorities, shifting the process of authorization to the participants themselves. Taken to its extreme, DeFi enables two parties to transact with any medium of exchange they agree upon, no matter how unconventional, including digital coins adorned with cartoon imagery.
At its core, blockchain itself is the peak representation of an advanced archiving system with real-time verification capabilities. Drawing from Wolfgang Ernst’s concept of the dynarchive (dynamic archive) (Ernst, 2013), blockchain embodies a time-sensitive archival structure, continuously updated and serving as a precise representation of evolving circumstances. These markets offer a fertile ground for analyzing human behavior, where aspirations of instant wealth collide with hysteria over the loss of value —which is often measured by capital ownership in a capitalist framework. Situated within the chaotic dynamics of modern financial markets, which Zaleskiewicz and Traczyk (2020) aptly describes as the cumulative reflection of human decision-making: “finance markets always already discount all,” the phenomena of memecoins is a stark reminder that capital is a social construct, legitimized and sustained by the very system that deems it valuable.
The Meme in Networked World
To explain the phenomenon of memecoins, I must first discuss one of its fundamental building blocks: the meme. Without understanding the mechanics of memes, how they originate, evolve, and spread, it is difficult to grasp the full cultural and digital significance of memecoins.
At its core, the concept of the meme is a celebration of cultural evolution. Originally coined by Dawkins (1976) in The Selfish Gene, a meme is conceived as a cultural replicator, an idea, behavior, or style that spreads within a society through imitation. Much like biological genes, memes evolve, mutate, and adapt over time as they pass from one individual to another, forming the backbone of cultural transmission.
In today’s hyper-connected world, the traditional process of cultural evolution has been turbocharged by digital technology. The internet acts as a multi-role memetic engine, a phenomenon where digital platforms serve as transmitters, amplifiers, incubators, and mutators of memes (Shifman, 2014; Gillespie, 2018). This digital ecosystem allows memes to traverse vast networks almost instantaneously, reaching global audiences and morphing into new variants as they spread.
Central to this process is the role of algorithms. These algorithms are designed to elevate content that sparks engagement (likes, shares, comments, and other interactions) become the lifeblood of a meme’s virality (Bishop, 2019). Consequently, the more engaging a meme is, the more likely it is to be proliferated across social media platforms. What might have once been an organic spread now benefits from a sophisticated, algorithmically driven boost, ensuring that only the most captivating ideas survive and evolve in the crowded digital landscape.
Understanding memes in the digital age requires acknowledging their dual role as both cultural and technological phenomena. They are not static relics of the past; rather, they are dynamic entities continuously shaped by societal trends and technological innovation. As cultural DNA, memes not only reflect our collective values and humor but also influence how we communicate, think, and even behave in our increasingly networked world.
Looking at memes from this perspective shows how technology and culture are deeply connected. Digital memetics highlights how a simple idea can influence social interactions and shape online culture. As key parts of the digital world, memes evolve alongside online activity, constantly changing how information, ideas, and cultural symbols spread.
The Dynarchive in Crypto Financial Market
The second building block of memecoins is the dynamic archive (or dynarchive, as termed by Wolfgang Ernst). Before diving into the concept itself, I will first explain the limitations of the archive concept being discussed. Archives, as conceptualized by Foucault (1972), are not merely collections of historical records but active systems that regulate the formation, distribution, and exclusion of discourse. They function as mechanisms of selection, both preserving and discarding information, shaping what is remembered and forgotten within a given historical and epistemological framework. Unlike a unifying historical narrative, archives create distinctions and differentiations, structuring discourse through rules and conditions that define what is articulated.
With the advent of technology, the archive has shifted from a static repository managed by human bureaucracy to a dynamic and automated process driven by algorithms. Ernst (2013) highlights this transition as “the archive in motion,” where digital storage moves beyond fixed records to fluid, reprogrammable memory, fundamentally altering the nature of historical preservation -or he coined as the dynamic archive.
A dynarchive refers to a form of digital archiving that is constantly evolving based on user needs. This concept is rooted in the idea of permanent transfer, where digital databases are always being modified, whether in private networks or publicly accessible internet domains. Because of this ongoing transformation, digital archiving becomes an open system, never stable, and always shifting over time. An almost perfect manifestation of the dynarchive can be found in the crypto financial market, where on-chain data is publicly accessible, and the archive’s form changes by the millisecond with every transfer of crypto assets from one digital wallet to another. This process occurs nonstop, a constant, never-ending change.
Platforms like CoinMarketCap, Dexscreener, google trend, and even social media in general are instances of human-perceivable manifestations of the dynarchive, serving as signifiers of transactional practices, market sentiment, hope, and hysteria among participants in the crypto financial market. Using the dynarchive framework, I will position these platforms as a dynamic map to examine the phenomenon of memecoins, revealing a power play between human belief, capturing hope and hysteria, and validating how capital is a perceived value in this era of late capitalism.
Memecoins, The Hyper Currency
Discussing memecoins necessitates an understanding of cryptocurrency, as they are fundamentally a byproduct of the same decentralized, speculative, and technology-driven ecosystem. Their value, like that of other cryptocurrencies, is shaped by market sentiment, but memecoins take this to the extreme —deriving worth almost entirely from social media virality, cultural momentum, and collective speculation. Without cryptocurrency’s foundational principles of decentralization, tokenization, and digital scarcity, memecoins would neither exist nor hold any economic significance, making them an amplified reflection of crypto’s hyperreal and attention-driven nature.
So, what is cryptocurrency? As Arslanian (2022) explains in The Book of Crypto, it is a digital asset secured by cryptography and recorded on a decentralized, immutable ledger—essentially a dynarchive, where transactions exist in a continuous state of verification and reinterpretation. Unlike fiat money, its value is not state-backed but dictated by market consensus, with mechanisms like proof-of-work or proof-of-stake ensuring trustless validation.
At its core, currency itself is a social contract, a medium of exchange that derives value from collective trust rather than intrinsic worth (Karlan et al, 2009). Historically, it has taken many forms—gold, shells, paper, and now, cryptographic tokens —yet its primary function remains the same: to store and communicate value across time and space. Currency, I would say, is perhaps the oldest and most successful archival tool ever devised, encoding economic power, political authority, and societal priorities into symbols that outlive their original contexts, making currency decentralized is essentially decentralizing power.
In the case of memecoins, their value does not come from real-world utility but from attention —tweets from influencers, viral Reddit posts, and internet culture all shape their price. They exist In a world where perception outweighs substance, symbols no longer signify real value but merely reference each other in an endless cycle (Baudrillard, 1981) of digital hype. The memecoins are highly sensitive to the dynarchive. Unlike traditional assets with stable records, their meaning and value are constantly rewritten by social media trends and algorithm-driven attention. Their price can surge or crash overnight based on online sentiment alone. In this way, memecoins are not just financial assets but cultural artifacts, existing in a constant state of change where their worth depends almost entirely on the shifting tides of mass attention.
A Study Case of $TRUMP Memecoins: Phase 1, before Inauguration
The internet-based crypto community was abuzz with the launch of $TRUMP on January 17, 2025, a memecoin with no inherent fundamental value. Within days, its market capitalization surged to over $13 billion (Coinmarketcap.com, 2025), fueled not by intrinsic utility but by public sentiment surrounding Donald Trump’s anticipated return to the presidency. In comparison, Indonesia’s 2025 research budget is around $231.6 million USD. Therefore, at its peak, the $TRUMP coin’s market capitalization was nearly 60 times larger than Indonesia’s research budget (Kompas.com. 2025).
Between January 18 and January 19, 2025 (ust days before Trump’s scheduled inauguration on January 20) the price of $TRUMP soared, peaking at $75.9 on January 19. The digital archive of this event does not merely document a speculative frenzy; it demonstrates how digital records themselves fuel speculation. As $TRUMP’s visibility in digital archives increased, so did investor interest, creating a reflexive loop in which recorded attention dictated financial movements in real-time.
Source: CoinMarketCap, 2025
This feedback loop is evident in digital attention metrics. On January 19, mentions of $TRUMP on X surpassed 100,000 discussions among U.S. users, while Google Trends data for searches related to $TRUMP hit the maximum interest score of 100. Real-time data relays reflected identical price movements, demonstrating how archival traces of attention function as active market signals. The archive here is not static; it is a living system that absorbs, processes, and projects information back into the market, shaping investment behavior as much as it records it.
Source: Google Trend, 2025
Source: X Analytics, 2025
The case of $TRUMP further aligns with Goldhaber’s (1997) attention economy theory, which argues that in digital economies, visibility itself is an asset. However, within the framework of the dynamic archive, this visibility is not merely a consequence of investor sentiment but a structural force in shaping financial realities. The social media buzz, the trending data, and the decentralized tracking platforms collectively form an archive that does not just reflect speculative interest —it generates it.
This study of $TRUMP highlights how digital archives in the crypto space are not inert records of price action but active participants in market dynamics. The archived data (social engagement, search interest, and real-time price charts) form a self-referential system where historical and present data merge to influence future outcomes. The dynamic archive of $TRUMP is not a passive ledger of past transactions but a real-time mechanism that conditions and amplifies speculative behavior, reinforcing the coin’s volatility through its documentation.
$TRUMP’s trajectory exemplifies the dynamic nature of digital archives, demonstrating that they do not merely store historical records but actively shape market realities. As digital finance continues to evolve, understanding how dynamic archives structure speculative phenomena will be essential for decoding future trends in memecoins and beyond.
A Study Case of $TRUMP Memecoins: Phase 2, after Inauguration
However, instead of maintaining its momentum, the coin experienced a dramatic shift immediately after the inauguration.January 20, the day of the presidential inauguration, was expected to be a defining moment for $TRUMP memecoin. Investors anticipated Trump’s speech would fuel market excitement, but his silence on crypto shifted sentiment instantly. The absence of a catalyst led to declining attention, triggering a rapid sell-off (Yahoo Finance, 2025).
Source: Yahoo Finance, 2025
Public interest dropped sharply. Google searches and discussions on X platform peaked and crashed on the same day, highlighting the memecoin’s dependency on sustained hype. This follows the dynarchive framework —where digital assets gain and lose value based on evolving narratives and fleeting attention. Without reinforcement, the archive of $TRUMP’s market relevance quickly deteriorated.
Source: Google Trend, 2025
Source: X Analytics, 2025
By the end of January 20, the price plummeted, continuing its decline until it fell below launch value by month’s end. This entire cycle (from peak speculation to collapse) lasted less than half a month, with capital circulation comparable to 60 times of Indonesia’s national research budget.
Source: Dexscreener, 2025
Conversation around $TRUMP also transformed post-inauguration. Optimistic phrases like “buy” and “moon” were swiftly replaced with “sell,” “fake,” and “crash.” Word cloud comparisons before and after the event illustrate this drastic sentiment shift. The hysteria-driven sell-off reflects how memecoin value is dictated by shifting digital discourse rather than fundamental worth.
Source: X Analytics, 2025
The $TRUMP memecoin’s collapse reinforces how memecoins exist within a constantly evolving dynarchive. Their value is not intrinsic but dictated by attention cycles. When political narratives failed to sustain the hype, the archive dissolved, proving that in the memecoin market, attention itself is the true currency.
Conclusion
Memecoins epitomize the essence of the dynamic archive —a continuously shifting repository of collective sentiment, where value is not merely recorded but actively constructed, dismantled, and reassembled in real time. Unlike traditional financial assets, memecoins derive their worth not from economic fundamentals but from the ebb and flow of digital discourse, shaped by power figures and viral narratives. Those in positions of influence —whether tech moguls, online personalities, or financial elites—serve as key architects of this archive, constructing and amplifying value through their endorsements, memes, and speculative rhetoric. Their words and actions (or their silence and inaction) dictate the rise and fall of narratives, making the memecoin market an arena where economic worth is defined by perception rather than substance. This relentless cycle of hype and disillusionment transforms memecoins into an archive of hope and hysteria —a digital testament to speculative optimism that can just as easily collapse into collective panic. In this space, perception reigns supreme, proving that in the digital age, economic reality is inseparable from the shifting tides of belief.
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