My thoughts on “The Trencher,” art, and memecoins We all remember Chill Guy. The token ripped to 500M in days. But then Philip Banks, the creator of the Chill Guy character, announced that he had copyrighted the artwork and would be issuing takedown notices for profit related content. Without support from the artist, the token crashed. And that wasn’t the first or the last time we’ve seen clashes between artists and memecoin communities. There has been long debate in the crypto world over art and memes and who they belong to. Let’s continue to use Chill Guy as an example (sorry Philip, no hard feelings really). Philip created that character in 2023, but the character didn’t become famous until it randomly went viral on TikTok in November 2024. It wasn’t the CHARACTER people were connecting with, it was the MEME. My feelings are that when a piece of art is memed, it begins to evolve and take on new life in the hands of each person who memes it. So then, as it evolves, who does it belong to? This will be debated for years probably, and by people much smarter than me. But my own personal thoughts are that memes belong to everyone. Memes have no central authority and this is why they are so important to crypto. It’s obvious that the most successful tokens either have no central figure or the central figure is completely anonymous. When a token has a central figure, everything that person or group does affects the price for better or worse. (I’m looking at you, cringe Solana ad 👀). This is largely why Bitcoin is so successful. Can you imagine if Satoshi Nakamoto was posting cringe takes on twitter? This is also why many successful memecoins have no CTO and no official twitter account. They exist purely in meme form. As an artist, I want to spend my time creating. I don’t want to be a dev, a project lead, a strategic planner, or the marketer/social media manager of a memecoin account. All of those things would take away from my time creating, which is what I need to be doing here. This is why artists should begin to see it as a GIFT when people tokenize their work. Art in meme form is more successful in the hands of a community. Now, let’s talk about “The Trencher”. I posted that art for fun and then went to sleep. While I slept, @a1lon9 commented on it (thank you, Alon!!) and brought attention to the artwork. It was, of course, immediately tokenized on Pump Fun by an unknown dev. I woke up to hundreds of notifications. As I was trying to sort out what was happening, the token ran up to 1.5M market cap and was #1 trending on dex. I was a little sad that I missed early entry to my own meme lol, but mostly, I was overwhelmingly excited that people cared enough about my art to meme it. Because I am in the trenches, I know how memes work. I know that when something goes viral, there is no “waiting period” to figure out who gets to be the dev. Viral memes are tokenized. Swiftly. The trenches move fast and the fastest win. I am choosing to cheer on the success of the $trencher token and lean into the gratitude I feel for the exposure and attention this has brought me. Like I said in my original statement, I am an artist, not a dev. I hope you can appreciate my art for what it is, rather than for what it does to the number on a chart. I’ve been here everyday, for years, making silly art and memes. And I will continue to do my thing. I like to think that “The Trencher” went viral because people see themselves in it. Put yourself, your character, at the center. What would YOUR accessories be? What makes YOU a trencher? I’ve always loved to create simple cartoons that people can see themselves in and that are accessible and easy to recreate. I believe our industry will continue to evolve in best practices of how to include artists when their art/memes are tokenized. Should they be gifted supply? Should they buy their own? What is the best way to include artists in their newfound virality? We’re all still figuring this out. One last thought. Before @pumpdotfun, almost all memecoin launches were manufactured unfunny “meme” pre-sales with loads of insider trading. With the rise of Pump Fun, real viral memes are launched immediately, by anyone, the second they go viral. Pump Fun rewards creativity, humor, and speed. This allows small creators to win. This allows people who are here grinding everyday to win. This allows people who have a good eye for memes to win. Be active, be funny, make memes, be a good person. That’s all.
