Ansem Returns to Defend Meme Coins: Why “Attention” Could Become the Most Valuable Asset in Crypto?

August 28, 2026 - The meme coin world has once again received new fuel.
Ansem, one of the crypto traders and commentators known for actively observing Solana cycles and high-risk assets, has expressed an increasingly bullish view of meme coins. In his view, he is now more optimistic about meme coins than before because, essentially, these assets are trading instruments built on attention.
That statement is interesting because it changes how meme coins are viewed.
Until now, investors have asked:
“What are its fundamentals?”
But for meme coins, perhaps the more appropriate question is:
“How much attention can this token attract, and how long can that attention be maintained?”
And in 2026, the answer is beginning to emerge in trading data.

🧠 Meme Coins Do Not Sell Products - They Sell Attention
Meme coins are indeed different from traditional crypto assets.
Bitcoin has a narrative as a digital monetary asset.
Ethereum has a smart contract ecosystem.
Stablecoins have a payment function.
Meanwhile, meme coins often do not have complex products, revenue, or utility underlying their valuations.
Their value is shaped more by:
community + narrative + liquidity + social distribution + attention.
That is what Ansem means when he describes meme coins as attention-driven trading instruments.
In other words:
Attention → engagement → trading → liquidity → price discovery.
If attention disappears, liquidity can disappear as well.
And when attention returns, prices can move extremely quickly.

🔥 The Latest Data Shows That Attention Is Indeed Returning
Ansem’s view did not emerge in a vacuum.
Meme coin activity in the Solana ecosystem has indeed increased again.
The latest data shows that Solana meme coin trading volume reached approximately US$5.2 billion in mid-August 2026, the highest level since January 2026. Meme coins even accounted for around 29% of Solana DEX spot volume during the week of July 20–26, and briefly reached 42% on several days.
This is a significant change.
Previously, the meme coin sector had cooled after the major 2024 euphoria.
Now its activity is beginning to return.
It is not only about price.
Volume is speaking as well.

🚀 Pumpfun Shows Signs of Life Again
One of the best indicators for measuring the “breathing” of Solana meme coins is Pumpfun activity.
On August 25, 2026, Pumpfun reportedly generated approximately US$2.4 million in fees in one day, its highest daily revenue since September 2025. Weekly fees in August have also reached approximately US$13.68 million, while estimated monthly revenue stood at around US$42–48 million based on cited on-chain data.
Why is this important?
Because launchpads like Pumpfun depend on people who:
create tokens → buy tokens → sell tokens → move on to the next token.
The greater this activity, the greater the monetization of its infrastructure.
So when fees increase, we get one clue:
The market is once again willing to pay to chase attention.

🐂 ANSEM Itself Becomes the Most Extreme Example
Ironically, a token named ANSEM became the perfect example of the “attention economy” theory.
At the end of June 2026, the token had previously had almost no meaningful activity. A Bitquery investigation recorded only around 336 wallets interacting with the token on its worst day.
Then Ansem appeared, and attention toward the token exploded.
The price reportedly rose approximately 370× in 48 hours, with its valuation briefly reaching around US$126 million from an initial level of approximately US$340,000.
That was not traditional business growth.
There was no corporate revenue that suddenly increased 370×.
There was no product that suddenly generated hundreds of millions of dollars.
What changed first was:
attention.
And the price followed that attention.

📈 Even Solana Benefits
The return of meme coin activity is also connected to the revival of Solana activity.
At the end of August, data showed that the market capitalization of the Solana meme coin category stood at around US$3.9 billion, while 24-hour volume exceeded US$1.5 billion in one of the latest readings.
At the same time, Solana itself recorded increased institutional interest.
Cumulative spot Solana ETF flows in the US have reached approximately US$1.22 billion, with one August session recording US$33.5 million in inflows.
This creates an interesting combination:
SOL is receiving institutional attention
while
meme coins are receiving speculative attention.
The two then reinforce each other through on-chain activity.

🎯 Why Can Ansem Be More Bullish Now?
There is a structural change worth noting.
In the previous crypto era, projects often tried to build a narrative:
“We have revolutionary technology.”
Yet many tokens failed to attract attention.
Meme coins do the opposite.
They do not try to hide the fact that:
attention is the product.
Investors buy because of the meme.
Communities grow because of the meme.
Influencers talk because of the meme.
Traders enter after seeing the volume.
The media covers them because the price is moving.
Then more people see the news.
An attention cycle forms.
This is what makes meme coins highly efficient instruments for speculation.

⚠️ But Attention Can Also Be a Double-Edged Sword
There is a dark side to this theory.
If valuation depends on attention, then the loss of attention can also destroy valuation.
That is why meme coins carry extreme risk.
Today:
viral.
Tomorrow:
forgotten.
There is no guarantee that incoming attention will last.
The latest data even shows how quickly meme coins can move. On August 28, media reported that several new meme tokens experienced extreme surges after attracting market attention, including one token reportedly rising more than 99,000% in a single day, despite having very limited fundamental information.
Numbers like that are not a sign that the market is becoming safer.
Quite the opposite.
Volatility and speculation are increasing.

💣 The Biggest Risk Is Not Volatility—It Is Liquidity
Many traders see a meme coin rise 1,000% and think:
“I want in.”
The problem is the next question:
“Who will buy when I want to exit?”
For assets with low liquidity, prices can rise simply because a small amount of capital enters.
But when buyers stop coming, the price can fall just as quickly.
Therefore, meme coin traders should not only look at:
market cap.
They should also pay attention to:
24-hour volume;
liquidity depth;
holder distribution;
wallet concentration;
smart money activity;
token age;
transaction count;
and changes in social attention.
A large market cap without healthy liquidity remains dangerous.

🧩 Meme Coins in 2026: No Longer Just a Joke?
This is where Ansem’s view becomes interesting.
If meme coins are indeed attention-based trading instruments, their development does not necessarily mean that all meme coins will have fundamentals like companies.
Their model is simply different.
Meme coins are a tokenized attention market.
In the digital economy, human attention is a scarce resource.
Social media competes to obtain it.
Influencers sell it.
Advertising platforms monetize it.
And meme coins try to turn it into:
a tradable asset.
That is the concept that keeps the sector relevant even though most of its tokens have no conventional utility.

🔥 But Not Every Meme Coin Will Win
This is the most important part.
If Ansem’s thesis is correct, then the future of meme coins does not mean:
“all meme coins will rise.”
The opposite is more likely.
The market will become increasingly selective.
Tokens that can obtain:
attention + community + liquidity + distribution
will last longer.
Meanwhile, tokens that only experience a viral surge for a few hours can disappear quickly.
Therefore, attention velocity may become one of the most important indicators in meme coin trading.
Not just:
how many people are talking about the token?
But:
how quickly is that amount of attention increasing or decreasing?

🧠 From “Fundamentals” to “Attention Fundamentals”
This is the more appropriate way to read the meme coin market.
For stocks, investors look at:
revenue → profit → cash flow → valuation.
For meme coins, traders may need to look at:
attention → volume → liquidity → holder growth → price.
This does not mean meme coins have the same fundamentals as stocks.
Quite the opposite.
Their fundamentals are different.
And one of the most relevant “fundamentals” is a token’s ability to maintain the market’s attention.

🏆 Conclusion: Ansem May Be Capturing a Major Shift
Ansem’s statement that he is now more optimistic about meme coins is not merely a call to buy a particular token.
It is more interesting when viewed as a thesis about how the crypto market works in 2026.
Attention has become one of the most valuable commodities.
The latest data supports the fact that this activity is indeed returning:
Solana meme coin volume reached approximately US$5.2 billion in mid-August.
Meme coins accounted for 29% of Solana DEX spot volume in one week, and even reached 42% on several days.
Pump.fun generated approximately US$2.4 million in fees in one day on August 25, the highest level since September 2025.
The Solana meme coin category had a market capitalization of around US$3.9 billion, with daily volume exceeding US$1.5 billion in the latest reading.
US Solana ETFs have accumulated approximately US$1.22 billion in cumulative inflows, showing that the Solana ecosystem more broadly is also receiving attention.
So perhaps Ansem’s biggest thesis is not:
“Meme coins will rise.”
But rather:
“As long as humans continue to give attention, there will always be a market trying to price that attention.”
And crypto may have found the most extreme form of that concept.
Meme coins are not merely tokens without fundamentals.
They are a market experiment attempting to answer one question:
What is the price of attention?
In 2026, the market appears to be trying to find the answer again.
#GateAlpha