#GateMeme Talking About USELESS: How Can a Coin That Admits Itself to Be Useless Be Worth $200 Million?

On September 4, a coin named “Useless” (USELESS) surged 26.8% in a single day. The trigger was a rumor that OK might list it. The rumor has yet to be confirmed, but the money has already rushed in—this is very meme.
A coin that openly admits it has absolutely no utility once reached a peak market cap of $400 million and is still worth more than $200 million. Why?
I. First, rule out the obvious: Is it a scam?
After examining USELESS this round, three things were unexpectedly “clean”:
1. Nearly all tokens are already in circulation. The circulating supply is 999.1M, with a maximum supply of 1B, meaning 99.9% is circulating—there are no team or institutional allocations waiting to unlock and dump. In the meme coin sector, a notorious breeding ground for scams, this alone eliminates 80% of the traps.
2. The major exchanges are basically all on board. In August 2025, Coinb, Bn US, and Krak listed it one after another. Passing the listing reviews of these exchanges at least shows that it is not a crude honeypot.
3. Its origins can be traced. It launched in May 2025 through the Solana ecosystem’s LetsBONKfun platform, backed by a leading player in the BONK ecosystem. So it is probably not a scam. But note—the distance between “not a scam” and “worth participating in” is vast.
II. Explaining this “business” in one sentence: It has no business
USELESS’s official positioning, translated into plain language, is this: Most coins that claim to have utility are actually not very useful. We’re different—we’re at least honest.
That is actually a pretty harsh satire. It turns its own “uselessness” into a selling point, essentially mocking the entire utility token narrative. When you buy it, you are not buying cash flow, governance rights, or any kind of promise—you are buying the meme’s ability to spread.
The supply-and-demand structure of this “business” is straightforward: supply is fixed at 1 billion tokens, while demand depends entirely on how long the meme can continue spreading and which exchanges are willing to give it exposure. I have seen plenty of assets like this. They resemble the flower in a game of pass-the-parcel—the flower itself is worthless; what matters is that “the music has not stopped.”
III. Three sets of data show how far this flower has been passed
First: Market cap trajectory
In June and July 2025, it rose by tens of thousands of times within a few weeks (you read that correctly—the units of measurement for meme coins are this absurd), pushing its market cap to $400 million; it then halved from its peak before rebounding to $360 million in October on “smart money” inflows, and has now fallen back to just over $200 million.
Does this look familiar? Exactly—the textbook meme lifecycle: launch—violent pump—halving—news-driven rebound—slow decline. It is now standing between the fourth and fifth stages.
Second: Holding period.
This is the most informative data point: SOL holders hold for an average of 69 days, while USELESS holders hold for only 4 days on average. What does 4 days mean? It means no one in this market is “holding”; they are only “passing it on.” Everyone is here for “the next person to take the baton.” With this token structure, the only support for the price is a steady stream of new buyers—once the music stops, there is no floor.
Third: The broader environment.
The total crypto market cap has retreated about 45% from its peak in October 2025, and it is now winter. The liquidity logic during winter is brutal: capital exits the most peripheral assets first, and meme coins are the periphery of the periphery.
USELESS managing to hold a $200 million market cap in this environment shows that community interest is indeed still there—but nothing more.
IV. Is it worth $200 million?
It has no profits and no possibility of generating any profits. So for assets like this, “is it worth it?” is a false question.
Its $200 million market cap is not a “valuation”; it is the result of a real-time vote: at this moment, the total amount the market is willing to pay for the “useless” meme is $200 million. Tomorrow it could be $400 million or $40 million, depending on three things: new exchange listings (whether the rumors of an OK and bn main-site listing come true), the overall temperature of the Solana meme sector, and whether the meme can still make people laugh.
If you insist on participating, treat it as a lottery ticket, not an investment. A lottery ticket means the money invested should be small enough that winning is a pleasant surprise and losing it all does not hurt.
V. Risks:
1. Risk of the rumor being disproven. The core driver of this rebound is the rumor of an OK listing, which remains unconfirmed. Once disproven, it will be a textbook case of sell the news—
Trigger: an official denial from OK or a prolonged lack of response;
Impact: starting with -20% in a single day.
2. Risk of liquidity withdrawal. During a crypto winter, meme coins are among the first positions capital cuts.
Trigger: the total crypto market cap continues to decline and trading volume in the Solana meme sector shrinks;
Impact: a slow decline with no support.
3. Risk from the token-holder structure. An average holding period of 4 days means huge amounts of tokens are ready to flee at any moment.
Trigger: any instance of a pump losing momentum;
Impact: a flash crash, with no meaningful buy support.
4. Risk of narrative fatigue. Memes have a half-life. The joke “admitting it is useless” is genius the first time and awkward silence the hundredth time.
Trigger: sustained declines in community activity and social media discussion; Impact: a slow, painful bleed.
USELESS is an excellent case study: it puts the underlying logic of “narrative pricing” in crypto markets on full display in the most self-deprecating way. Studying it is much more interesting than buying it. What do you think of these “anti-utility” meme coins—are they a wake-up call for the market, or a new package for the game of pass-the-parcel? Let’s discuss in the comments. $USELESS