Emotion Meme + Trump, Nietzsche Penguin 6000x Weekly
How long has it been since a Solana meme coin was last listed on Binance Alpha? The last Solana coin listed on Binance Alpha was JELLYJELLY ($JELLY) on February 26, 2025, nearly a year ago.
The reason $JELLY was listed was not "pure"; it was related to the Hyperliquid incident. If we set stricter standards and exclude AI meme coins like Zerebro and elizaOS that can "do work," the last pure Solana meme coin to be listed on Binance Alpha without other factors was Fartcoin on December 18, 2024.
We have finally waited for another Solana meme coin to be listed on Binance Alpha—$PENGUIN (Nietzschean Penguin).
The token's story stems from a viral segment in the 2007 documentary "Encounter at the End of the World" by German director Werner Herzog. In that segment, a penguin stands facing away from its colony, towards the vast ocean, the source of food and life.
For the ocean, it ventures alone into the heart of the continent, towards a distant ice shelf, a distant ocean that is 5000 kilometers away. Everyone knows this means hunger and cold, exhaustion, and certain death.
By the mid-2010s, this video became widely known for its "nihilistic" interpretation. In late August 2015, YouTube user Seppe uploaded this segment to YouTube titled "Nihilistic Penguin," and this version quickly went viral, now having nearly 2 million views.
This old meme has gradually regained popularity starting this year on TikTok and Instagram. Just like the meme's name "Nietzschean Penguin/Nihilistic Penguin," almost all related viral videos and memes contain the key phrase "But Why," causing people worldwide to question themselves through this meme—But why must my life be like this?
Society will tell us that we should find a good job, get married, have children, and think less about things that are meaningless or impractical. But isn't the meaning of life precisely about exploring the meaning of life in the way we want? They will ask us why, but there is no why; it is simply what we want to do. To live authentically, not caring about societal expectations, is to transcend oneself.
If following the original development path of this meme, $PENGUIN would just be like $NEET, both reflecting the contemporary desire of people to escape the secular "system" and pursue the self-exploration of freedom and self-awareness. However, the White House's use of this meme has given it a new layer of meaning, transforming this meme coin from a social media hotspot/self-awareness meme coin to a political type.
At 6 a.m. yesterday morning, the White House X account tweeted, "Embrace the penguin," with an illustration of the "Nietzsche Penguin" holding up an American flag, walking towards a distant iceberg with Trump.
At 10:30 p.m. on the same day, the White House X account again referenced the tweet, adding the text, "This penguin never cares about the opinions of those who do not understand it."
These two tweets happened to coincide with Trump once again publicly expressing interest in purchasing Greenland. Trump first proposed this idea back in 2019, and after a tumultuous journey of being ousted and re-elected, he still has not given up his desire for Greenland.
This desire, in the eyes of most people, is seen as a kind of crazy obsession. The White House's use of this meme magnifies the personal perspective of exploring the meaning of life, emphasizing that Trump does not care about ridicule and real obstacles but dares to think, dare to act, and move forward with determination, packaging Trump's "madness" as a heroic and America-first pursuit.
The above image has triggered a lot of ridicule. Netizens believe that there are no penguins in the Arctic, and this common-sense mistake is just as anti-intellectual as when Trump suggested injecting disinfectant during the pandemic to kill the virus. Interestingly, many netizens have again elevated this image by linking Trump's proposal to purchase Greenland and the historical association of the U.S. purchasing Alaska from Russia in 1867, seeing it as America's "manifest destiny," meaning the U.S. has a unique mission to expand influence, spread institutions, or acquire resources.
And the Arctic has no penguins? No problem, Trump wants it, Trump gets it. This is interpreted as a Trump-style humor, conveying the spirit of "reality is not important, will is important," emphasizing the triumph of human resolve over circumstances.
At this point, we can already understand why $PENGUIN is held to such high expectations by the crypto community as $PNUT. This expectation is very much in line with the reality of Solana meme coins—after that glorious meme season, we have not seen a meme coin like this break a $1 billion market cap within 10 days of token deployment for a long time.
And Binance Alpha once again "purely" listing a Solana meme coin after over a year has also excited the crypto community, seeing it as Binance once again embracing Solana meme coins and the beginning of the revival of Solana meme coins' glory.
This time, dare we hope that we will really get it?
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