“Forking,” has always been a meme coin, even a topic of endless debate in the entire cryptocurrency market.

The vast majority of players are extremely disgusted with this phenomenon, mainly for the following reasons:

- It is not easy to create a narrative angle large enough, especially in a market environment where liquidity is poor and there has been no meme coin with a market capitalization of over $1 billion for a long time. Forking makes the market more chaotic and trading more difficult.

- In most cases, forking is caused by the call-to-action of certain influencers. In the eyes of retail players, these influencers themselves have advantages in terms of funds and transactions. They should participate together, concentrate their efforts to further develop the target that is already on an upward trend, rather than refusing to "spread the sedan chair" just because it is already at a high position.

- During the forking process, the influencers' remarks almost inevitably lead to "rug pulling," which not only drains liquidity but also causes greater harm to the original target.

Man-made wealth death, bird death for food. For a long time, the controversy surrounding "forking" has been logical, but the final output is often a kind of "logically emotional output." Retail players, who are already in a passive position, experience profit-taking or even losses due to forking, so it is entirely reasonable and justifiable to curse a few words. However, as we calm down and think, is there any way to overcome this phenomenon of "forking"? Can this never-ending debate in the coin circle one day come to a conclusion?

How to Define "Legitimacy"?

If we hope for a day without "forking," we first need to solve an issue—how to define the "legitimacy" of a token?

Let's start with the recent "Space Dog Forking." This theme was considered the biggest meme coin opportunity recently because Musk promised to use the "Space Dog" Asteroid as SpaceX's mascot, and the forking revolved around the $ASTEROID meme coin on ETH and SOL:

- $ASTEROID ETH: The $ASTEROID on the ETH mainnet has been operational since September 2024, but after March 2025, its official account also became less active, with updates occurring every few months. The official website listed in the official account's bio is also inaccessible. They had previously donated 0.5% of the coins to St. Jude's Hospital, the same beneficiary as the full proceeds from the sale of the Asteroid Shiba plush toy by creator Liv Perrotto, to fund childhood cancer treatment. However, this was back in 2024. Nevertheless, the good deeds they have done cannot be erased, and the community's past efforts have been recognized. Even before Musk tweeted that Asteroid could be SpaceX's new mascot, the market value had already surpassed $160 million.

- $ASTEROID SOL: Creator Liv Perrotto's mother, Rebecca Perrotto, claimed the 2013 SOL fee income from $ASTEROID on SOL, which was launched via the Bags platform, and the total fee income has now reached 2291 SOL. Rebecca Perrotto has clearly stated that all income received on the Bags platform will be used to establish a foundation in memory of Liv Perrotto.

From a perspective of tokenomics, both sides actually have valid points, especially the $ASTEROID on ETH, which aligns more with the long-standing unwritten rule in the community - recognizing the OG, recognizing the community.

However, taking a step back and analyzing, the root of the "schism" actually lies in Rebecca Perrotto, Liv Perrotto's mother, claiming the SOL $ASTEROID fee income and stating that it will be used to establish a foundation in memory of Liv Perrotto, giving a perspective of "schism."

After Liv Perrotto's passing, Rebecca Perrotto, as the current IP holder, her attitude sets the upper limit from this perspective. Regarding the $ASTEROID on ETH, she actually had expressed her attitude towards it in a tweet under Aster's ETH $ASTEROID listing:

@AJamesMcCarthy stated that profiting from the creative design of a deceased little girl is despicable behavior. Rebecca Perrotto replied, "This is just so disappointing."

Here, the author does not make any subjective or emotional judgment on this attitude itself. I can only assume that in Rebecca Perrotto's unfamiliarity with cryptocurrency, she might not fully understand the charitable acts that were previously done with the $ASTEROID on ETH.

As for the $ASTEROID on SOL, being able to directly receive the fee income, and there may have been some communication in between. When her Bags account was hacked, the Bags team members also responded promptly:

When $ASTEROID launched on SOL back in August of last year, it caught the attention of Rebecca Perrotto. At that time, her response was to clarify her relationship and she did not provide any further response regarding the transaction fee:

You might ask, why does Rebecca Perrotto's response matter? Our on-chain funds have already chosen $ASTEROID on ETH. She may love to express her opinions, why can't we unite and not divide the flow?

For short-term price fluctuations, it is indeed not important. If SpaceX does not officially announce Asteroid as the new mascot on social media afterwards, whether it's $ASTEROID on ETH or SOL, it may not be able to break through to a higher ceiling.

But if they do make an official announcement, and the coin is really listed, it is indeed important who the IP rights holder, Rebecca Perrotto, authorizes.

Let's review the final outcome of the uppercase and lowercase Neiro dispute (quoted from @0xVeil):

「In April 2025, a historic event took place in the history of Neiro CTO project: through a partnership with OwnTheDoge's decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), it officially obtained the global exclusive intellectual property (IP) license for the Neiro name and image from kabosu mama herself, becoming the sole legitimate successor of the legendary Doge meme.

The most direct impact of this event was that Neiro CTO project's legal team issued copyright infringement notices to major exchanges, requesting the delisting of all unauthorized 'Neiro' token contracts. The target was only one, NEIRO ETH, although it was not listed on Binance spot, it was listed on various other Tier 2 exchanges, including Binance futures.

Major exchanges responded promptly by successively delisting infringing Neiro perpetual contracts or spot trading pairs. Thus, NEIRO ETH came to a definitive end.」

Whoever holds the copyright not only can legitimately list the token, but can also legitimately prevent other tokens with the same name and concept from being listed. Therefore, our discussion here about "how to determine legitimacy" is not an attempt to distinguish between $ASTEROID on ETH and SOL. Because this legitimacy dispute with a main IP is not actually a quarrel within the current industry where everyone is promoting themselves and competing for existing funds, but a real issue that must be faced "in case the ceiling really opens up."

Whether it's $ASTEROID on ETH or SOL, it is now crucial to establish good communication with Rebecca Perrotto as soon as possible, outlining your operational strategies and philosophies. It may not be necessary to actually acquire the license, but at least establish a "tacit approval" similar to $PEPE — yes, $PEPE has not yet obtained authorization from the Pepe IP creator Matt Furie, but Matt received approximately $600,000 by selling the $PEPE gifted to him by the community. He has never made a statement about $PEPE, but he has also not taken any legal action. It is worth noting that for some other Pepe-related crypto assets, he has successfully used the DMCA to take down multiple unauthorized Pepe NFT projects on OpenSea (such as the 2021 Sad Frogs District, which saw transaction volumes of up to $4 million).

Former Sad Frogs District

Returning to the title of this section, how can we determine what is "orthodox"? Here, the first answer given by the author is actually not a definition, but a suggestion — for memes with a clear IP ownership, if you are truly determined to develop a meme coin that can reach Binance and have a billion-dollar market cap, please urge and assist the token community you support in negotiating IP-related matters.

How to Define "Orthodox" for Ownerless IP?

Many memes are actually "ownerless."

For example, Wojak is a typical anonymous internet meme with no single verifiable creator or legitimate copyright owner. Its origin can be traced back to around 2009 on the Polish imageboard Vichan, first appearing with the filename "ciepłatwarz.jpg (warm face.jpg)," and it became popular after 2010 when it was popularized by an anonymous user with the online alias "Wojak" on Krautchan (a now-defunct German imageboard), before spreading to platforms like 4chan.

As it originated from the anonymous/pseudonymous imageboard culture, where images are products of rapid community sharing and modification, there is no formal author attribution, copyright registration, or public declaration. Wikipedia, KnowYourMeme, and related analysis articles all clearly indicate that the original author is unknown, making it difficult to trace a clear copyright owner. Essentially, Wojak falls into the category of a meme that is in the public domain and is part of the internet's collective cultural heritage of public domain meme creation.

For example, NEET, a typical descriptive term in public policy/sociology, was first proposed in 1996 by a senior official of the UK Home Office as an abbreviation to replace a previously controversial term. Copyright laws in various countries explicitly exclude "idea/fact/short phrase," and no individual, company, or institution can claim exclusive intellectual property rights (copyright, trademark, etc.) over it, essentially making it a meme in the public domain.

In this case, let the market decide who is the "orthodox." In fact, we look beyond meme coins, and truly powerful crypto assets have never feared "forking":

- In the block size debate, the last laugh still belongs to the "OG" Bitcoin

- In Ethereum's rollback and transition to PoS, the last laugh still belongs to the "OG" Ethereum

- Milday not only does not limit derivative chains, but also encourages this creativity to be "flagged" on chains outside the ETH mainnet

Here, we have another question—how to establish a victory standard recognized by the market?

Only by solving this problem can we eradicate "forking".

Exploring the Eradication of "Forking"

Meme coins are not without value. Here we are not going to discuss the specific value of meme coins, but instead ponder another question—why do some people always say that meme coins have no value?

Because for so many years, we have never established a value judgment system for meme coins.

Although retail players have some unwritten rules, such as recognizing OG coins, observing community activity, and assessing cultural influence, these rules are inherently fragmented. Since pump.fun significantly lowered the issuance cost of meme coins, everyone has become more accustomed to quick profits, and these unwritten rules are on the verge of dysfunction.

Murad once proposed a great "meme coin supercycle" theory, but unfortunately, this theory seems to have become a short-term "perspective" from today's point of view, rather than a trading logic consensus like looking at P/E ratios or industry outlook in stocks.

Some launchpads have also taken corresponding measures to address the "forking" issue, such as temporarily banning the deployment of new coins with the same ticker, but this is difficult to scale as it does not meet the needs of bundlers for launching and controlling the new coin's initial trading, nor is it conducive to the platform's own profitability.

As the largest liquidity hub in the crypto industry, CEXs are most capable of leading the market to establish a value judgment system for meme coins. We have seen some attempts at listing polls, but such measures face too many disturbances from various factors.

By establishing a robust meme coin listing mechanism, a centralized exchange (CEX) has the ability to lead meme coins into a more serious market, leveraging cultural influence to demonstrate their positive externality at a consensus level.

Some measures that the author can think of include:

- For meme coins with clear IP ownership, the CEX takes resolving IP ownership as an important listing criterion, especially when forking situations occur.

- For meme coins without IP ownership, establish a sufficiently long observation period before listing, using multidimensional criteria such as thematic culture, social media data, and community activity, and continue to track and observe in the long term.

- For all listed meme coins, disclose a comprehensive listing research report.

Cultivating a meme coin value assessment system that can serve the public is the beginning of meme coins entering a serious track in the cryptocurrency industry and even the cultural industry.

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