In the current consumer and investment fields, Pop Mart and meme coins have become phenomenal presences. The former, using trendy toys as a carrier, has sparked a collection craze globally and shaped a unique trendy culture; the latter has continuously gained attention in the crypto market, attracting numerous investors with its unique value logic.
Though seemingly in different tracks, they actually share many commonalities in value logic, with transforming hot events into cultural symbols being key to their sustained value.
I. Hot Events: Network Transmission and Attention Waves
In 2025, Labubu, a trendy IP emerging from Pop Mart, undoubtedly became a brilliant star in global cultural and commercial domains. Labubu is not a traditionally sweet and cute image; instead, its bizarre Nordic elf style precisely strikes the inner demand of Generation Z for personality expression.
From 2024, Labubu frequently appeared in global celebrities' social media posts. Blackpink's Lisa sharing a Labubu pendant on Instagram triggered fans' crazy pursuit; the Thai princess using Labubu as an Hermès bag accessory made it famous in fashion circles; Rihanna appearing at Los Angeles airport with a pink Labubu drew media and fans' attention. These celebrity effects, like sparks, quickly ignited Labubu's global popularity, gradually moving from the trendy toy circle to public view and becoming a global social currency.
In product releases, Labubu's third-generation silicone plush series "High Energy Ahead" immediately triggered a buying frenzy. On domestic e-commerce platforms, products sold out instantly; in overseas stores, fans were even more passionate, queuing from dawn. At Pop Mart stores in Chicago, London, and Tokyo, fans wrapped in sleeping bags queued overnight just to buy their desired Labubu blind box. The original price was 99 yuan, but hidden editions were resold in the secondary market for thousands or even tens of thousands of yuan, with price surges that were shocking.
It not only dominated the trendy toy market but also successfully crossed over, extending its influence to the crypto world. Simultaneously, in the crypto space, the L coin ABUBU coin based on Labubu's image was equally impressive. Between May 14-19, its market value skyrocketed from hundreds of thousands of dollars to 18 million, with a 24-hour trading volume of 9.5 million and a rapidly increasing number of token holders. Such rapid market value and trading volume growth is extremely rare in the crypto market.
II. Emotional Expression: Personality Expression and Identity Needs
Whether Pop Mart's trendy toys or meme coins, a crucial reason for their popularity is satisfying consumers' and investors' emotional expression needs.
For Generation Z, growing up in an era of information explosion and cultural diversity, they emphasize self-personality display, yearning to stand out from the group and possess a unique identity. Labubu's bizarre, distinctive styling seems to loudly declare "I am a unique existence", which highly resonates with Generation Z's inner demands. Meanwhile, the blind box purchase format, full of uncertainty and surprise, satisfies young people's curiosity about new things and pursuit of scarcity. When they draw a hidden edition, they gain not just a toy, but capital to showcase their unique taste and luck in social circles, thereby obtaining strong community recognition.
Taking the Thai market as an example, Labubu's popularity in Thailand exceeded imagination. From celebrities to ordinary young people, Labubu became a symbolic sign of street fashion, with the Thai Tourism Bureau even conferring the title of "Magical Thailand Experience Official". Here, Labubu is no longer just a toy, but has evolved into social capital and an important carrier for people to display themselves and gain recognition in social interactions.
In the meme coin domain, investors' participation equally contains strong emotional factors. Meme coins' value is not based on traditional financial fundamentals like company profitability or asset scale, but more closely connected with community members' emotions and consensus.
Taking LAUBU coin as an example, its price increase largely stems from community members' love for the Labubu IP and optimistic expectations about its future value. In this virtual crypto community, holding LABUBU coins becomes investors' way of expressing cultural identity, finding a sense of belonging in the community while expecting wealth appreciation through price increases, with this wealth effect further strengthening their participation enthusiasm and emotional investment.
III. Speculative Arbitrage: Artificial Scarcity and Financial Design
Speculative arbitrage plays a crucial role in the value realization process of both Pop Mart and meme coins.
In Pop Mart's trendy toy market, the blind box's hidden edition mechanism artificially creates product scarcity.Due to the extremely low probability of hidden editions appearing, they become market-scarce, triggering significant price increases. This price surge attracts numerous speculators who purchase blind boxes not out of love for the toys, but hoping to profit by drawing hidden editions and reselling them at high prices in the secondary market. In secondary trading markets, we can see Labubu hidden editions' prices far exceeding their original prices, with markups of several or even dozens of times. For instance, a regular 99-yuan Labubu might reach 2,300 yuan for a hidden edition in the secondary market, over 20 times its original price. This massive price difference attracts many speculators, creating a "gambling"-like market atmosphere.
In the meme coin market, speculative arbitrage characteristics are even more apparent. Meme coin prices often fluctuate dramatically, driven not by traditional economic factors but primarily by market sentiment and capital flow. Taking LABUBU coin as an example, its market value could surge from hundreds of thousands to 18 million dollars in a short time, backed by massive speculative capital. Aided by social media, this capital continuously drives up prices by exploiting investors' fear of missing out. In this process, early investors realize substantial profits by buying low and selling high. However, such price increases based on emotion and speculation often lack solid support; once market sentiment changes, prices might rapidly plummet, leaving late investors facing significant loss risks.
IV. Community Empowerment: Mass Communication and Value Co-creation
Communities play a crucial role in the value formation and transmission process of both Pop Mart and meme coins.
In the community ecosystem of Bubble Mart, social media platforms have become an important base for spreading Labubu. On platforms like TikTok and Instagram, the #Labubu topic has seen a surge of unboxing videos, outfit sharing, and "doll wall" displays. These contents have attracted millions of fans, with some accounts accumulating millions of followers in a short time. Through the spread of user-generated content (UGC), Labubu's image and culture have been widely disseminated, attracting more potential consumers. Meanwhile, Bubble Mart has enhanced interaction and stickiness among community members by hosting offline events and fan gatherings, further consolidating Labubu's position in fans' hearts. In these community activities, fans can share their collection experiences, exchange their love for Labubu, forming a good community atmosphere and achieving value co-creation between the brand and consumers.
The meme coin community also has a strong powerful influence. Taking LABUBU coin as an example, content posted by crypto KOLs on X platform (formerly Twitter) can quickly rapid trigger heated discussions and attention from community members. Community members continuously expand its visibility and media interactions like likes, reposts, and comments. At the same time, community members actively participate in LABUBU coin's promotion and operations by creating related communities and organizing online activities to attract more and promote its value growth. This self-propagation and collaboration among community members form a powerful network effect, enabling LABUBU coin to rapidly rise in the crypto market.
V. Continuous Value: From Emotional Expression to Cultural Symbol
Although Bubble Mart and meme coins achieved rapid value growth in the short term through emotional expression, speculative arbitrage, and community empowerment driven by hot events,transformtransforming hot topics into cultural symbols with lasting influence is crucial for sustained value.
For Bubble Mart, Labubu is no longer just a trendy toy image, but gradually but gradually evolving into a cultural symbol. It represents the's personality, attitude, and lifestyle,, and this cultural connotation gives Labubu a unique competitive advantage in the in the trendy toy marketspan. To furtherate influence of this cultural symbol, continuous innovation and expansion are necessary. one hand product continuously introducing new products combining different cultural elements and trend trends, inject injecting new vitality intoBu Labubu; on the other hand, strengthening cross-border collaborations with other fields, such as fashion brands, art exhibitions, and entertainment, diverse collaborative methods to perpenetrate Labubu's cultural symbol into broader fields and attract consumers from different circles, thereby achieving sustained value growth.
In the meme coin field, transforming hot topics into cultural symbols is equally crucial for sustained value. Essentially, Bitcoin was also a meme coin, initially just an experimental project in a geek circle, but over time, Bitcoin gradually evolved into a cultural symbol representing decentralization and free financial concepts, attracting attention from global investors and supporters. Despite Bitcoin's price volatility, its underlying cultural connotation has always maintained its important position in the crypto the crypto currency market.
For LABUBU coin and other meme coins, achieving long-term value growth cannot rely solely on short-term hot topic speculation, but requires building a unique cultural value system and cultivcultivating long-term community member loyalty. This can can be be achieved achieved by clarifying the and community self-governance, and, conducting culture and art--related activities to make LABUBU a symbol representing specific cultural values, thereby thus enduring vitality in market p p In, bubble Mart and meme coins share many similarities in their value logic,they both leverage hot events to trigger trends, attract audiences by satisfying emotional expression needs, achieve price fluctuations through speculative arbitrage, and rely on community empowerment to spread and grow value.Successfully transforming hot events into cultural symbols with lasting influence is key to breaking through short-limitationsations and achieving sustained. Whether in the trendy toy market or crypto currency field, deeply understanding this value logic is significant for enterprises, investors, and practitioners, helping to grasp market trends and achieve sustainable development and returns. (Image generated by Doubao)
