TL;DR: Bitcoin OG turned meme coin evangelist “MustStopMurad” believes the next crypto boom will be all about meme coins – not fancy tech, but hilarious tokens with cult followings. Over the past couple of years, Murad has loudly championed dog, frog, and even stock-market-flipping meme coins, predicting they’ll outshine so-called “utility” tokens. And guess what? Many of his bold calls have already seen explosive (and comically massive) pumps. From SPX6900 aiming to flip the S&P 500, to cat coins he insists will claw their way to the top, Murad’s meme coin thesis is equal parts bullish and humorous – and it’s playing out in real time. Strap in as we dive into Murad’s meme coin cult portfolio, the timing of his public calls, and how those bets have performed (complete with juicy price charts and a healthy dose of meme culture along the way).

From Bitcoin Maximalist to Meme Coin Evangelist

Murad Mahmudov – known on X (formerly Twitter) as @MustStopMurad – isn’t your average crypto bro chasing the next dog coin. In fact, Murad started as a staunch Bitcoin maximalist with an Ivy League background and a stint in traditional finance. He co-founded a Bitcoin hedge fund and used to preach BTC’s supremacy. But as crypto evolved, so did Murad’s outlook. By 2023, he’d transformed into one of crypto’s loudest meme coin bulls, embracing the power of internet culture over utility.

What caused this radical conversion? In Murad’s view, the last cycle’s flashy “utility” altcoins (think DeFi protocols, smart contract platforms, etc.) mostly failed to captivate the masses. Retail investors weren’t logging onto DEXs to use liquidity pools – they were piling into Dogecoin because it was fun and had a cute dog. Murad observed that retail money gravitates toward memes, not complexity. As he famously quipped, crypto markets going forward will be “increasingly dominated by Memecoin bubbles until the eventual Bitcoin standard.” In other words, until Bitcoin finally reigns supreme in the very long run, the interim will be one giant meme party – and Murad decided he’s going to profit from that party.

By mid-2024, Murad unveiled his grand thesis at the Token2049 conference in Singapore: a coming “Memecoin Supercycle”. He outlined how meme coins would lead the 2025 bull run narrative, much like ICOs led 2017 or DeFi led 2020. He even coined (pun intended) a term for these tokens: “tokenized vessels of faith.” In Murad’s eyes, meme coins aren’t just joke assets – they’re digital cults. Each meme token represents a community’s shared belief (or joke) packaged into a coin. And those beliefs can moonrocket in value once enough people buy in.

Murad’s persona also shifted to match his meme coin enthusiasm. He peppers his posts with edgy humor and over-the-top confidence. Case in point: he created a meme-tastic video titled “150 Reasons Why SPX6900 Will Reach $1 Trillion Market Cap” – an absurdly bullish thesis delivered with tongue firmly in cheek. He’s effectively become the meme coin prophet, preaching that “meme > utility” in the new era. And with over half a million followers on X hanging on his every call, Murad’s influence in shaping meme coin trends is undeniable.

Murad’s Meme Coin Picks and Bold Predictions

So, which meme coins does Murad put his money (and memes) on? Over the past 2–3 years, he’s frequently hyped a rotating cast of internet-themed tokens – often before they go parabolic. Let’s explore a few of Murad’s favorite meme cult coins, the timing of his calls, and how those bets played out:

• SPX6900 (SPX) – “The Movement Coin”: Murad’s top pick by far is SPX6900, a meme coin on a quixotic mission to “flip the stock market” (yes, SPX as in the S&P 500 index!). Back in late 2023, Murad began shilling SPX when its market cap was a microscopic ~$10 million, calling it the “biggest movement of this cycle.” Many laughed, but Murad stuck to his audacious target: $100 billion someday. In 2024, SPX6900 indeed started moving – really moving. By late 2024, SPX had surged into the hundreds of millions in market cap, and Murad proudly noted its cult-like community growth. At its peak in January 2025, SPX6900 was trading around $1.5 (from fractions of a penny a year prior!), nearing a unicorn $1 billion cap. Early believers saw jaw-dropping gains, vindicating Murad’s conviction. The chart below says it all – SPX went from near-zero to the moon in a matter of months, outpacing most “serious” altcoins:

  SPX6900’s price from late 2023 to mid-2025. Murad first called out SPX around $0.01 – it proceeded to rocket past $1, making true believers very happy (and very rich). Log scale chart to capture the insanity!

  Murad isn’t shy about SPX’s future, either. Even after a 100x+ run-up, he still tweets about “SPX to $100B or bust”. Is it realistic? Who knows – but the cult-like devotion of SPX holders (who rally around memes of “flipping Wall Street”) certainly makes it a self-fulfilling prophecy, at least to a point. So far, SPX has been a flagship example of Murad’s meme thesis delivering real-world gains.

• GigaChad (GIGA) – “Masculinity Meme”: If SPX is about taking on Wall Street, GigaChad is about flexing internet masculinity. Murad embraced $GIGA as the ultimate “alpha” meme coin, complete with the buff GigaChad meme as its mascot. In early 2024 when Murad first started mentioning GIGA, its market cap was only ~$15 million. He declared it “massively undervalued” and predicted a parabolic rise by 2025, even throwing out a potential $50 billion future valuation (why not dream big?). GIGA’s community – dubbed the “Chad Army” – indeed pumped the coin through 2024, taking it from micro-cap into the tens of millions. By 2025, GIGA was hovering around a ~$70M market cap, a nice 4-5x from Murad’s initial call. Not quite an SPX-style moonshot yet, but the cycle isn’t over – and Murad still believes $GIGA has a lot more flexing to do. He often cites its “spiritually empowering” meme value; in plainer terms, it’s a funny token that makes holders feel like part of an inside joke about being ultra-macho. That social magnetism could fuel another leg up if meme coin mania returns. So while GIGA hasn’t hit the stratosphere yet, Murad’s confidence hasn’t wavered – he’s hodling his Chad tokens awaiting that promised parabolic pump.

• Mog Coin (MOG) – “The Normie-Friendly Cat”: Murad loves to categorize memes, and he identified cat-themed coins as a major narrative for this cycle. MOG Coin is one he placed high on his list – describing it as one of the “top five cults” in crypto and a “pre-pump Shiba Inu.” (Translation: MOG hasn’t had its big mainstream moment yet, but it reminds Murad of Shiba Inu before it went 1000x.) Launched in mid-2023, MOG built a strong community on the idea of a cute cat meme that could rival the dog coins. Murad started mentioning MOG in 2024 as a sleeper hit. Sure enough, MOG’s price went on a tear: by late 2023 it had reached a nine-figure market cap(over $100M+), putting it on the map alongside veteran memes. Murad points out that MOG’s community is highly dedicated and “normie-friendly” – meaning even casual folks can rally behind a funny cat. This broad appeal is what made Dogecoin and Shiba Inu household names, and Murad believes MOG could follow that path. While MOG hasn’t yet repeated Shiba’s meteoric 2021 rise, it’s held up relatively well and still trades actively in 2025. The “cult” remains loyal, and Murad still labels MOG a potential future blue-chip meme. If the memecoin supercycle truly kicks off, don’t be surprised if a silly cat coin like MOG is leading the pack – just as Murad predicted.

• Apu Apustaja (APU) – “The Frog Meme Army”: Move over, PEPE – Murad has a different frog in the fight. Apu Apustaja (also known as “Helper Pepe” from meme lore) is another meme coin Murad championed. He called $APU “the most used frog meme on Crypto Twitter”, arguing its community was even stronger than the more famous Pepe coin. When Murad publicly highlighted APU in mid-2024, it was around a $140M market cap. In the weeks that followed, APU doubled to roughly $280M, proving Murad’s timing impeccable. (Some Redditors later bragged that they caught APU at a mere $3M cap earlier and rode it to a 100x gain – talk about meme riches!). However, APU also exemplifies meme coin volatility: after that huge run-up, it pulled back significantly, and by mid-2025 it was hovering around ~$20M–$30M range again. The initial cult hype cooled off, illustrating that not every meme can hold its peak value. Murad isn’t fazed by the rollercoaster, though. He sees APU’s “frog army” as a core cultural force in crypto memes, likely to resurge when frogs come back in vogue. In any case, APU’s wild ride – pump, dump, and all – aligns with Murad’s playbook: get in early on a meme with a strong cult following, ride the hype wave, and understand it’s more faith than fundamentals driving the price.

• Popcat (POPCAT) – “Cats Rule, Dogs Drool”: Remember the internet’s Popcat meme (the animated cat mouth that pops open)? Someone tokenized it – of course – and Murad is extremely bullish on $POPCAT. He frequently posts that “there hasn’t even been a big pump yet – it’s all steady accumulation” and insists “POPCAT to $5 soon™”. For context, POPCAT traded around $0.30–$0.40 in mid-2025, so $5 would be a 12x explosion. In 2024, Popcat actually did have an initial spike to roughly $2 during a mini cat-coin craze. But Murad cheekily dismisses that as just a taste, not the real “repricing” he foresees. He’s convinced that cat memes are the next retail goldrush, noting how dogs had their day (Doge, Shiba) and now it’s the felines’ turn. Popcat has a massive following in Asia especially, and Murad often tweets Popcat charts highlighting a classic “accumulation cylinder” pattern – implying smart money is loading up quietly before an eventual eruption. While POPCAT’s price has languished below $1 for most of 2025 so far, Murad’s fans are hodling in anticipation of that prophecy being fulfilled. If Popcat does start purring toward $5 and beyond, it will be yet another notch on Murad’s belt of meme calls. And if it doesn’t – well, the cat memes and laser-eyed optimism along the way have been half the fun!

• And the Rest of the Cult…: Murad’s meme coin portfolio reads like a list of inside jokes and internet subcultures. In addition to the above, he’s name-dropped HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu (yes, that absurd mashup name is real – ticker $BITCOIN, no less!), Retardio ($RETARDIO, a deliberately outrageous meme coin), LockIn ($LOCKIN), and American Coin ($USA) among others. Each has its own quirky story and community. For Murad, the specifics of the meme often matter less than the strength of the community belief. He analyzes factors like how long the coin has survived, how decentralized the holders are, and how feverishly they engage on social media. If a meme coin’s community ticks those boxes (and isn’t controlled by just a few insiders – he warns against “cabal coins”), then it earns a spot on Murad’s list. In his view, about 20-25 of these meme “cults” will reach multi-billion dollar valuations. That means joining the likes of Dogecoin and Shiba Inu at the top of the meme food chain. Skeptics might roll their eyes, but Murad counters: “Most altcoins are no different from memes in how they attract capital – at least memes are honest about it and more fun!” Looking at how a joke like Dogecoin hit $90 billion at its peak, it’s hard to say he’s wrong.

Why Murad Believes Meme Coins > Utility Tokens

Murad’s memes-over-utility stance isn’t just hyperbole; he has a thought-out (if unconventional) thesis for why meme coins are more powerful than their so-called utility-driven counterparts, especially during bull runs. Here are the core reasons Murad (and many fellow “degens”) argue that culture beats utility in crypto markets:

1. Financial Escape & Quick Thrills: In a world of inflation and stagnant wages, people aren’t excited about modest 5% APY yields or slow-and-steady investments. They want lottery-ticket gains and they want them fast. Meme coins offer exactly that allure – the chance (however slim) at turning pocket change into a fortune overnight. Murad notes that retail investors crave excitement, and meme coins deliver adrenaline-pumping volatility and moonshot potential in a way boring utility tokens don’t. Why wait five years for a platform to maybe accrue value when a dog coin can 10x in a week? That mindset is pervasive, and it’s fueling the meme coin rallies.

2. Community & “Cult” Belonging: Murad calls meme tokens “tokenized vessels of faith” because owning them is like joining a community or movement. Whether it’s the SHIB Army or the SPX “Stock Market Rebel” cult, these communities give investors a sense of identity and camaraderie. There’s inside jokes, memes, and a shared mission (“let’s send this coin to the moon!”). Traditional utility projects can’t replicate that emotional pull – using a decentralized exchange’s token doesn’t make one feel part of an uprising. Memes tap into tribal human behaviorin a way tech projects simply can’t. Murad recognizes that this cult-like loyalty is rocket fuel for price: dedicated holders who truly believe will promote the coin tirelessly (what he dubs “free cult labor”), never sell early, and even buy more on dips – all of which can drive the price higher. In short, strong community = strong hands, and meme coins cultivate some of the strongest communities out there.

3. Fair Game Dynamics: A sore point in recent years has been that many “utility” crypto projects felt rigged – heavy VC allocations, pre-mines, insider dumps, you name it. Retail often got left holding the bag. Meme coins, on the other hand, often start from nothing on decentralized exchanges, with no VCs in sight. Everyone has a fair shot to ape in early. Murad argues this level playing field is ironically more equitable and appealing to average folks. There’s no opaque fundamentals to parse or venture unlock schedules to worry about – it’s just a meme and pure supply-demand. In a sense, meme coins democratize the pumpamentals: anyone can start one, anyone can buy, and the best narrative wins. That fairness (despite the absurdity of the tokens themselves) gives memecoins a leg up in attracting die-hard supporters versus more centralized “utility” projects.

4. Viral Momentum: Nothing spreads on the internet like a good meme. Success stories of meme coin riches go viral on Reddit, TikTok, and Twitter in a heartbeat. For example, when some lucky trader turned $250 into $1 million on PEPE coin in 2023, it was reported everywhere and sparked a wave of new buyers hoping to replicate it. Murad emphasizes this bandwagon effect – once a meme coin starts pumping, social media amplifies the FOMO, bringing in waves of new participants far beyond the core crypto crowd. It’s an exponential feedback loop:4. price pumps → crazy gains reported → new buyers flood in → price pumps more. Utility tokens rarely, if ever, generate that kind of viral buzz. The memecoin supercycle, as Murad sees it, will be driven by stories and virality more than any rational valuation models.

5. Fun Factor & Simplicity: At the end of the day, memes are fun – and fun is a feature, not a bug. Investing in a coin emblazoned with a Shiba Inu or a Pepe frog is inherently more entertaining than investing in, say, a governance token for some liquidity protocol. Murad often points out that younger generations grew up on internet memes; it’s their native language. So when they enter crypto, meme coins feel relatable and easy to grasp, whereas something like “liquid staking derivatives” feels like homework. This simplicity means memes can onboard new users to crypto far more effectively. Someone might not understand or care about a new layer-2 scaling solution, but they’ll ape into Floki Inu because Elon Musk got a new Shiba dog – and they find it hilarious. Murad’s thesis banks on this idea that in the battle for attention, memes will always win over technical minutiae. Memecoins are approachable, shareable, and irresistibly silly – a perfect recipe to capture the mainstream’s imagination in the next bull run.

6. No Ceiling Euphoria: Perhaps Murad’s most controversial take is that utility actually limits a token’s upside. He says “Utility creates a floor but also a ceiling.” A token grounded in cash flows or usage might have some logical valuation bounds. But a token that’s pure meme? In a euphoric market, the only thing that matters is how many people believe in it. There’s virtually no fundamental cap – Dogecoin reaching a $90B market cap in 2021 is evidence enough of that. When sentiment goes wild, a meme coin can overshoot anything that would be remotely “fair value.” And while that euphoria eventually fades, if you rode the wave correctly, you could make out like a bandit. Murad cheekily notes that most so-called utility tokens never even reach the stage of having real utility or users – so in effect they were memes all along, just without the self-awareness. At least meme coins embrace the irrationality and lean into it, which can carry them much higher in a mania phase.

In sum, Murad’s argument is that crypto has always been about belief and narratives. Bitcoin itself succeeded not just because of code, but because people believed in the idea of decentralized money. Meme coins are simply the purest form of that phenomenon – distilled down to just narrative, humor, and community, with no pretense of tech. It’s crypto’s speculative spirit taken to its logical extreme. And Murad predicts that’s exactly what will dominate the next cycle: a messy, frenzied period where dozens of memes compete to attract millions of speculators. Underneath the satire in his “invest in cults” mantra lies a shrewd understanding of market psychology. When greed kicks into high gear, people often don’t behave rationally – they behave memetically.

Results So Far: How Have Murad’s Meme Coin Calls Performed?

All the theory in the world means little without results. So, has Murad put his money where his mouth is and picked winners? By and large, yes – he’s been eerily prescient on many meme coin explosions. Let’s recap how some of his public predictions have played out:

• Major Wins: Murad’s early endorsement of SPX6900 is probably the crown jewel. Identifying a micro-cap “movement coin” and seeing it run to nearly $1B+ is the kind of call traders dream of. Likewise, Murad was pounding the table on dog and frog coins in general before their big moves. He openly disagreed with everyone who said “Doge and SHIB 2021-style moves won’t happen again.” In 2023 and 2024, he was proven right when new meme coins repeatedly went 50x, 100x, even 1000x, echoing the wild gains of 2021. For instance, Pepe coin (PEPE) – not one of Murad’s own picks, but a perfect case study – exploded to a $1.5B valuation within weeks in early 2023, minting millionaires from meme magic. This was exactly the kind of retail-driven mania Murad had been forecasting. It reinforced his conviction that meme fever wasn’t a one-time 2021 fluke; it’s a recurring feature of crypto cycles.

• Many of Murad’s specific picks (GIGA, MOG, APU, etc.) had big surges after he spotlighted them, indicating he has a talent for sniffing out which memes have “cult” potential before the masses catch on. Early 2024 saw a broad meme coin season (sometimes dubbed “Memecoin Spring”), during which even the silliest tickers were flying. Murad’s followers benefitted if they stuck with his high-conviction names. It’s not an exaggeration to say some of Murad’s calls have been life-changing for those who timed it well – turning thousands into hundreds of thousands during hype peaks.

• Volatility and Pullbacks: Of course, not every call stays a winner indefinitely. Murad’s strategy is about catching the big wave, not marrying the coin forever. As such, several of his picks that mooned in 2024 also later crashed hard. We saw APU retrace almost 90% from its highs. Even mighty SPX6900 had corrections (a coin doesn’t go 1000x up without some wild swings). Popcat, after its initial spike, dropped from $2 back to cents. This is par for the course in memecoins – what goes up fast often comes down fast, at least until the next narrative pushes it up again. Murad acknowledges this volatility. He often reminds followers that most meme coins won’t hold long-term value (“99% will go to zero eventually” he concedes, though the same could be said for many altcoins). The key is riding the trend while it’s hot and knowing when the party’s ending. In practice, that’s easier said than done, and undoubtedly some late-to-the-game investors in those coins got burned. Murad’s overall track record, however, remains impressive because he was early on the trends. In speculative frenzies, early entrants reap the rewards; latecomers provide the exit liquidity. Murad aims to be early every time.

• Cultural Wins: Beyond just price, Murad’s theses have been validated by how meme culture has permeated crypto (and even mainstream) discourse. When Elon Musk changed Twitter’s logo to the Dogecoin dog in April 2023 as a joke, DOGE’s price instantly jumped ~30% – a vivid example that memes can sway markets more than fundamental news. The fact that major exchange listings now include countless meme coins, or that Shiba Inu once briefly surpassed the market cap of Deutsche Bank, underscores that this is a real movement, not a fringe anomaly. Murad often notes these cultural moments as proof that the meme coin phenomenon taps into something people want – a sense of fun, community, and the hope of outrageous profit. Another example: the rise of “Smol” culture on Solana, where even Solana’s own community started favoring meme tokens and NFTs over serious projects, echoing Murad’s claim that utility tokens were losing their shine. On forums, some begrudgingly admitted “Murad is totally right… Meme is where it’s at, until VCs invade that too.” When your critics concede your point, you know you’re onto something.

• Murad’s Persona – Part of the Performance: It’s worth mentioning that Murad’s success is partly tied to his persona. He’s cultivated an image as the irreverent, big-thinking “meme coin guru” that resonates with the crypto crowd. His bullishness is so extravagant it’s entertaining – and that in itself attracts a following (and liquidity) to the coins he supports. By staying humorous (often posting in all-caps, making outrageous statements like “THIS is the most important video of your life – #SPX6900 thesis”), he keeps the community engaged. It’s meme inception: he uses memes to promote meme coins. This feedback loop amplifies his picks’ performance. Some have cynically pointed out that Murad likely holds large bags of these coins, so of course he talks them up. But Murad is quite transparent that he’s in it to make money – there’s no moralizing about “changing the world with blockchain” in his pitch. Ironically, that honesty makes people trust him more than some startup shilling “revolutionary utility” while dumping tokens. Murad comes off as authentic in his absurdity, and that has helped turn him into a trendsetter. When he calls a coin, thousands listen, giving his calls a kind of self-fulfilling momentum at times.

In summary, Murad’s meme coin experiment has so far been a rousing success in demonstrating his core idea: attention and belief are the ultimate drivers of value in crypto, and nothing captures attention and belief like a good meme. The scorecard of his specific calls has plenty of 10x, 50x, and 100x stories (along with a few wipeouts for those who didn’t take profit). But net-net, if you followed Murad’s meme gospel from 2023 onward, you likely did far better than following the “buy utility tokens” strategy. And you probably had more fun, too.

The Meme Coin Supercycle: What’s Next

As we approach the thick of 2025, Murad is as bullish (and bullishly comedic) as ever. He frequently reiterates that we’re entering the Memecoin Supercycle, where the top narrative will be meme coins seizing multi-billion market caps en masse. He envisions a scenario where perhaps two dozen of these “cult coins” become the new titans of the industry – at least for one euphoric period – while serious projects take a backseat. Already we’ve seen Dogecoin and Shiba Inu hold strong in the top crypto ranks. Murad’s bet is that the next Doges and Shibas are currently lurking in small-cap form, building up their cults until the moment is right. His job (and pleasure) is to find them before everyone else.

What could make Murad’s prophecy come true? A few things: a roaring bull market where new retail money floods in (historically, newcomers love cheap meme coins thinking they can “get rich quick”), endorsements or involvement from big pop culture figures (e.g., another Elon Musk Dogecoin stunt or a celebrity launching a meme coin), and simply the cyclical nature of crypto where after each innovation phase there’s a speculation phase. If DeFi and NFTs had their runs driven by usage, it might be time for a cycle driven purely by speculative fervor – the kind meme coins embody. Signs of this are already visible with how quickly meme coins trend on Twitter on any given week. It feels like a spark is all that’s needed to ignite the next mania.

Murad’s strategy heading into this possible supercycle is to double down on community research. He jokes that he’s less a financial analyst and more a “culture analyst” now. He scopes out Telegram groups, meme trends, and youth internet culture to spot what memes have virality. It’s almost like venture investing, but instead of product-market fit, it’s meme-market fit. By being early to narratives like “cat coins” or “movement coins,” he positions himself ahead of the herd. And if he’s right, the herd will come, and the herd will buy.

Of course, no discussion of meme coins is complete without a caveat: these things are risky and not for the faint of heart. Murad might speak in absolutes and comic bravado (“WAGMI – we’re all gonna make it, frens!”), but he’s well aware one must manage risk in this game. Meme coins can go to zero just as fast as they go to the moon. The lack of fundamentals means if the community loses interest, there’s nothing to catch the fall. Murad’s own mantra is to be on the right side of the bell curve – which practically means he aims to sell before the meme loses its magic. Newcomers tagging along after reading about 100x gains in the news are often left holding the bag. So if you’re going to dance at the meme coin party, dance near the door.

That said, Murad would argue that missing out is a bigger sin than short-term losses, in the grand scheme. The upside of a true meme supercycle – where a handful of $1M mcap coins skyrocket to $1B+ – is so enormous that it dwarfs a few failed bets. It’s the classic venture capital style approach applied to shitcoins: a few moonshots can pay for the rest. And Murad, ever the showman, frames it in rallying language: “We are in a revolution of the little guys using memes to flip the giants. This is history. Embrace it.” It’s hard not to get at least a little hyped when you see a community of regular folks meme-ing their way into making something like Doge a top-10 global crypto asset.

In the end, Murad Mahmudov’s bullish meme coin crusade is a fascinating reflection of crypto’s soul. It reminds us that beyond all the tech and charts, belief and community drive markets – and that people love a good joke, especially if it might make them rich. Whether you find it genius or find it ridiculous (or both), Murad’s meme coin journey has made a significant mark on the crypto landscape in the past few years. Gate.io’s savvy audience knows that sometimes the biggest alpha lies in narratives, not spreadsheets. And Murad’s narrative is loud and clear: “Invest in cults!” – said half-jokingly, half-seriously.

As the meme-fueled bull run looms, it might just pay to heed the Meme General’s advice. After all, in 2025’s crypto carnival, the real utility might be making money – and memes seem to be doing that just fine. So grab your popcorn (and maybe some POPCAT), enjoy the show, and remember Murad’s golden rule: always respect the power of the memes. In this supercycle, they’re not just jokes – they’re juggernauts.

In Murad we trust? Time will tell, but one thing’s for sure: it’s going to be absurdly entertaining.

GM – and may the memes be ever in your favor!