SILLY, the meme coin that has skyrocketed in value, has become the spiritual symbol of the Solana community. This article will take a look back at the journey of this meme dragon’s popularity.
The “origin” of the meme dragon
Solana Breakpoint’s hidden Easter egg
Who is spreading the silly dragon?
What did SILLY do right to become Solana’s “official meme”?
The birth of a legendary meme coin
Catching up with Solana’s meme season
Recently, the Solana-based meme token SILLY has reached a new all-time high, exceeding $0.15. Currently, the top ten addresses holding SILLY (excluding CEX addresses) own 18.5% of the total supply. The highest unrealized profit among these addresses is 27,000 times, while the lowest is 0.7 times. The average unrealized profit is 30 times, with most holders buying in early and holding until now.
What was the “origin” of the meme dragon in the early days? Who was spreading the silly dragon? On the path to becoming Solana’s official meme, what did SILLY do right? BlockBeats will discuss these questions in the following sections.
The Silly Dragon can be traced back to September 6th. On that day, Anatoly, co-founder of Solana, released a mysterious message on social media, consisting of three dragon emojis and the words “Silly dragons.” And thus, “Silly dragons” quietly emerged in the Solana community, becoming their self-mockery and symbol.
However, despite its fun nature, the silly dragon did not immediately create a frenzy. It was like the ancient saying “hidden dragons and crouching tigers,” quietly forgotten.
It was not until Solana’s annual event, the Solana Breakpoint conference, that this story came to life. The founder of Solana transformed into this legendary silly dragon, injecting new vitality and meaning into the character, turning it into a highly influential meme that revitalized the entire community.
Solana Breakpoint is the annual conference organized by the Solana Foundation, a grand celebration of the achievements of the Solana community and an inspiration for future development in the industry. From October 30th to November 3rd, the third Solana Breakpoint was held in Amsterdam, bringing together 3,000 Solana developers, validators, founders, core engineers, ecosystem teams, and more to discuss the latest developments and future roadmaps. The conference focused on substantial technological advancements and defining the flexible topics for the next generation of blockchain networks.
Projects mentioned during the summit, such as SIMD (Solana Improvement Document), Helium, and Helius, all had impressive performances. Especially Helium, with its token MOBILE achieving a 110% increase within a day on December 14th, leading the surge in DePIN-related tokens. In addition to project introductions, the appearance of Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana, caused a sensation at the conference.
On the opening day of the summit, which happened to be Halloween, Anatoly appeared in a green dinosaur costume, becoming the most unique and eye-catching presence at the conference. Anatoly introduced himself to the audience, saying, “I’m Anatoly, and I’m a silly dragon.” After saying this, Anatoly smiled shyly, amusing the entire audience.
Solana’s community motto is “Do the hard things first,” and Anatoly’s costume and words were not only self-mockery but also a philosophy. He explained, “I’m standing here in a dragon costume, and it’s important for us to discuss what we’re building and why we’re building them. We need to know what our goals are and what we want to achieve.”
After the summit, the Silly Dragon image also appeared in the Solana community. On November 8th, Anatoly posted on social media, “year of the silly dragon,” injecting fresh and playful energy into Solana’s narrative. With the approaching year 2024, this phrase coincidentally corresponds to the upcoming Year of the Dragon. This narrative is also more easily embraced by the Chinese community, who eagerly anticipate the narratives and innovations surrounding this foolish dragon.
Anatoly then paid attention to the official SILLY Twitter account and loudly called for “the need for silly dragon memes.” This action not only increased the value of SILLY coin but also became a memorable story. Looking back now, Anatoly appearing in a silly dragon costume at the summit was not only a humorous self-expression but also a cleverly arranged Easter egg.
On November 9th, Solana builder Matty Taylor followed in Anatoly’s footsteps and made a thought-provoking statement on social media: “Don’t take yourself too seriously, we all have a silly dragon inside us.” This researcher, who wrote a thesis on Bitcoin economics during his undergraduate years and has been deeply fascinated by cryptocurrencies, is now focused on Solana’s growth and expansion. His words resonated within the community.
At the same time, Legend, Solana NFT expert and Frictionless Capital managing partner, fell in love with Solana at first sight. Legend used to be a big fan of the Ethereum ecosystem until he realized the high gas fees. Coincidentally, his friend’s venture capital company participated in Solana’s seed investment. After seeing Solana’s performance data, Legend was immediately attracted.
On November 16th, Legend tweeted a concise statement: “This is the silly dragon season.” Underneath the tweet, community members expressed their hope for a “Silly dragon token” to appear.
On November 18th, LacedUp, ambassador of Solana wallet Solflare, shared his thoughts: “Glad to be working for Solana.” The comment “What a silly dragon” became a commonly used meme phrase in the Solana community, praising and self-mocking the developers’ dedication to building Solana’s “foolishness.”
Solana community members shared the first dragon meme, an illustration named Drako, saying, “When I was still fantasizing about the possibility of dragons, a silly dragon appeared and enchanted me. Let’s rewrite the epic of Solana memes together.”
On December 8th, Yaoyao, responsible for Solana’s growth, combined the words “silly” and “Solana” to create “Soylano” and tweeted, “2024 is the Year of the Dragon in China, and this will be the year of the silly dragon (Soylano) in crypto.”
It is worth mentioning that the narrative of dragon culture is not unique to Solana. In fact, as early as March of this year, the Bitcoin ecosystem had the LONG token representing Western-style dragons on the market, and in April, the DRAG and DADA tokens representing Eastern-style dragons were launched. The community even jokingly referred to it as the “battle of Eastern and Western dragons,” showing the modern interpretation of ancient legends in crypto culture.
In the Solana community, the popularity and spread of the Silly Dragon meme came at the right time. With the approaching Year of the Dragon, this image not only sparked celebrations for the dragon year but also brought unprecedented attention and liquidity to Solana. In the digital currency market, a meme coin with founder characteristics often triggers a frenzy and even a short-term FOMO effect.
For example, the meme coin featuring Vitalik, the founder of Ethereum, and his cat Hemule, caused a sensation. In the Solana community, the phrase “What a silly dragon” has become a commonly used meme phrase, used to praise and self-mock the developers’ dedication to building Solana’s “foolishness.”
The journey of the silly dragon in the Solana community has been an exciting one, and its impact and influence continue to grow. As Solana embraces the Year of the Dragon, the silly dragon will undoubtedly play a significant role in shaping the narrative and spirit of the community.Silly Dragon, the Meme coin representing the Solana community, has gained significant popularity recently. Inspired by the success of other Meme coins like Een and Bear, the Solana community saw an opportunity to create its own Meme that would represent its spirit and culture. And thus, the Silly Dragon was born.
The creation of the Silly Dragon Twitter account, @DrakoSolana, sparked interest among the community. With its classic Silly Dragon Meme avatar, the account quickly gained attention and surpassed the popularity of the well-known Silly Dragon.
However, it was disappointing to note that despite its growing influence, Drako had not launched its own token. This created an opportunity for the newly emerged $SILLY token to fill the void and become the preferred choice for community members seeking a Meme coin related to the Silly Dragon.
The birth of the Silly Dragon Meme was accompanied by the release of its first tweet, “Year of the Silly Dragon,” marking the official launch of the $SILLY token. The green dragon image corresponded to Anatoly’s Halloween costume, and although the initial tweets were not widely noticed, the deployment of the SILLY token contract on December 4 added a new chapter to the Silly Dragon story.
With the deployment of the token, Silly Dragon actively promoted its community through various social media platforms, including its official website, Telegram group, and listings on Solana Raydium and Jupiter exchanges. The vision of the Silly Dragon was described as a symbol of art, passion, and the power of Solana, showcasing a new narrative that transcends digital boundaries.
The Silly Dragon account soon gained recognition as the official Twitter account for the Silly Dragon project. Anatoly’s retweet of the account’s tweet, “Leave your wallet,” sparked a surge in engagement, and the Silly Dragon image officially entered the public eye.
Taking advantage of the increased attention, the Silly Dragon held an art contest where users could create and share their own Silly Dragon artworks for a chance to win 10 million SILLY tokens. This contest attracted a large number of cryptocurrency enthusiasts, including notable figures in the industry.
On December 8, the Silly Dragon Chinese community was established, featuring a red-dressed dragon holding the Chinese flag as its image. Additionally, on December 12, the official Silly Dragon TikTok video contest was announced, offering 1 million SILLY tokens to the top three creators who could best tell the Silly Dragon story.
Anatoly’s attention to the Silly Dragon project on December 16 ignited the community’s enthusiasm, leading to a significant increase in the price of SILLY. The Silly Dragon became the official Meme for the Solana community.
During this time, Solana also experienced another significant event with the launch of the Saga Web3 phone, which included a bonus of 30 million BONK tokens. This unique marketing strategy not only boosted the sales of the Saga phone but also ignited the Meme season within the Solana community, with tokens like ZERO, COQ, !knoB, and WIF becoming hot commodities.
Capitalizing on the momentum, the Silly Dragon hinted at an airdrop plan, further fueling the FOMO within the Solana community. Within two days, SILLY saw an impressive surge in market capitalization and trading volume, reaching $30 million in trading volume on decentralized exchanges like Jupiter. The market value of SILLY increased from zero to nearly $10 million, representing a staggering 900% appreciation.
In addition to DEX platforms, SILLY also collaborated with CEX exchanges. Bitget announced the listing of Silly Dragon (Silly) on its Innovation Zone and MemE Zone, while LBank announced the launch of SILLY U perpetual contracts.
Despite a minor setback on December 22 due to Anatoly changing his avatar, which caused a temporary 45% dip in SILLY price, the overall narrative of SILLY remained strong. On December 27, SILLY broke through $0.15, reaching a new all-time high and ranking among the top three coins in terms of immediate price gains.
The success of the Silly Dragon Meme not only relied on Solana’s endorsement and promotion of the Silly Dragon culture but also on the community’s trust in Solana. This milestone event propelled Solana’s DEX trading volume to surpass Ethereum’s for the first time, affirming Solana’s legitimacy in the Meme culture and its ability to unite the community.
As Ben Sparang, a member of the Solana Foundation, aptly described it, “This is a small step for mankind, but a big step for the Silly Dragon.” This achievement not only recognizes Solana’s technical accomplishments but also signifies the acquisition of a legitimate Meme culture and spiritual totem for Solana, which will play a significant role in fostering community unity.
In the world of internet culture, there is nothing more central than Meme, as the market is essentially driven by the most captivating narratives of the day, week, or year. The success of the Silly Dragon Meme relies not only on Solana’s admiration and promotion of the Silly Dragon culture but also on the community’s trust in Solana. This has propelled Solana to achieve a historic milestone by surpassing Ethereum in seven-day DEX trading volume.
The Silly Dragon has become a symbol of the Solana community’s unity and has paved the way for future Meme coins to thrive within the Solana ecosystem.
Extended reading:
– From Silly Dragon to COQ: A List of the Hottest Meme Coins on Major Public Chains
– Silly Dragon Meme Coin Surges 60% in a Single Day, Market Cap Exceeds $10 Million, Hints at NFT Release?
– Popular Meme Coins: Silly Dragon, Minu… What Are the Hottest Coins on Public Chains?
Tags:
$Silly
Anatoly Yakovenko
Silly Dragon
Solana
Meme
