Recap · August 4, 2025 · 1:28:02
Luke Belmar Reveals How To Get RICH With Memecoins in 2026
The Signal
Luke Belmar joins Threadguy with a cycle thesis that connects memecoins, AI, attention, and the eventual tokenization of real products. He treats Bitcoin as a durable store for work and attention, but argues that the next winners will increasingly build a community and product before asking a token to carry the whole story.
Key Takeaways
- 01
AI is his largest narrative
Belmar calls AI the largest narrative in crypto history, comparing it favorably with earlier DeFi and NFT eras while placing it within his third market cycle.
- 02
Bitcoin stores future purchasing power
He describes work as energy that needs a durable store. In his framework, dollars lose purchasing power over time while Bitcoin offers an asset whose supply cannot be expanded.
- 03
Attention makes memecoins difficult
Threadguy says AI and ordinary memecoins are attention games, with a new shiny object constantly replacing the last. He suggests owning long-term leaders while doing the work to learn which teams persist.
- 04
Product before token
Belmar argues that a community using a monetizable product lets a company focus on mission and building rather than constantly defending a floor price. Jupiter is his example of product first, token later.
- 05
His career began by learning the tools
Belmar recounts waiting tables and sharing a small apartment before learning Facebook ads, Shopify, ClickFunnels, and social-media marketing; COVID-era e-commerce became his break.
On the Record
“AI is the biggest. It's going to be the biggest narrative in the history of crypto, in my opinion. It's bigger than DeFi, it's bigger than everything.”
“In order for you to preserve the value of your time in the future, you need to be able to store this energy.”
“You have to swap the script and I think over the last couple years the script has been kind of shifting from instead of tokenizing first, tokenizing second, right, and building the product.”
“Attention is a really tough game to play, and then especially when there's a new shiny thing.”
The Breakdown
A third-cycle view of the next trade
Belmar arrives with experience from 2016, the 2017 bull run, and the 2020 NFT cycle. He says AI will be bigger than DeFi and earlier crypto narratives, while Threadguy notes that memecoins are Belmar's principal bet. Their starting point is historical: every cycle creates its own versions of utility, speculation, and a crowd learning how tokens work.
Memes, NFTs, and retail scale
Belmar says his memecoin thesis grew out of the prior NFT mania, but he expects token familiarity to make the next wave easier for participants to understand. The pair use Pudgy Penguins and viral distribution as examples of the path from crypto-native attention toward a broader audience. The question throughout is not merely whether a ticker is popular, but whether it can travel beyond the existing timeline.
Work translated into Bitcoin
The conversation pauses for Belmar's monetary framing. A consulting payment left in a bank account, he says, will not retain the same purchasing power a decade later. He treats labor and attention as energy that must be transformed into something durable, calling Bitcoin the immutable store in that analogy. It is a philosophical explanation for his preference, not a promise about short-term price.
Build the company before the coin
Belmar's most concrete framework is product, community, then tokenization. A real user base gives a project support beyond the chart; without it, founders end up defending a floor price forever. He points to Jupiter making Solana easier to use before tokenizing, and says future successful tokens should come from companies with monetization, mission, and communities already in place.
From a crowded apartment to e-commerce
Asked about his own path, Belmar recalls waiting tables while he and his brothers shared a one-bedroom apartment with a tech worker. He learned the practical internet stack—Facebook ads, Shopify, ClickFunnels, and social marketing—because more income was necessary. During COVID, he recognized the rush toward online buying and calls the resulting e-commerce opportunity his glitch moment.
Doing the work inside an attention market
Near the close, Threadguy describes bringing AI founders on repeatedly to work out which narratives and builders will last. He recommends holding leaders for exposure, then spending months reading, listening, and following founders. Attention is fleeting, he says: a recent viral character can vanish from the feed in weeks. His NFT comparison is that a few teams with substance eventually outperformed the daily rush of new mints. The implication is not that the newest viral item is worthless, but that the research burden rises when attention changes this quickly. Belmar's product-first argument supplies the other half of the filter: long-lived community use and a company capable of building through the next turn in the feed. Together, they place viral reach inside a wider test of usefulness, coherent branding, and whether the people behind a project can keep shipping after a first burst of attention.
Distilled from the episode transcript · Counterparty Recap Desk
