How an obscure 4chan meme gave birth to a cryptocurrency that went up 1,800%

With the crypto bull market in full swing, memecoins — tokens without any function or use case that trade solely on their popularity and sentiment — are soaring.

Among the list of top performers is Mog Coin, launched in March 2023. It’s up an eye-watering 1,800% over the past month amid a $6.4 billion memecoin trading frenzy in February. Mog Coin now trades at a market value of over $371 million.

Mog Coin is the latest example of a meme from the fringes of the internet gaining popularity in crypto. The term “mog,” a corruption of the acronym “alpha male of the group,” can be traced to posts on online forum 4chan as far back as 2016.

“To ‘mog’ someone is to assert one’s dominance over them — usually men — hoping to impress women,” Siân Brooke, a researcher at the London School of Economics who studies online communities, told DL News.

Brooke said the term, which comes from the intersection of bodybuilding and pickup artist communities, is linked to ideas of misogyny and toxic masculinity. “Women are not valued in these communities but are objectified and seen as a prize to obtain,” she said.

But members of the Mog Coin community say the meme has transcended its original meaning.

“It’s about rising above the ordinary, striving for greatness, and manifesting our deepest desires and highest potential,” Alphapriest777, a pseudonymous investor in Mog Coin, told DL News.

“The underlying message is the same: We’re here to level up, to support each other, and to leave a lasting impact,” Alphapriest said.

And mogging isn’t the first time lingo from 4chan has crossed over into crypto.

WAGMI, an acronym for “we’re all gonna make it,” which became a rallying cry among crypto investors during the previous bull run, also traces its origin to posts on 4chan and bodybuilding.com. The phrase was popularised by bodybuilder Aziz “Zyzz” Shavershian in 2010 before crossing over into crypto circles around 2017.

Mogging and masculinity

Financial trading has historically been a male-dominated world. In crypto, where trading risks — and rewards — are amplified, the same macho attitudes are also commonplace.

One reason for this, according to Brooke, is that by owning crypto, “men can reflect ideal forms of masculinity through evidence of a willingness to take risks, display esoteric knowledge, and demonstrate fortitude and independence.”

The Mog Coin website says the memecoin is about confidence, success, and “being the best version of yourself in anything you do.”

Alphapriest attributed Mog Coin’s success to its culture of “winning, resilience, and rising above the mediocre” and its “celebration of the hustle, the grind, and the unwavering belief in our own potential.”

“It’s a daily reminder of what’s possible when a group of like-minded, passionate individuals come together and decide to aim higher,” Alphapriest said.

However, there is often a darker side to how masculinity manifests itself in such online communities.

A cornerstone of the mogging meme is “looksmaxing,” an idea popular among young men who want to change their appearance to become more attractive and gain social acceptance. It has roots in “lookism,” a prejudice or discrimination toward people who are considered to be physically unattractive that is popular in incel circles.

Tropes such as “alphas,” a term used to denote men who embody the sexual and sporting success of mainstream, desirable masculinity, and “betas,” the opposite of alphas, are common.

Brooke said the concept of alphas and betas is tied to a toxic framing of gender in which women are denied personhood. “They are seen as irrational, interchangeable, hardwired to pair with alpha males, and needing to be dominated,” she said.

To what extent these ideas are actively propagated in the Mog Coin community is unclear.

“Memes often get away with being bigoted or sexist by claiming to be ironic,” Brooke said. “Online, it’s hard to tell when someone genuinely expresses themselves or mocks them unless they make their intentions clear.”

“Of course, mog is much bigger than any acronym,” Wolf, a pseudonymous admin in the official Mog Coin Telegram group — a messaging app — told DL News.

When asked about Mog Coin’s alpha male of the group origin, Wolf listed several alternative acronyms for mog, such as men of God, maiden of God, monkeys, orangutans, gorillas, multiple orgasm giver, and magical opportunity generator.

Memes and politics

Like with many other popular internet subcultures, nods to right-wing politics are also present in mogging and Mog Coin.

On the official Mog Coin X account, a pinned video of a breakdancing Donald Trump sporting a pair of pit vipers — the iridescent sunglasses that have become synonymous with the Mog Coin community — greets potential initiates.

It is also up for debate to what extent the broader Mog Coin community supports such uses of right-wing figures.

Pepe, a memecoin based on comics artist Matt Furie’s enduring Pepe the Frog character, has also previously been linked to right-wing circles. But the meme has broader appeal.

While extremist groups sometimes co-opt Pepe the Frog to make racist memes, the character is broadly used in crypto circles to emote the ups and downs of crypto trading. The meme also became popular as a symbol of resistance during the 2019 Hong Kong democracy protests.

Last year, Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal publicly apologised on X after the crypto exchange labelled Pepe as an alt-right “hate symbol.”

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.