If you are a leading exchange, you might really feel some hesitation about the Meme coin track.

The vast majority of participants are actually just looking for exchanges to fund them, but they still want to do it at their comfortable pace — which essentially means wanting to eat the white rice.

The phenomenon is quite contradictory: when Meme coins on exchanges fall, the exchanges are criticized; when Meme coins on certain DEX platforms fall, the market makers are criticized. In the same case of a coin price drop, the targets of blame are completely different. Exchanges have instead become the scapegoats. To put it simply, exchanges are pouring money in but still get scolded — the major funds are all from the exchanges themselves.

But a careful look reveals the underlying logic.

Where is the difference on both sides? The key lies in the listing logic. Exchanges generally only list Meme coins related to their own platform concepts — like coins associated with certain founders or well-known users. This means that when the coin price drops, it’s hard for the exchange to dissociate itself, and users naturally direct their blame at the exchange.

Most Meme coins on other platforms are community-driven, with exchanges only providing liquidity, making the responsibility boundaries relatively clear. When the coin price is bad, users go after the market makers, and the exchange remains relatively safe.

Therefore, from an input-output perspective, the Meme coin strategy of exchanges actually has significant issues — money is spent, but reputation is damaged instead.