What is Labubu? What is its relationship with the cryptocurrency industry? Why has it become so popular? Why is the meme coin LABUBU difficult to escape extinction?
Written by: Deng Tong, Jinse Finance
The company behind Labubu, Pop Mart, saw its stock price soar tenfold in 2024, with an increase of over 200% so far this year, reaching a market value of over HKD 350 billion. Founder Wang Ning has thus become the new richest person in Henan, China. By the end of last year, the company had 401 stores in mainland China and 130 stores in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas (including joint ventures), covering more than 30 countries and regions, with revenue from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas accounting for over 38%. Its namesake meme coin LABUBU also enjoyed a period of glory, but today its market value has fallen below USD 28 million, currently reported at USD 27.89 million, with a 24-hour decline of 20.4%.
What is Labubu? What is its relationship with the cryptocurrency industry? Why has it become so popular? Why is the meme coin LABUBU difficult to escape extinction?
1. What is Labubu? What is its relationship with the cryptocurrency industry?
Labubu is a plush toy character with a playful yet slightly fierce appearance. Its features include a round, fluffy body, wide-open big eyes, pointy ears, and nine sharp teeth, forming a mischievous smile.
Labubu was designed by artist Long Jia Sheng, who was born in Hong Kong and grew up in the Netherlands. Long created the story series "The Monsters," inspired by the Nordic folklore and mythology he loved during his childhood. According to a report by CNA Lifestyle in 2024, Long initially sketched his designs with a fountain pen, and his love for fairy tales ultimately led him to create Labubu and its friends.
Labubu made its debut in 2015 and gained wider attention after collaborating with Pop Mart in 2019.
According to Pop Mart's mid-year report released on August 20, 2024, the "The Monsters" series generated sales of 6.3 billion RMB in the first half of that year.
In April 2025, Pop Mart launched the third generation of Labubu's vinyl plush products, with large crowds lining up to purchase them in Pop Mart stores in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, and instances of high-priced reselling occurring in mainland China.
On May 29, 2025, the namesake meme coin LABUBU was launched. Although LABUBU sparked a wave of speculation, it ultimately could not escape the fate of decline.
On June 10, 2025, Beijing Yongle Auction held an auction for Labubu artworks, with a Labubu resembling a real person selling for 1.08 million RMB, totaling 3.73 million RMB in sales.
2. Why did Labubu create a frenzy?
Firstly, Labubu's popularity is closely tied to its sales method—blind boxes. Customers only discover which style they have purchased after opening the packaging. Pop Mart's use of the blind box sales model increases the excitement and uncertainty of purchasing, prompting players to repeatedly buy in pursuit of rare styles, thereby driving up the secondary market prices of certain popular styles.
Veteran blind box collector Desmond Tan stated that the surprise element of blind boxes is a major attraction. He often walks around Pop Mart stores, shaking the blind boxes vigorously before deciding which one to buy. This is quite common at Pop Mart. Desmond collects "chaser" blind boxes, which are special editions from various Pop Mart toy series, including Labubu. Desmond mentioned that on average, he finds one chaser for every ten boxes he buys. Compared to the usual one percent probability, this is quite high. "Being able to get a chaser by shaking the box and learning to feel the differences… If I can succeed after just one or two tries, I would be very happy!"
Secondly, Labubu is an excellent cultural IP. According to a Deutsche Bank analysis report cited by Forbes, few IPs can break cultural barriers, being embraced by both Asian culture and loved by Western pop music and sports stars.
Xinhua News Agency pointed out three main reasons for Labubu's explosive popularity: Labubu is a cross-cultural global consumer product; the patience in product creation and promotion, along with innovative breakthroughs; and China has a complete industrial chain and a mature industrial ecosystem.
3. Meme coins related to physical toys still cannot escape the curse of plummeting prices
Meme coins are characterized by high entertainment value, viral spread, and community-driven dynamics. They typically lack practical use cases and technical support, with prices heavily influenced by market sentiment and community speculation, resulting in extreme volatility.
While LABUBU is also a product of speculation, it is somewhat different from traditional meme coins—after all, LABUBU capitalized on the popularity of Labubu's physical blind box toys, yet LABUBU still cannot escape the fate of meme coin price crashes.
The decline of LABUBU has already had precedents. The most similar case to LABUBU is Pudgy Penguins, which has both NFT and meme coin offerings, as well as physical toys.
In July 2021, a group of university students founded Pudgy Penguins. In April 2022, Pudgy Penguins was sold to the current CEO Luca Netz. In May 2023, Pudgy Penguins began online sales of physical toys, Pudgy Toy, after raising USD 9 million.
By the end of September 2023, Pudgy Toy was launched in 2,000 Walmart stores in the United States, expanding the NFT IP Pudgy Penguins brand into a vast consumer market. This move allowed Pudgy Penguins to reap the benefits. According to Decrypt, the Pudgy Toys series achieved USD 10 million in sales in less than a year, with sales exceeding 750,000.
Pudgy Penguins once enjoyed immense popularity, setting a record of 34.8 ETH on December 16, 2024, but now the price is only 8.9 ETH.
Its meme coin PENGU reached a peak of USD 0.0428 on January 7, 2025, but in less than six months, PENGU is now reported at USD 0.009369, a decline of 78%.
Additionally, similar cases include the Bored Ape series. Back in 2021, NBA star Stephen Curry spent USD 180,000 (55 ETH) to purchase a BAYC NFT dressed in a tweed suit. In the same year, payment technology giant Visa bought CryptoPunk #7610 for 49.50 ETH (valued at USD 150,000 at the time), featuring a female avatar with a mohawk hairstyle, clown green eyes, and lipstick.
However, after reaching a peak price of 153.7 ETH in May 2022, Bored Apes have since declined to the current price of 11.55 ETH.
CryptoPunks have dropped from a high of over 125 ETH in 2021 to the current 41 ETH.
It is evident that whether it is the Pudgy Penguins with physical toys or the purely digital assets like Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, they all face the fate of price crashes after a period of immense popularity and glory. Let alone the meme coin LABUBU, which merely rides on the popularity of physical toys.
The rapid rise and fall of LABUBU's price is due to its high speculative nature and lack of practicality. Even though Pop Mart's physical Labubu toys may have enjoyed a brief surge, when the market frenzy subsides, the false prosperity that lacks actual value support and relies on speculation will ultimately collapse. This is a true reflection of the essence of meme coins: "born from speculation, doomed to extinction due to value bubbles bursting."
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