Midcurve
 Image: original illustration, memecoin.wiki | |
| part of speech | noun and adjective |
|---|---|
| scene | crypto Twitter, Solana trenches |
Insult derived from the IQ bell curve meme, describing a trader whose middling sophistication produces worse results than either naive conviction or genuine expertise.
Midcurve is a crypto Twitter insult for a trader in the middle of the bell curve meme: smart enough to construct elaborate analysis, not smart enough to realize the analysis is worthless. The meme places three figures on an IQ distribution. The "left curve" simpleton buys a coin because the dog picture is funny, the "right curve" sage arrives at the same conclusion through deep reasoning, and the crying "midcurve" in the middle overcomplicates everything and loses money. Calling a take "midcurve" accuses it of sophisticated wrongness.
Origin
The underlying format is the IQ Bell Curve or Midwit meme documented by Know Your Meme, which traces the popular three Wojak version to a July 11, 2020 post by the X account @owenbroadcast, building on the older "midwit" concept from imageboard culture. Crypto communities adopted the template during the 2021 cycle and it became core vocabulary during the Solana meme coin era, when the market seemed engineered to punish nuance: tokens with no fundamentals outperformed carefully researched projects, making the left curve position look like wisdom.
Usage
In the trenches, "stay left curve" is genuine advice meaning keep the thesis simple: the coin is funny, people will buy it, send it. "Midcurving it" means talking oneself out of a winner or into a loser through overthinking, for example selling a runner because a chart pattern looked bearish. Commentators including the CoinDesk piece "Midwits, Wassies and HODLers" have noted the scene's surprising respect for performed ignorance, with successful degen traders styling themselves as left curve even when their edge is anything but naive. The right curve position is claimed far more often than it is earned, and accusing someone of being a "midcurver" who thinks they are right curve is a standard escalation. The meme also frames market structure arguments: holding bags through drawdowns, when to ape, and whether fundamentals matter at all.
References
- https://knowyourmeme.com/editorials/guides/what-is-the-midwit-meme-and-what-does-it-mean-the-iq-bell-curve-meme-explained
- https://finance.yahoo.com/news/midwits-wassies-hodlers-memes-define-191305360.html
- https://hackernoon.com/the-crypto-curve-left-right-and-center
- https://medium.com/@paulstanlen/it-pays-to-be-mid-curve-in-a-crypto-bull-run-cec0642978a8
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