Why do PING and PAYAI need to upgrade? The logic behind these actions is not that simple.

In the past two days, the most frequently asked questions are what exactly PING and PAYAI are up to—one is a MEME coin launching a Launchpad, and the other is a utility token undergoing migration and pool swapping, both seeming to be abandonments. It’s indeed filled with uncertainty.

Honestly, in such a macro environment, no one can guarantee anything. But I can share a few clear observations.

MEME lacks sustained empowerment; utility projects have a low ceiling

The recent actions of these two projects are actually quite normal. In a favorable market environment, they can be considered positive signals. The question is, what’s the problem? The biggest weakness of MEME coins is the lack of continuous value output; they can only rely on consensus and emotion to sustain themselves. As for facilitator-type utility tokens, the technical barriers are not high, so both projects currently lack the support of “confidence” aspects.

The recent moves by PING and PAYAI happen to be addressing their respective shortcomings. PING is building a Launchpad to detach from the pure MEME label and create a positive flywheel. PAYAI aims to evolve from a utility token to an infrastructure protocol layer through token migration. Both decisions open up imagination space.

Logically sound, but not fully delivered yet

Since the promised gains have not been fully realized, we can only analyze from a logical perspective.

It’s not surprising that PING is developing a Launchpad—under a bear market fundamental, without emotion and consensus to maintain the price, the narrative of the X402 track can easily be eroded, especially with the support of purely MEME attributes. Conversely, if PING becomes a platform token for the Launchpad, the nature changes completely. The platform can continuously experiment by issuing tokens, gradually accumulating projects—one, two, three—until finding one that truly brings liquidity and achieves transformation. From this perspective, this strategic upgrade is indeed very wise.

PAYAI’s token migration is more prone to misinterpretation. You’ll hear all sorts of explanations, mainly that the project team has run out of chips and is using migration to control the situation. But if that were true, wouldn’t using FUD directly be more efficient? So I tend to believe that the team actually sees the ceiling of the facilitator’s utility and wants to upgrade it to the protocol layer for continuous empowerment—such as staking mechanisms, reward systems, ecological incentives, exchange lock-ups, etc. Looking at it over the longer term, this decision also makes sense.

Why do people not understand? Because their thinking patterns don’t match

The reason the market doesn’t understand is actually very simple: most people entered the X402 track with the mindset of MEME coins. They are used to buying a token and waiting for it to pump, then rushing to sell. But the growth logic of the X402 track is not like that, nor can it be instant.

PING’s Launchpad plan is just the beginning of the X402 asset issuance narrative. It may succeed or fail, but more Launchpads are brewing. Looking at the signals from various ideas in the X402 Market, the next round of Launchpads is definitely not just about issuing useless coins—real business scenarios like GameFi, SocialFi, can all be integrated into token issuance. Compared to pure social apps, this is a big step forward.

PAYAI’s protocol layer upgrade is even more interesting. I’ve heard that this team has a technical background, which is actually a good thing in a bear market. It provides sufficient time to prove themselves, and the facilitator segment itself has potential for value capture and commercial extension. This new positioning marks the starting point for the team to continuously empower facilitators, ultimately changing the status and value capture ability of such tools within the X402 ecosystem.