its a meta game, if you're skilled or lucky (both?) you get to withdraw funds from the game. its social, make friends, pass the time, it does not feel intimidatingly hard, or technical - even though actually trading memes has been dominated by technical, complex crypto tools. 

its a cultural phenomena, people watch streams of people trading memes, it forms the basis for a sense of humor. It's 4chan adjacent but not quite so incel. You can sort of be a normie and also buy memes. a lot of people play with smaller amounts of money, it also probably changes in nature somewhat based on region, class. It is no near as distinct or separate from Farcaster than people seem to imagine.

it's the primary culture that's emerged from crypto social networks

people who do not trade memes are not better than people who do, they just like doing other stuff! I trade memes sometimes, and I read a lot. I like basketball too. We could be so much more normal about all this. At the extreme, its a gambling addiction.

Steelman of Memecoin Trading:

Come for the dream, stay for the team; A meta social game, where people make friends and create stories together.  

^ This can be true, while also having downsides, depending on how people are using and how the game is architected.