Chillhouse Leads the Rally Alone: The Past and Present of "Web3 Fun Seekers"

The long-dormant Solana meme scene hasn't been this lively in ages, and it's happening in a way few could have imagined—a crossfire of "abstract banter" around a Solana meme coin involving Base protocol lead Jesse Pollak, well-known crypto KOL Cobie, Solana founder Toly, and pump.fun founder alon. Especially with the Base camp joining in, it feels like "breaking the forbidden door," which is even more unexpected for players in the current fiercely competitive multi-chain environment.

This Solana meme coin is none other than $chillhouse. It's not a new coin; since its successful launch on pump.fun, Chillhouse has been around for half a year and has always been one of the key meme coins in the pump.fun ecosystem. So, what kind of coin is this? What makes it the centerpiece of this cross-camp "meme abstraction show"?

Chillguy+House=Chillhouse

The original inspiration for Chillhouse comes exactly from this section's title: "Chillguy+House=Chillhouse." That's right—at first, Chillhouse was simply positioned as a "Frankenstein" mashup.

Although it's a "Frankenstein," it possesses that rare rebellious satire found in great Web3 memes. Chillguy experienced an explosive run during last year's meme bull market, but ultimately faced a lawsuit warning from Chillguy's original creator, Phillip Banks.

This is half of Chillhouse's origin—"The creator of Chillguy is not a chill person."

The other half comes from $House, a coin that briefly shone in the Solana meme market after the Trump coin cooled off. In late April, $House broke out with the slogan "1 $House = 1 USD," tapping into the global anxiety of young people unable to afford homes, and at its peak reached a market cap of 120 millions USD.

During $House's rise, a new "version god" appeared—Fapital. Fapital has a group chat called "Fapital Club," where Chillhouse deployer @VERYKOOLLUKEY once said:

"What if we launch Chillhouse?"

Other members of Fapital Club found this idea amusing. Eventually, @0xRacist created this "Frankenstein" image—a Chillguy with a house for a head.

Half a year later, this idea has generated nearly $169,000 in creator revenue. A fun idea, a meme coin, and over a million RMB in earnings—this is the magic of Web3.

This creator revenue has accumulated since July 20, as the current operator of Chillhouse's official Twitter is @RiccoRosas, and the creator revenue was redirected to him at the end of July. So, Chillhouse is also the most successful case of pump.fun's creator revenue reform, ensuring the long-term operation of the meme coin.

Before reviewing Chillhouse's journey, let me just say: when the market is at its lowest, opportunities often brew. Half a year later, as I write this article, Chillhouse and neet have become the "twin stars" of the pump.fun ecosystem. Both are connected to Fapital—one was born directly from Fapital's group chat, the other was recognized by Fapital in its earliest days.

The "Twin Stars" on pump.fun homepage

Fapital's "calls" have never been long-winded. If you look through his tweets, you'll find he sometimes disappears for a while, then comes back joking, sometimes even about things unrelated to crypto. If you're not an active player in the pump.fun ecosystem, you might not even know who he is. In a way, Chinese players who have persisted in the pump.fun ecosystem, overcoming language and cultural barriers, have gained an informational edge from their perseverance.

Other coins recognized in the pump.fun ecosystem, such as $USDUC and $tokabu, also began their slow growth during the downturn of pump.fun and the entire Solana meme ecosystem five months ago.

Of course, the growth process hasn't been all smooth sailing.

The Growth Process

Chillhouse had a remarkably smooth start. Less than a week after the token's birth, it broke through a 10 millions USD market cap. Now the chief content officer of pump.fun, @json1444, mentioned Chillhouse in its first week.

The Chillhouse community also developed a unique character. After the token's successful launch, community members enthusiastically created funny images—not deliberately centered on $chillguy or $House, but wildly abstract and imaginative.

The community's efforts paid off with their first big success at the end of May. Members bombarded major KOLs with Twitter DMs, each containing only one sentence: "Thoughts on chillhouse?"

This "DM bombing" finally got Ansem's attention, and "Thoughts on chillhouse?" became a meme in the Solana ecosystem. Now, when you see random "Thoughts?" comments in English or Chinese in the replies, it's a simplified version of this meme. It's not really asking KOLs for their opinion on Chillhouse, but more of a sticky, attention-grabbing joke—like if my friend asks me about the weather, and I randomly reply with "What do you think about Chillhouse?" regardless of context or audience.

Eventually, this meme also drew out pump.fun founder alon:

Thanks to this meme, Chillhouse quickly attracted more major KOL interactions. @based16z jokingly referenced Chillhouse, "Hyperliquid cut the KOL budget, Chillhouse team, I'll be in touch." Chillhouse seized the opportunity: "Can you arrange an interview with threadguy for me?" which prompted threadguy to reply, "How much?"

After this, $chillhouse started its first major rally, reaching a historical high of nearly 30 millions USD in late June. By then, Chillhouse had become an unignorable presence in the Solana meme ecosystem, appearing not only in countless spontaneous Twitter jokes but also repeatedly in Mitch's Telegram channel and rasmr's livestreams.

In rasmr's livestreams, Chillhouse appears constantly—sometimes bringing "Thoughts on chillhouse?" into real life by asking random people, sometimes wearing a Chillhouse hat while doing other shows. Chillhouse also appears in other top pump.fun livestreams, like Based DD.

Chillhouse found its footing, but the price couldn't rise forever. After first approaching the 30 millions USD mark, Chillhouse underwent a sharp correction, dropping about 75% in 12 days.

Subsequent price swings weren't driven by obvious positive news, making it a "painful process"—the community remained, and Chillhouse's content stayed high-quality, but short-term sentiment and attention don't linger on a new meme coin. Like SPX/Mog/BITCOIN and other meme coins on Ethereum that have endured long-term consensus tests, Chillhouse entered this tough and unavoidable trial.

During this period, Chillhouse launched an NFT series called "Lil Chillers," whose floor price once broke 7 SOL, demonstrating its influence. Currently, the NFT series' floor price is about 1.1 SOL.

But before discussing the current "all-star gathering," let's address one question:

What is pump.fun founder alon's real attitude toward Chillhouse? If he likes the coin, why hasn't pump.fun's token support fund, Glass Full Foundation, bought it?

I think this is intentional on alon's part. First, pump.fun has changed its Twitter profile cover several times in recent months, each time featuring supported ecosystem meme coins, and Chillhouse has never been absent.

Second, if you look at alon's tweets, at first glance it seems like there's beef between Chillhouse and alon:

alon: "There will be big news for organic (meaning naturally and healthily grown by the community, not relying on KOLs or pump conspiracies) tokens in the pump.fun ecosystem, but Chillhouse is not organic."

alon: "Can you move Chillhouse out of the picture?"

But actually, Chillhouse's style is that of a neurotic "problem child." Alon's tweets of "disdain" and GFF's non-purchase are actually a kind of alternative CP (couple pairing).

How to put it—it's like treating Chillhouse as the "Little Jack Ma" meme.

All-Star Abstract Show

Just yesterday, Chillhouse's price hit a new all-time high, breaking 30 millions USD, rising about 9x from the bottom in just four days.

The reason is this mind-boggling "all-star abstract show." Why do people think Chillhouse is more than just lucky? Let's lay out the full timeline.

On October 21, Coinbase spent $25 million to purchase the UpOnly NFT from Cobie. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong confirmed the news, stating, "Anyone holding this ticket (NFT) can force Cobie and Ledger Status to perform like monkeys, recording 8 episodes of 'Up Only TV.' This ticket grants no sponsorship rights, and we reserve the right to call you a 'fool who bought this thing' or ignore your existence entirely—never mentioning you in all 8 episodes. Guests are chosen by us, but if we think you're interesting, we might listen to your suggestions."

UpOnly TV is a podcast hosted by Cobie, which stopped airing in December 2022, mainly because the FTX collapse led HBO to cancel its TV contract. The show was originally sold to HBO in December 2021, but after the FTX incident, it was terminated in December 2022. The last episode was uploaded to YouTube shortly after the FTX collapse.

This May, Cobie minted the NFT "ADMISSION: 1 SEASON OF UP ONLY TV." Facing calls on Twitter to restart UpOnly TV, Cobie resisted, saying people just wanted the crazy 2021 bull market back, not the show itself. When someone commented that Cobie underestimated his industry influence, Cobie retorted:

"You claim I can recreate the 2021 vibe with a crypto podcast, but at its peak, my podcast was only a tenth the size of The Moon Carl, Bitboy, or CryptoManRan. That's just not realistic. The only way to bring back 2021 is to fix market structure, not market commentary. Doing Echo has 100x the impact of doing a podcast for this purpose."

Cobie then minted the NFT and listed it on OpenSea for 10,000 ETH. On October 7, he changed the price to 5,000 ETH.

On October 10, the NFT was listed on Manifold for 25 million $USDC.

On October 21, Coinbase really spent that much to buy the NFT, and simultaneously spent $375 million to acquire Echo, Cobie's startup, which he considered much more meaningful than the podcast.

On October 22, alon retweeted a 2015 tweet from Cobie. Cobie's original tweet: "In this sinful life, all I need is myself and my Pump team." Alon's quote tweet: "That's exactly what I'm doing now."

Since Cobie's return was a hot topic in crypto, people didn't pay much attention to alon's tweet at the time—after all, alon is a well-known Twitter surfer.

On October 25, Chillhouse's official Twitter continued its usual wild style: "F*** you Jesse Pollak, f*** you Base."

Unexpectedly, this tweet actually got Jesse's attention: "Bounce back." Then Cobie joined the comments: "What the hell, let me teach you how to reply to this kind of crap properly." Chillhouse continued, "Cobie, you're a gutter too." Cobie replied, "Kid, you'll be in trouble once Coinbase's comms team approves me to fire back."

It's worth noting that this wasn't Jesse's first encounter with Chillhouse. In fact, back in July, Chillhouse's daily antics already caught Jesse's attention:

Chillhouse: "Hey Jesse, give us 1 Bitcoin and we'll bridge to Base." Jesse: "Arms wide open to welcome you." As for the money? "Hehe, I'm not giving it."

Back to the current timeline. After drawing out Jesse and Cobie, Chillhouse "pressed the advantage":

Chillhouse: "Cobie, bring me and Jesse onto UpOnly TV, let us resolve this civilly." Cobie: "OK, sounds good."

On October 26, Chillhouse tweeted, "I'm going to bridge to Base."

A few hours after this tweet, Chillhouse tagged Cobie again: "Cobie is too active in Chillhouse's Telegram chat." Cobie then posted a screenshot of a text conversation with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Brian said he liked the "Chilled House" joke and suggested Cobie post, "What's under Chilled House? There's BASEment underneath! Base belongs to everyone!" Cobie said he wouldn't post it, and Brian said to ask Jesse.

A few minutes later, Jesse actually posted it:

On the evening of October 26, Chillhouse appeared in the news section of the pump.fun mobile app. The headline was "After Chillhouse and Base slept together, another rug," a very abstract title, and the content reviewed the interaction between Chillhouse and the Base camp.

The official pump.fun Twitter also posted: "Chillhouse, if you see this news, it's never too late to come back."

On October 27, Chillhouse continued its antics: "F*** you Toly, f*** you Mert (Helius CEO), f*** you Solana Foundation."

This drew out Toly: "Reject modernity, return to Boden, Biden's comeback in 2028." Chillhouse replied, "What era are you living in, bro?"

Then, Chillhouse posted a funny video: originally, Chillhouse and alon hung out every day, then alon disappeared, Jesse appeared and won Chillhouse's heart, and when alon tried to text for a reunion, Chillhouse was already with Jesse and Cobie.

Then alon appeared, going all out: "F*** you Chillhouse." Chillhouse replied, "Missed out?" and alon responded with a meme image: "I don't want to play with you anymore."

At this point, the timeline is basically complete. You could say Chillhouse single-handedly drew out the forces of Base, Solana, and pump.fun, pulling off an incredible "all-star abstract show."

Just as the x402 protocol was exploding and everyone expected Base to capitalize on the momentum, the Base bosses came to interact with a Solana meme coin. Combined with alon's tweet before the "all-star abstract show," the whole timeline gives players room to imagine—could this all be a coincidence?

Jesse's public purchase of a bag of Solana meme coins on October 26 further fueled this speculation. That day, Jesse tweeted, "I love trenches and Troll." When asked if he had the Solana meme coin $troll, Jesse replied, "Now I do," and posted his Solana address.

On-chain data shows Jesse bought the following Solana meme coins: $chillhouse, $troll, $neet, $trencher, $house, $tokabu, and $chillguy.

So what is Jesse's real intention? If we don't speculate and just look at public tweets, Jesse wants to attract quality meme communities and devs from Solana. Just look at the tweet below—Chillhouse is being wild, but Jesse seriously posts the Github page for the Base cross-chain bridge in the comments:

Conclusion

Whether or not there's a "big announcement" brewing behind the scenes, Chillhouse's influence has once again grown significantly, drawing attention back to Solana and pump.fun meme coins.

This ongoing wild style has made Chillhouse's positioning ever clearer—it's no longer just the early "Frankenstein" oddball, but has found and secured its place as the "Web3 fun guy" through persistent effort, which fits perfectly with the wild and subcultural style of Web3 memes.

Whenever something happens in Web3, people think of this Chillguy with a house on his head, try to cue it, and let it come and show off its humor. At this point, Chillhouse's significance to Web3 has surpassed Chillguy—it was born from a "mashup," but has become a native meme with iconic status in the space. It's not a simple IP transplant like Chillguy, created just for hype, but has begun to carry the joy and emotion of the community.

Although the Solana meme market no longer has last year's glory, the past half-year's turbulence has produced meme coins that can compete in quality and positioning with the great meme coins on ETH. This is Solana's progress—the community and culture are forming, and truly excellent meme coins should stand the test of time. A chain first needs long-term, sustainable meme coins to give players a sense of belonging, so that "P juniors" can gradually become the new generation of "diamond hands."

Even though Solana's top meme coins still can't match the market cap of ETH's star meme coins, nor the old meme coins on Solana, and haven't reached last year's series of hot peaks, I've never felt that these new coins are "born at the wrong time."

Because truly excellent meme coins will create a new era of their own.