The New Consensus of Young People: Labubu, CS2 and meme coins

"You might not believe it, but it's because I like Labubu that I became the sales champion of the store this month," said Jiani, a salesperson for a luxury handbag brand and a fervent enthusiast of trendy toys. She openly shared her sales secret:

"Instead of complimenting how nice their bag looks, it's better to praise the Labubu effect hanging on their bag; the customer will feel that you understand them well."

This is the sixth year of collaboration between Labubu and a certain trendy toy brand. As early as around 2020, it had already caused a wave in the Chinese market. However, what truly made this trendy toy explode internationally was a series of street photos that started last year, where a member of a well-known Korean group began to hang it on top luxury bags.

As a result, more and more top celebrities have started to flaunt their Labubu. Five years later, this IP has swept through the fashion circles of Southeast Asia and Europe and America, even making it to the covers of foreign fashion media: "The most popular bag accessory in 2025 is LABUBU?"

The global fashion icon hangs a pink Labubu on her top luxury tote bag as she exits the airport; the pop music award collector and the new generation international fashion darling flaunt two Labubus hanging on her orange handbag on social media, quickly becoming a trending topic; a member of a popular K-pop group often showcases a wall full of Labubu collections on her social media Story, making her a wild brand ambassador for Labubu.

For ordinary people, it's okay not to be able to afford top luxury goods. With less than 200 yuan, you can get a celebrity's style Labubu and even participate in the social consensus of the top fashion circles.

If you are lucky enough to draw a hidden version with less than a 1% probability, the price can increase by more than ten times; even if you draw a regular version, hanging it on your bag, posting it in your friend circle, and showing it on social media can still bring emotional value and social affirmation.

"There are actually many tricks to buying different hidden items. Is the sound of shaking crispy? Does it feel a bit harder when touched from the side? There are also subtle differences in weight," Jiani relies on her ability to identify hidden items, while everyone else is unable to buy or win, she can still secure them for her clients.

In fact, this is not Labubu's first highlight moment. Around 2020, Labubu had its first breakout moment. The blind box culture quickly swept the Z generation, satisfying individual expression while also sparking a game around "scarcity." The joy of drawing a hidden version is akin to hitting the jackpot. In the secondary market, some Labubu items have skyrocketed from hundreds to thousands of yuan, and unboxing videos of "drawing hidden versions" on social platforms have become phenomenal content.

In a sense, Labubu is no longer a toy, but rather a financial product that can be priced, speculated upon, and circulated.

Coincidentally, around 2020, during the first wave of Labubu's popularity, another financial product with trendy cultural IP was also exceptionally popular in a more virtual space—NFT, which is probably very familiar to friends in the coin circle.

The climax of NFTs arrived during an auction on March 11, 2021, when the NFT work of renowned artist Beeple was auctioned at a certain auction house, with the final price locked in at 69.34 million USD at the last second. This NFT work became the 53rd most expensive artwork in the world, and Beeple ranked among the top three artists in terms of artwork value currently living.

The internet has also provided a perfect assist for NFTs. It is no coincidence that the two largest social platforms on this planet are simultaneously focusing on augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR). They envision the future of the internet as the Metaverse, a world where the virtual and the real can seamlessly connect. The term NFT has been discussed multiple times in the context of the Metaverse, where NFTs, representing ownership, fit perfectly.

In just a few months, the term "NFT" has landed all over the world.

A famous American rapper with a large following on social media has released his own NFT; the owner of a certain NBA team has issued NFTs; a dunk move by a superstar sold for $250,000 after being made into an NFT; top football clubs such as Barcelona and AC Milan also have their own NFTs.

In that round of NFT frenzy, the most representative IP is undoubtedly BAYC (Bored Ape).

This avatar NFT project launched by a certain company went live in the spring of 2021, initially priced at only 0.08 ETH (approximately 200 dollars), and sold out within 24 hours. It then quickly became popular as a social avatar on various platforms.

A well-known host showcased his ape in a talk show, calling it "the identity symbol of the next era"; a rapper and another singer performed on stage together at a music awards ceremony, featuring the BAYC image; a popular singer spent 1.3 million dollars to purchase a rare ape; top athletes are promoting it; Chinese-speaking singers are also showing off their BAYC avatars; the traditional finance circle has also been influenced by this trend: chairmen of Hong Kong listed companies and well-known investors are all holders.

A small image can showcase identity labels and "social assets".

On the trading level, BAYC has pioneered the pinnacle paradigm of NFT assetization: at its peak, a single piece sold for as much as 400,000 USD (approximately 150 ETH), with the floor price exceeding 100 ETH, and the cumulative trading volume across the network surpassing 1.5 billion USD.

NFTs and a certain trendy toy brand are actually doing the same thing: using a seemingly toy-like medium to stimulate a circle's desire to participate, express, and feel a sense of identity.

Their process of "financial productization" is remarkably similar: both have significant recognition through avatars/images; both emphasize scarcity: rare and limited editions; both tie in celebrity effects, leading to explosive popularity; both create a market structure that evolves from "initial price entry" to "secondary speculation."

Labubu is the实体化的NFT, and NFT is the more虚拟的Labubu.

However, there is only one Wang Ning, and the NFT circle is still not mainstream enough. Since 2022, Labubu and the fate of NFTs have gradually diverged.

In the second year since BAYC reached its peak, the overall cryptocurrency market entered a downward cycle, and the myth of NFTs began to cool down gradually. As a former leader in the NFT space, BAYC also became a leader in declines—the floor price dropped from 150 ETH to below 20 ETH, and now it is only 13 ETH, equivalent to one-tenth of its peak value. Holders have successively "got off the bus" with their profile pictures, and the once bustling community has gradually quieted down. The profile pictures that were once the "business cards" for entering the crypto world are now being mocked as the "on-chain ceiling trapped marker," all of which have at least a floating loss of $300,000.

However, Labubu's fire is burning brighter and brighter, firmly seated at the top of the trendy toys list.

"The audience of Labubu surprisingly overlaps with those who buy luxury bags," Jiani said. "Some customers were just browsing, but as soon as I see Labubu on their bags, the conversation flows and the distance closes, we can chat for a long time, and in the end, it makes the customers happy to buy bags."

However, Jani revealed that some girls actually go into luxury stores for the purpose of finding a more suitable "carrier" for their beloved Labubu, buying their first designer bag. With the Labubu IP, a certain trendy toy brand, in its 15th year, has surprisingly begun to reverse influence the sales logic of luxury goods.

Even in the capital market, there has been a somewhat magical moment: the stock price of a certain trendy toy brand has skyrocketed, with its K-line over the past few years almost resembling that of Bitcoin, which increased 20 times in 2017, and its market value even briefly surpassed that of luxury giant Gucci's parent company.

Looking back, the Hong Kong artist who created the Labubu character 10 years ago could hardly have imagined that this somewhat "strange" and furry sprite would now naturally become the most profitable IP, completely surpassing veteran IPs and becoming the undisputed center stage.

The Labubu co-branded model, originally priced at 599 yuan, can now be traded in the secondary market for 14,000 yuan, an increase of over 20 times; a trendy sneaker co-branded with a certain brand has a transaction price in overseas markets reaching 2,000-3,000 USD, comparable to limited editions; specific limited series (such as "Big Into Energy" or the co-branded "Wings of Fortune") have seen prices soar due to aggressive designs and regional investment restrictions (such as limited to Thailand and Singapore).

We have witnessed the same generation redefining "ownership" in the way of two parallel universes.

In addition to "on-chain avatars" and "offline dolls", there is a more hidden, more permanent, and more actively traded "Consensus asset market" in the larger virtual space - game skins.

Although CS has been remade and renamed to CS2, it has existed for over 10 years before this, so when discussing the skins and accessories of this game, people still tend to casually use the name CS.

Half a month ago, the CS accessories market experienced a "collapse". According to data from a certain platform's CS accessories sector index, after about half a year of a prolonged bull market, the CS accessories market dropped 30% from its historical peak within a week, almost equivalent to a "312" crash in the cryptocurrency market.

According to a report from a certain media outlet, by the end of April this year, the total market value of CS skins has exceeded 4.5 billion USD. According to data from a certain tracking platform, in the first four months of 2025, over 113 million skin cases were opened in the CS game. If we calculate based on each skin case key costing 2.49 USD, players contributed nearly 300 million USD in revenue to the game company just from opening CS skins in the first four months of 2025.

Like a certain trendy toy brand, the CS accessory market also took ten years to enter the public eye.

"When CS was first launched, there was no introduction of in-game items and the item market mechanism, and it can be said that skins saved this game." Cookie is both an NFT and a veteran player of CS: "Although this may sound a bit retrospective, it is true that many people who do not play CS have learned about this game because of the skyrocketing prices of items, so this game, which started to gain popularity during the Internet café era, has not fallen and remains popular to this day."

In August 2013, CS first introduced the item mechanism, and the gaming platform also supported the trading of CS items. Later, during the period when NFTs became popular,