"Always Be Mogging — The Complete Story Behind the Rise of MOG Culture"
In May, during the hype around Elon Musk's "grok," Musk changed his profile picture to a MOG-style image. Many influential figures followed suit, sparking a trend. Unfortunately, I was completely clueless at the time, only knowing that everyone was talking about MOG. It wasn't until later that I understood MOG was a top-tier meme that had started back in '23, much like Pepe, a pure representation of internet subculture. But as I delved deeper, I discovered that MOG/ACC has transcended the realm of memes and ascended to the level of tech philosophy. (Turns out, Musk's profile picture was handed to him by an cousin from the MOG community—an incredible contribution to the cause.)
"Background"
The meteoric rise of non-utility meme coins like Pepe, driven by their communities, ignited a frenzy for altcoins and meme coins. This proved that pure internet culture and community consensus could create immense value, leaving countless people eagerly anticipating the "next big meme coin." It was somewhat like when SHIB first exploded, drawing countless outsiders to learn about cryptocurrency. After all, while a myth of hundreds of thousands of times in returns is impossible to replicate, it's certainly captivating enough. Meanwhile, veterans like DOGE and SHIB still dominated the market cap rankings, but new themes like "cat coins" began to emerge. The cat-loving crypto community was eager to create its own legendary meme, inheriting the community entertainment spirit of Doge but blending it with new-generation subcultural symbols. MOG was born out of this environment.
"The Origins of MOG"
Name: The exact origin of the word "MOG" is hard to trace, but it can be dated back to bodybuilding forums and 4chan before 2010. Its predecessor, AMOG, is an acronym for "Alpha Male of the Group," initially used to describe someone who dominates others through physical appearance and advantages. Subsequently, the word "mog" evolved to refer to all forms of domination. Around 2011, Urban Dictionary added "mog," defining it as "to dominate or be better than someone."
Logo: Before the project officially launched, the proposed logo for MOG was a meme image combining Joe Biden's son with Pit Viper sunglasses. However, this idea was voted down by the community two days before launch, likely due to political considerations. Ultimately, the Joycat image designed by enjoyoor was adopted. This design, based on the "laughing-crying cat" emoji and adorned with distinctly 80s-style Pit Viper sunglasses, created a cute contrast that made the image more recognizable and easier to spread.
Meaning: The meaning of MOG has deepened with the community's growth. Initially, it represented "top-tier domination" based on appearance within male communities. Later, the community extended its interpretation to a kind of "effortless, cosmic-level conquest," proclaiming that holding MOG symbolized a playful conquest of life and success. Ultimately, its core idea was distilled into "continuously improving oneself and surpassing the past." As one community friend put it: "Mogging is a self-driven motivation, encouraging people to constantly refine themselves and become better." This unique spiritual core fundamentally distinguished MOG from other memes right from the start.
"An Accidental Birth"
On an untraceable day, in a private chat group within the Milady NFT community, people were chatting as usual when a few suddenly suggested, "Hey, should we launch a coin for fun?" Everyone took it as a joke, but after a few months of joking around, they actually launched a coin. It's worth noting that the relationship between Milady and MOG is subtle; even now, many moggers still use Milady NFTs as their profile pictures.
2023-07-19: The MOG team announced the project's launch on social media with a playful tone, calling
$MOG "the internet's first culture coin" and declaring, "MOG is not the next Dogecoin, because we're forging our own path!" They included the Joycat image with sunglasses and slogans like "Always Be Mogging," signaling their vision to become a trendsetter in crypto culture. This series of moves immediately set the crypto world ablaze, attracting attention and follow-up from numerous KOLs. Just like that, MOG burst into the crypto market with its powerful culture.
"An Anonymous Tide, A Silent Wildfire"
January 2024: For a period, a flood of formatted, spam-like posts began appearing on 4chan with the title "MOG > PEPE — last chance to join," accompanied by images of the cat with sunglasses and the hashtag "
#mogging." This template was copied across dozens of threads, creating the visual effect of "MOG is everywhere," giving the illusion that the entire community was rushing to buy in. Simultaneously, a large number of 4chan users began creating and sharing various MOG-related meme images, pushing the
#mogging hashtag to the top of trending lists on major social media platforms.
A word on 4chan. As a well-known anonymous imageboard that evolved from BBS, it has been the birthplace and propagation ground for countless meme cultures, the most famous and explosive of which is probably Pepe. MOG followed a similar path. As a key hub for MOG's cultural development, the spam-like promotion by countless 4chan users caused MOG's popularity to skyrocket, laying the foundation for subsequent and sustained hype.
"Mogging the White House"
2024-05-09: Donald Trump hosted a VIP appreciation dinner for NFT holders at his Mar-a-Lago estate. Frank and Malcolm from the DeGods team entered the core area wearing Pit Viper sunglasses, a symbol of the MOG community.
18:40: The VIP room warmed up as Trump entered the Q&A area and opened the floor for questions.
18:45: The historic question—Malcolm asked Trump: "How do you plan to support the continued growth of crypto businesses in the United States?"
18:46: Trump gave a decisive response: "Crypto is leaving, we have to stop it, we have to let it stay."
The Pit Viper sunglasses, along with this question, made headlines on major crypto media outlets like Decrypt, allowing MOG to achieve a true "breakout" moment. The
#GogglesMoment hashtag then swept across social media platforms, with the market widely viewing it as a watershed moment in the interaction between the crypto world and Washington. Many observers even believe that the immense attention brought by this "Goggles Moment" created a positive public opinion environment for the passage of the FIT21 regulatory bill and the approval of the spot Ethereum ETF. As one netizen commented: "That guy who asked the question wearing sunglasses single-handedly dragged the fate of cryptocurrency back to Washington." And this event is the perfect embodiment of the MOG spirit—facing challenges head-on, dominating everything. Always be mogging!
"A Year Turns, A New High"
Summer 2024: After a correction in April, MOG rallied again in June and July, riding the wave of its anniversary. As of July 22, its market cap peaked at $880 million, briefly breaking into the top 100 cryptocurrencies by total market cap. It thus became the ninth-largest memecoin, successfully securing a top-tier position in the memecoin sector. At the same time, the community celebrated its first anniversary in high style on Twitter, posting a tweet thanking the community for its support with the caption, "We've been mogging Twitter for a whole year, with many more to come!"
"Cross-Brand Collaboration with Pit Viper"
Pit Viper is a sunglasses brand known for its exaggerated, brightly colored eyewear, positioning itself around "goofball party culture." It has no official connection to the MOG team, but shortly after its launch, MOG incorporated Pit Viper sunglasses into its original logo, adding to its meme-worthy appeal.
2023-08-03: The official Pit Viper Twitter account curiously asked what
$mog was. It later posted again, providing its own address and asking the MOG community for a pizza. The MOG community responded immediately, ordering and sending a pizza, completing a humorous interaction.
2025-05-07: Almost two years later, MOG community members on platform X once again called on token holders worldwide to send pizzas to Pit Viper headquarters to celebrate Pizza Day. The MOG community made a friendly gesture, hoping for a collaboration with Viper. In response, Pit Viper's official account offered a one-time discount code, MOG69, for a 10% discount (on sunglasses, merchandise, etc.), valid for 6.9 hours (the number 69, if you know, you know). The MOG community quickly created a blue-background promotional graphic to spread the word for Viper and received a response (though the graphic did look a bit like a "clearance sale" banner, haha).
2025-05-08: The official Pit Viper Twitter account confirmed receipt of the gifts and added "horny moggles" to its bio, officially acknowledging and adopting MOG's cultural symbol. This three-day interaction perfectly completed a closed loop of "community-initiated event → brand leverages the momentum to respond → media continuously amplifies," not only giving MOG significant exposure among non-crypto users but also permanently linking the MOG and Pit Viper brands. It can be said that from this moment on, the brand officially and proactively endorsed and embraced MOG, transforming a grassroots community action into an officially supported collaboration.
"The MOG/ACC Foreshadowing—The Rise of Strawberry Bro"
Key Figure: Strawberry Bro—iruletheworldmo, username consists of three strawberry emojis, calls himself Strawberry Bro, the Prophet.
Discussion Hub:
/r/Singularity, a Reddit community dedicated to discussing the "technological singularity" and related cutting-edge tech topics. Characteristics: hardcore, geeky, truth-seeking.
Background: In early August 2024, cutting-edge AI information was the biggest traffic driver. With the release dates for new products from OpenAI and xAI unconfirmed, the community was desperate for verifiable information, and any "internal leak" was bound to be over-amplified.
2024-07-12: A Reuters news report stated: OpenAI's Project Q* was renamed Project Strawberry. Strawberry Bro went on a posting frenzy, spamming strawberry emojis to brand himself as the "Strawberry Prophet." In his narrative, he equated strawberries with OpenAI by default.
2024-08-07: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman tweeted that he liked summer in his garden (the accompanying picture of strawberries sparked associations with Strawberry Bro). Later, Strawberry Bro tweeted, hinting at new AGI news from OpenAI. Here's the key part: shortly after, Altman replied to Strawberry Bro, "amazing tbh," which was widely seen as an official endorsement.
2024-08-10: Strawberry Bro posted again, hinting that "sus" was related to OpenAI, creating an "I'm a prophet, I'm giving you an inside scoop" vibe. Combined with the immense traffic around AI information at the time, many people on the Reddit board began heatedly discussing Strawberry Bro's statements.
2024-08-14: xAI announced Grok-2 and admitted that "sus" was an early version of Grok-2 (not OpenAI's), debunking Strawberry Bro's so-called prophecies/inside info. At the same time, the /r/Singularity board posted a pinned announcement: Strawberry Bro's related Reddit accounts were banned, identified as a source of "misinformation/phishing."
2024-08-15: A mysterious female voice, "Lily," appeared in a Twitter Space. Strawberry Bro stirred the pot, claiming "this is a live demo of GPT-5," which caused an explosion on Reddit. Countless people speculated that AGI had arrived and might surpass humanity, attracting massive tech media attention. It was later confirmed not to be GPT-5, and certainly not AGI.
2024-08-16: AI blogger Marie Haynes published a long article, "How I Got Played by Strawberry Bro," mocking herself for falling for it. The media, for the first time, extensively named Strawberry Bro for manipulating public opinion.
2024-08-25: New York Magazine published a long-form report, "The AI Guys Are Driving Themselves Mad," naming Strawberry Bro and packaging the "Strawberry Bro Lily" saga as a case study of AI scams/performance art in the social media age. With this, Strawberry Bro became a viral sensation.
(My personal theory: I think Strawberry Bro is an OpenAI employee, a tool used by Altman for hype. It seems to have worked well so far. Although GPT-5, AGI, etc., haven't been released as expected, the hype has been maxed out.)
"The Emergence of MOG/ACC"
Quick Fact: Accelerationism is a theory originating in the 1990s that initially advocated for abandoning anthropocentrism and allowing technology to develop autonomously and radically. Over time, the theory evolved into five main schools of thought: L/Acc, R/Acc, E/Acc, U/Acc, and T/Acc. Today's protagonist is e/acc—Effective Accelerationism. A quick aside on u/acc, known as Unconditional Acceleration, which advocates for indiscriminately pushing all forms of acceleration without political or moral constraints, regardless of risk or outcome, pursuing only the process of acceleration itself. A classic quote is "Destruction is inevitable—enjoy it."
E/acc, on the other hand, is more rational and practical. It's a newer theory that emerged in the 2020s and is more pragmatic than traditional accelerationism. E/acc emphasizes the application and implementation of technology, ensuring risks are manageable and goals are clear. It opposes procrastination and leans towards technological utilitarianism. This theory is particularly favored in Silicon Valley's artificial intelligence circles. Although accelerationist theory has been developing for thirty years, it was mainly popular among researchers and AI experts. It wasn't until the explosion of MOG that this once-obscure concept truly entered the public consciousness and became a widely known theory.
2025-05-02: It was rumored online that on the night of May 2nd, Strawberry Bro posted a message hinting, "Pit Viper Joycat incoming, mog/acc is real," suggesting that a profile picture changing trend was imminent.
2025-05-05: Elon Musk changed his profile picture to a MOG style, with the caption: "nice." This directly kicked off the MOG/ACC wave and drove up the price of MOG.
2025-05-06: The founder of e/acc publicly joined the profile picture trend, a move that signified Effective Accelerationism's formal acceptance and embrace of MOG ideology. Shortly after, YC President Garry Tan also changed his profile picture with the caption "Always be mogging," completely extending MOG/ACC's influence from the crypto circle to the Silicon Valley startup scene. That night, the MOGPFP bot went live, allowing one-click creation of MOG-style profile pictures, which completely detonated the trend.
2025-05-07: Several media outlets published in-depth articles describing MOG/ACC as a "combination of personal-level domination and technological accelerationism," pointing out that the profile picture changes by tech giants like Musk were, in fact, public endorsements of this emerging philosophy.
2025-05-08~10: More and more tech companies and Web3 projects joined the profile picture trend, implicitly promoting the MOG/ACC concept and causing the
$MOG market cap to soar by 130% in a single week.
2025-05-11: Strawberry Bro published a thousand-word essay, systematically articulating the "human-machine race" philosophy of MOG/ACC for the first time. This provided a perfect theoretical summary for the surging wave, attracting immense attention and officially making him the spokesperson for MOG/ACC.
Strawberry Bro created two successful viral events in two years, demonstrating precise control over internet traffic. Last year, he played with the entire internet's attention by creating an identity mystery and leveraging the endorsement of OpenAI's founder. This year, he cleverly capitalized on the MOG community's profile picture trend, following in the footsteps of giants like Musk, and established his authority in the MOG/ACC field with an in-depth essay. Mainstream media reports on MOG/ACC now automatically associate his name with it. From manipulating the internet to leveraging traffic from all sides, Strawberry Bro's success perfectly embodies MOG (domination) and has elevated MOG/ACC from a simple internet meme to a "human competitive strategy in the age of technological acceleration."
Finally, to summarize, what exactly is MOG/ACC? Why did it go viral?
It is the perfect fusion of MOG's "powerful domination culture" and the theory of Effective Accelerationism. It is no longer just an internet culture, but a philosophy for facing the future. In today's era of rapid AI development, many worry about AI gaining self-awareness and even surpassing humanity. MOG/ACC offers a response: engage in "competitive evolution" alongside technological acceleration. It encourages people to adopt the MOG "domination" mindset, fully embrace technological acceleration, and compete with AI. This competition, in turn, forces human self-improvement, and upgraded humans can then provide more value to AI, ultimately achieving a virtuous cycle of "AI and humans accelerating together," while also mitigating the fear of AI surpassing humanity.
Regarding MOG/ACC, I didn't think much of it at first, until a community OG sent me a series of tweets about it, detailing Strawberry Bro and the MOG/ACC philosophy. Only then did I slowly understand the term. As for Musk and a host of Silicon Valley tech leaders changing their profile pictures and chanting the slogan, it's far more than just internet culture hype. It's because they see MOG/ACC as the survival philosophy for the future of high-speed technological development. This is especially true for Musk, a tech fanatic whose companies—SpaceX, Tesla, xAI—all embody the MOG/ACC ideals of competitive evolution, self-improvement, and technological optimism. Musk's act of changing his profile picture to a MOG one lent stronger credibility to the MOG/ACC culture, prompting more influential figures to join this revolution. Following his lead, a host of tech figures, led by YC's Garry Tan, jumped on the bandwagon. These tech leaders are themselves actively pushing for technological acceleration, and they must also confront the potential risks posed by AI. MOG/ACC happens to offer a perfect solution: compete while accelerating, evolve through competition. This is the core reason why countless moggers are bullish on
$MOG. If the future of technology truly develops in this direction, MOG will completely shed its meme limitations and ascend to a code of conduct. In that case, as the memecoin that popularized this concept, to what heights will the value and influence of
$MOG reach?
"MOG from 2007?"
2007-04-24: As shown in the picture, a blogger named ChadJohnston posted a tweet with a link and the word "mog."
2024-02-27: As shown in the picture, the same blogger reappeared, replying to the original "mog" tweet.
A tweet that spans seventeen years?A transmigrator? I won't speculate too much, just putting this out there as an interesting record.
1. The original link corresponding to the short link in that old tweet was
mog.com/Anna/blog_post/33260, but the information is unknown and the link is dead.
2. On 2024-02-27, the market cap was around $100m. Ten days later, it surged to its first minor peak of $500m. The content from '07 is unverifiable, but that day in '24 became the ignition point...
"Mog or get mogged?"
At the end of last year, the
$MOG market cap once hit a peak of $1.5b, becoming a top trend in the crypto market for a time. However, due to profit-taking, a market downturn, and the impact of Trump launching his own coin, MOG plummeted, bottoming out at $100m on April 7th, a 90% drop. Although I didn't experience it firsthand, the process must have been filled with endless doubt, anger, and ridicule. Yet, when faced with the test of "give up or fight back," the moggers chose to hold on. Upholding the spirit of "Mog on," they continued to spread MOG culture and build the community, ultimately stabilizing the foundation. Then, in May, MOG, in its new form as MOG/ACC, achieved a perfect rebirth. As a community member said: "We've witnessed so many people come and go, and we've seen the market's ebbs and flows. Everything changes, but the one thing that remains is the eternal spirit of MOG." MOG is special because from its inception, it was more than just an internet culture; it was like a philosophy of action. Its core concept is in line with its root, AMOG (Alpha Male of the Group), representing the aspiration to be the absolute best in a group. For moggers, MOG provides spiritual guidance, and its community is a platform full of positive energy where people encourage each other, share experiences, and always maintain a mindset of "dominance, power, and courage to move forward." "Always Be Mogging" is by no means an empty slogan; it is a survival strategy in the torrent of technology. It encourages people to take action and continuously improve themselves, or risk being surpassed by others. Before the next wave comes, prepare yourself: MOG or get MOGGED!
I would like to sincerely thank all the members of the MOG community. For this research, I DMed seventy community friends. It was my first time trying this, and I was worried about being reported for harassment, but it turns out my fears were unfounded. The friends in the MOG community were very enthusiastic. After learning that I was writing a documentary article, they eagerly shared a large amount of metadata and personal opinions, helping me to understand MOG culture and the evolution of MOG/ACC more comprehensively and deeply, ensuring the integrity and authenticity of the text. In the process of learning from them, I read a large number of tweets about MOG culture (including culture, background, celebrity effects, community spirit, etc.), which also made me realize that "community building" is not about chanting slogans every day, but about taking action—consistently writing articles, creating graphics, editing videos—to educate more people about the cultural concepts and spread the MOG spirit, thereby continuously strengthening the community. Even community members with less influence did not give up; they too were doing what they could to contribute to the community. This phenomenon is not unique to the MOG community; it also exists in communities like PEPE, FLOKI, and WIF. This is a true reflection of "Everyone is mogging!" Finally, I sincerely hope that the MOG spirit will be recognized by more and more people, and that the MOG community will continue to grow. In time, MOG/ACC may become one of the main themes of our era.
A special thank you to three friends:
@glebble and
@scrantly – they were the first chaps I met in the mog community. They offered their help right from the very beginning, all the way through to reviewing my final draft, and even recommended several other community members, giving me the privilege of connecting with some of the OGs. And also to
@DefiRabbitHole – a true OG who has been building since 2023 and provided me with a great deal of information from early tweets. The help from these three has been immense, and I want to express my sincere gratitude.
At the same time, I'd like to thank all the friends in the community who provided information, suggestions, and encouragement during the writing process (see the image below/replies for a list of names). Your participation has made this "History of mog" much more complete.
#Mog