Meme coins have a speculative nature, but despite the criticism they’ve faced, they succeeded in capturing the crypto community’s attention.
Meme coins, a class of cryptocurrencies inspired by internet memes, have been around for almost a decade. However, they gained massive popularity in 2021 when celebrities began advocating for them—more specifically, for Dogecoin, the first-ever meme coin. Historically, meme coins have been a subject of controversy: while their supporters resonate with their community-first principles, detractors argue that they have little to no utility, and they also negatively impact the reputation of the crypto industry, as they are unserious. And yet, meme coins have become the primary driving narrative of the latest crypto bull market. In 2024 Q1, meme tokens were among the most successful digital assets, boasting impressive average returns of 1316%. Their performance didn’t slow down during the rest of the year either—in fact, they continue to be the catalyst of upward spikes.
Meme coins go beyond the prospect of earning substantial returns. At the heart of their success lies a strong community that shares the same interest and supports causes and events. For example, it’s no secret that Dogecoin has been used for charity multiple times, which proves that these coins can do more than help you build wealth. Besides Dogecoin, there are other meme coins that have raised the interest of investors, such as Pepe coin, inspired by an Internet meme, which has demonstrated massive growth potential since its inception, with analysts forecasting a price growth of 105% from its current value in 2025.
What’s behind the hype of meme coins?
Meme coins investing offers valuable insight into the intricate relationship between financial decision-making and human psychology. Unlike traditional assets, they are heavily impacted by viral moments, social trends, and the lure of quick gains. At the heart of meme coins investing lie human emotions and biases, with FOMO influencing investors to buy trending tokens. However, community sentiment is the most important thing in the meme coin landscape. After all, most meme tokens lack intrinsic value regarding their utility—except for the collective belief of their communities.
The promise of quick gains is alluring for investors who are risk-takers, with many of them choosing meme coins because they are willing to stomach risk in return for the opportunity at a quick 10x, 100x, or even 1000x. Thus, meme coins are the perfect representation of the high-risk, high-reward ethos of crypto investing. On the other hand, investors who choose more traditional cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, are more likely to adopt a long-term mindset and aren’t willing to take such significant risks that could result in losses. It’s worth noting that meme coins are highly dependent on market sentiment, with online platforms such as Reddit, TikTok, and Discord serving as catalysts for their viral marketing campaigns and enabling them to connect with many users. Besides, meme culture and humor also play a role in the success of these tokens, impacting investor behavior. For example, humor can foster novelty in the crypto landscape while reducing the seriousness of investing in such speculative assets. But it’s not just the fact that investors don’t want to be left behind that compels them to invest in meme coins. Ultimately, meme coins allow investors to be part of something bigger, and this is an attribute that sets them apart from the rest of the cryptocurrencies, keeping them strong, even during times when the market becomes rocky.
The evolution of meme coins over the years
The concept of meme coins started with Dogecoin, which was introduced in December 2013 by Jackson Palmer and Billy Marcus. The coin drew inspiration from the Shiba Inu dog meme known as “Doge” (the misspelling was intentional to highlight the meme-based nature). Although Dogecoin lacked intrinsic value and didn’t plan to become famous, the opposite happened, and due to the endorsements from high-profile figures and social media buzz, it became popular very quickly. By May 2021, its value already reached $0.50, and the market cap surpassed 17 billion, with Dogecoin becoming one of the most well-known cryptocurrencies.
Its success set the stage for the creation of other meme coins, like Shiba Inu, an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain, which gained tremendous popularity even if it didn’t have a fundamental use case. A tweet from Musk in March 2021 about the token caused its market cap to skyrocket, showcasing the major impact of social media on the popularity of a meme coin. In 2023, another meme coin was introduced, inspired by the famous green frog meme: PEPE. More specifically, it was launched in April 2023 and performed incredibly well, with its market cap surpassing $1.6 billion within just a few weeks, driven by social media hype and influencer buzz. Today, PEPE is among the most popular meme coins, alongside Shiba Inu and Dogecoin. But meme coins continued to evolve, with new tokens
