Week in Meme Coins: Toshi or Not Toshi? Base Memes Are Back!

Base's $TOSHI soars 194%! TRUMP family meme drama! Breaking Bad star hacked! Let's unpack this wild week in memes 🧵

The week in meme coins was marked by extreme price volatility, with some coins surging while others faced sharp downturns.

Base’s meme coin TOSHI emerged as the biggest winner, notching up an almost unbelievable 194% surge. Most other meme coins—especially those on Solana—faced steep downturns.

Then, to top it all off, the fiery Trump meme coin saga took an unexpected turn. Meme coins and politics make for an interesting combination, but don’t be fooled into thinking it’s a harmless one.

Meme Coin Market Overview: Mixed Fortunes Across the Sector

In total, the meme coin sector saw a sharp 11% decrease in market capitalization, which now stands at $92.34 billion.

This shift happened as traders directed their capital to better-performing narratives such as DeepSeek AI, the upcoming Chinese New Year, and the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting. But there are exceptions to this downturn.

Base chain meme coins have conveniently shrugged off this bearish market sentiment and are up and running, performing quite well in a market that is otherwise struggling.

Headlining the efforts was TOSHI, which skyrocketed to 194.80%, marking a powerful comeback for Base ecosystem meme coins. The same cannot be said for Solana-based projects, which suffered heavy losses. POPCAT plunged by 39.57%, while PENGU dropped by 38.96%.

However, not all Solana memes struggled—BLUB, built on the SUI blockchain, gained 20%, proving that some projects still had bullish momentum.

Trump Family Meme Coin Drama Escalates

This week, the ridiculous political meme coin saga involving Donald Trump and his family reached new heights of absurdity.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) demanded a formal investigation into Trump-related meme coins, particularly TRUMP and MELANIA, expressing concern over possible financial misdeeds. Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump has fired off letters warning those behind the IVANKA token to stop their unauthorized use of her name—further escalating the situation and adding courtroom drama to it all.

Trump’s pastor for the 2025 inauguration, Lorenzo, decided to launch his own meme coin—LORENZO. This ridiculous trend of Trump-adjacent tokens just keeps getting weirder and raises the question of whether political figures might someday step in to regulate or (more likely) try to profit from the happening.

Security Breaches and Hacks Hit the Meme Market

It wasn’t only price fluctuations and political theatrics that were making news last week—we also had a number of very visible security incidents.

The most shocking of these was probably the hacking of Hollywood actor Dean Norris’s Twitter account. Norris, who is best known for his role in the hit series Breaking Bad, had his account taken over by a wretched band of cybercriminals who then proceeded to use Norris’s account to push a new, completely bogus investment vehicle called the “DEAN” meme token.

Another devastating attack aimed at the UFD founder, who lost 1 million in a wallet hack. With security risks ever-present, these incidents serve as a grim reminder of how necessary it is to manage wallets securely and to verify the legitimacy of any tokens one might invest in.

Even some of the biggest names in business weren’t safe from crypto hacking this week, as an unauthorized individual took over Visa’s official Facebook page and used it to attempt to mastermind some phishing.

Community and Ecosystem Developments

Even though the market is down and security is an issue, the meme coin community is more active and engaged than ever.

One of the standout recent events was SunPump’s CNY-themed giveaway, which sent not just participation but also engagement in the Base meme ecosystem into overdrive.

Base-based communities, meanwhile, just keep on coming, which is a pretty strong indicator of how grassroots support is building up for projects within the ecosystem.

While the prices of meme coins go up and down, stalwart communities of believers keep the momentum going, showing that the meme culture in crypto is far more than a bunch of guys sitting around making coin flip jokes. It’s a serious, potentially profitable space with a movement and a following.

Final Thoughts: What’s Next for Meme Coins?

The last week has been a topsy-turvy one for investors in meme coins, with large profits and steep losses hitting the headlines, along with the not-so-pleasant news of legal and security concerns.

Despite the looks of things, the Base meme coin space is more uncertain than ever. This is because the market right now is uncertain—distracted traders have moved on to AI and macroeconomic narratives.

Meanwhile, more and more institutions are keeping a closer eye on crypto. But what, then, with our meme coins? Where do they fit in? What will their future look like?

We can splice and dice a few questions and even come