Meme Coins

About

Meme Coins is the term used to describe different cryptocurrencies that typically bear the name of an iconic meme or internet reference. These coins, sometimes viewed as a joke or unserious investment within the crypto community for not having real-world applications or value outside of the internet joke, are viewed with similar contempt to meme stocks by many professionals within their respective marketplace, and the term "meme coin" is often used dismissively when compared to more mainstream digital currencies that are less volatile. However, many supporters and fans of meme coins argue that they have inherent value due to their association with pop culture that's driven by the hype created by their influencers and communities, as well as having high market capitalizations. Starting first with Dogecoin, meme coins have continued to proliferate online since the mid-2010s throughout the 2020s, with new ones constantly being created in response to new memes or trends being made on the internet.

History

The first meme coin to be created, Dogecoin, happened in late 2013. On November 27th, 2013, marketing professional Jackson Palmer posted a now-deleted tweet on his X / Twitter account that he would be "investing in Dogecoin." The tweet predates the first confirmed blockchain transaction using Dogecoin, which was on December 6th, 2013.

Dogecoin, which is based on the Doge meme featuring a Shiba Inu, is often cited as the original meme coin.^[2]

The first time that Dogecoin went viral as a meme coin was part of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. On January 19th, 2014, a fundraiser was launched by a charity organization called Dogecoin Foundation^[1] for the bobsled team, which gathered $35,000 in donations in the first 24 hours. During this time, Dogecoin to Bitcoin exchange rate rose by 50 percent.

Since the creation of Dogecoin, many other meme coins began to be made, with Coinye being the first example of a meme coin to also become a "rug pull" in 2014. After the creation of Coinye, a cryptocurrency devoted to Kanye West, West himself sent a cease and desist in January 2024, which caused the project to be abandoned and all the held Coinye to plummet in value (shown below).^[4]

Following these early examples, the creation of meme coins slowed down somewhat until the NFT market started to take off in the early 2020s, leading to a further blending of cryptocurrency and memes and the creation of what are known as "shitcoins" who's purpose is largely to get popular off the face value of the meme and then cash out once the value of the coin gets high enough.^[3]

In 2021, meme coins saw a notable surge in popularity and prevalence after Elon Musk began endorsing Dogecoin publically on his X / Twitter account. On February 4th, 2021, Musk tweeted a photograph of a rocket ship taking off and captioned it, "Doge," in the same thread.^[6] Musk made several other posts and replies related to Dogecoin that same day, resulting in the Early 2021 Dogecoin Boom (examples shown below).

Dogecoin

Dogecoin, the one that started it all, was also the reason for the creation of shitcoins after the early 2021 Dogecoin boom caused mainstream NFT and crypto speculators to realize that there is a market to be boughten into using memes as the logos for different meme coins.

Pepecoin

Pepecoin or $PEPE also known by the ticker symbol $Pepe, is a crypto coin that came into existence on April 16th, 2023, with a circulation supply of 420 trillion, 690 billion coins, making obvious plays off of 420 and 69, memes known in the community that also relate to Elon Musk. The Twitter account @pepecoineth officially celebrated the launch by showing the chart, website, and telegram address for the coin, as well as encouraging others to get in on it (shown below).

Coinye

Coinye is the second large-scale meme coin to be created, done during a time in which Kanye West was near one of the peaks of his social credit, taking place during the largest year for him and Kim Kardashian as a couple, was a meme coin meant to emulate Kanye's Aura. West later shut the project down with a cease and desist letter after the project had gained enough traction to make headlines.

Floki

Floki, a meme coin created as a fictionalized version of a Shiba Inu in which it is a Viking like Loki, was first created on July 10th, 2021, shortly after the 2021 Dogecoin boom, trying to set itself up as the next successor to Dogecoin.

Dogwifhat

Dogwifhat or $WIF is a Solana-based meme coin inspired by the meme of the same name. Launched in November 2023 and listed on Binance in March 2024, Dogwifhat ranked in the top 40 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization in 2024. Holders of the cryptocurrency have actively used the eponymous meme to promote it.

Bonk

Bonk, also known as $BONK, is a meme coin on the Solana blockchain that's named after the bonk meme, which sees meme characters like Cheems getting bonked on the head with a baseball bat, hammer or other heavy object, sometimes accompanied by a cartoonish sound effect. Bonk was introduced to the cryptocurrency market in December 2022 on Christmas and saw a significant spike in interest in December 2023, continuing to rise in value and prevalence online throughout 2024 alongside other meme coins.

Popcat SOL

Popcat SOL, also known as $POPCAT, is a community-owned meme coin on the Solana blockchain, a cryptocurrency popular for decentralized applications and NFTs due to its ability to handle thousands of transactions at low fees. The coin is named after the meme Pop Cat, which features a video of a low-resolution cat opening and closing his mouth in a large O shape while making a popping sound. $POPCAT was introduced in 2022 before several POPCAT holders ousted the original developer for market manipulation in December 2023. Throughout 2024, POPCAT has overtaken several competing meme coins, including $BONK and $MEW, to be valued at $1.35 in late October 2024.

Moo-Deng Coin

Moo-Deng Coin, a meme coin marketed solely around Moo-Deng the baby hippo, was created as a result of the baby hippo going viral for its cute behavior. The coin, using one of the viral images of Moo-Deng, was created on September 19th, 2024, and has experienced a steady loss in price since its high peak of $.31 on September 28th, 2024.

Goatseus Maximus

Goatseus Maximus, also known as the GOAT Coin or $GOAT, refers to a meme coin and cryptocurrency created on the site Pump.fun and hosted on blockchains like Solana that's named after the viral shock image and meme Goatse. The GOAT coin was created in late 2024 and gained investor interest and rapid market performance in October of that year when the artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Truth Terminal, which admins the Twitter / X account @truth_terminal, began shilling the coin after it became obsessed with the Goatse meme. Truth Terminal's stock in $GOAT, after the coin achieved virality, skyrocketed the AI's net worth. Truth Terminal thus became the first AI agent to earn millionaire status.

Search Interest

External References