jakiro
1. TL;DR
This article systematically sorts out the development history of meme coins, analyzes and reveals its unique value logic through typical cases: unlike traditional financial assets, the core value of meme coins is manifested as “cultural communication power × community consensus”, rather than relying entirely on technology or practical value.According to its evolutionary characteristics, it can be divided into three key development stages:
1.1. Break the ground / Touji (2013-2016) – Wild growth, big waves wash away the sand
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Short-term popularity: short-term popularity, lack of cultural precipitation, and rapid extinction.(such as Mooncoin, TIPS, Nyancoin)
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Victory General Type: Cultural Symbol + Community Driven, Long-term Survival.(such as DOGE)
1.2. Horizontal / Explosion (2017-2021) – In the era of smart contracts, meme coins usher in qualitative changes
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Meteor shining type: speculatively driven, the bubble bursts rapidly.(such as UET, HOGE)
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Star eternal type: ecological expansion, breaking limitations.(such as ShibaSwap of SHIB)
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Transformation breakthrough type: Trying to innovate, but due to various restrictive factors, progress is slow.(such as FLOKI’s meta-universe blueprint and SAMO’s public chain binding)
1.3. Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) – New narratives rise, and the market begins to reshuffle
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Short-term hype type: relying on hot spots, extremely high risks.(such as TRUMP’s political narrative boom)
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Eco-driven type: Relying on public chains, it will explode in a short term.(such as WIF, BONK)
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Narrative innovation: AI+ Meme, concept hype, trust crisis.(such as GOAT)
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Cultural symbol type: Internet celebrity IP, short-term popularity.(such as MOODENG)
Meme coins will continue to face the test of balance between “hype and substance”, and technological innovation (such as AI, DeFAI) and community building will become key factors.Although the market is undergoing adjustments, meme coins will remain unique in the cryptocurrency space as a typical product of the attention economy.
2. Looking back on history and count the context:
As one of the most unique existences in the cryptocurrency field, meme coins have both cultural attributes and financial characteristics.回顾 meme 币的历史，亦是在回顾互联网文化与金融投机的碰撞史。
From the ironic jokes at the beginning to the virtual currency that now occupies a place in the market, meme coins are using its experience to tell us that in today’s era, perhaps cultural resonance and community beliefs can drive value creation more than technical white papers.While the traditional financial world is still trying to create new value, Meme coins have reshape people’s perception of “value” itself.
(The picture is original / source from the Internet)
In an era dominated by social media, the speed and way information is spreading has fundamentally changed.A meme meme that is popular on Reddit or Twitter can get hundreds of millions of exposures worldwide in a few hours, and the power of this viral transmission is now directly translated into financial value.As the perfect carrier of this transformation, Meme coins write their own stories and legends on the coordinate axes based on time.
2.1. Break the ground / Tuoji (2013-2016) – When the weather is in full swing, the trendsetters bravely stand on the head; when the waves wash away the sand, the frustrated person leaves silently
This period witnessed the original innovation process of meme coins from zero to one, presenting a unique ecosystem of wild growth and natural selection.Taking the birth of DOGE in December 2013 as the landmark starting point, and by the maturity of Ethereum smart contract technology in 2016, it constitutes the purest and most authentic “Genesis Yuan” in the history of meme currency development.(Some data may come from historical forums or third-party archives due to limited disclosure of early cryptocurrency projects.)
Technically, with a few exceptions, the meme coins at this stage are almost all based on the code forks of Bitcoin or Litecoin.
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
In terms of market performance, historical data from CoinMarketCap shows that the average active cycle of meme coins born during this period was only 11.7 months, but survivors such as DOGE showed amazing vitality.
At the historical status level, the foundational significance of this stage cannot be underestimated.In fact, history tells us that true innovation is often born when the rules are not established, and this test field that has not yet formed a system from 2013 to 2016 has retained the most precious rebellious genes and innovative spirit for the cryptocurrency world.
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
2.2. Hollow / Explosion (2017-2021) – Amid the rise and fall of the tide, a wise man takes advantage of the momentum; where the wind and clouds change, the powerful will fail and sink to the sand
In the past five years, the market has witnessed the transformation of meme coins from marginal subculture to mainstream financial assets.With the popularization of ERC-20 standards in 2017 as the technical turning point, and by 2021 SHIB set a historical market value, meme coins have completed the qualitative change from “online jokes” to “phenomenal investment targets”.
In terms of technical dimensions, the maturity of smart contracts has completely reconstructed the issuance logic of meme coins.According to Ethereum on-chain data, most of the meme coins born between 2017 and 2021 choose to adopt the ERC-20 standard or rely on other protocols, and the issuance cost is reduced to less than one thousandth of a thousand (compared to tens of thousands of dollars in independent chain development).This technology democratization, like a double-edged sword, has spawned the craze of “everything can be meme”, but it also laid the hidden dangers of homogeneous competition.
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
At the same time, at the market narrative level, CoinGecko data shows that DOGE’s market value exceeded US$1 billion for the first time in December 2017, while the overall meme coin sector’s single-day trading volume exceeded US$30 billion at its peak in 2021, accounting for 12.3% of the entire cryptocurrency market.It is worth noting that the meme coins born at this stage have greatly improved their life cycle compared with the previous period.
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
But it should be noted that not all meme coins have higher survival rates and longer survival cycles. According to data from chainplay research report, the average death of meme coins in 2020 is the same monthly.
(Translation: According to data from the advanced cryptocurrency research tool AlphaQuest, in 2020, meme coin projects died on average every month. The meme coin’s death rate exceeded the creation speed of new projects. / Source: chainplay)
（图为 2017 年 12 月 DOGE 市值首次突破 10 亿美元 / 图源：coingecko）
Looking at the entire history of encryption, the most profound change in this period lies in the reconstruction of value cognition.When DOGE is included in mainstream exchanges such as Coinbase in 2021, and when the founder of SHIB is anonymous but can leverage the market value of 10 billion yuan, traditional finance has to re-examine the essence of meme coins – as revealed in the report “Meme Assets and Attention Economics” released by the MIT Institute of Technology in 2021: “The value capture mechanism of assets such as Dogecoin is essentially converting network attention into liquidity premium.”This cognitive shift laid a key foundation for the subsequent social finance experiments in the Web3 era.
2.3. Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) – When the tide is over, the true gold begins to appear; in the world of great struggle, the pattern will eventually be clear
Starting from 2022, the meme currency market has begun to make a deep adjustment from fanaticism to rationality.With the Terra collapse in May 2022 as a watershed and the rise of the BRC-20 standard in 2023 as a turning point, the meme currency ecosystem is undergoing a cruel and necessary revaluation of value.
According to CoinMarketCap statistics, the overall market value of meme coins shrank by 82% in 2022, but the leading projects DOGE and SHIB still maintain the market value rankings of the top 20.In a new report “State of Memecoin 2024” released by GameFi Market Data Center Chainplay (which researched and analyzed more than 30,000 meme coin projects in Ethereum, Solana and Base) pointed out that “97% OF MEMECOINS HAVE DIED” (97% of memecoin coins have died).The report also pointed out: “Different blockchain platforms show different meme coin mortality rates. Base leads with a mortality rate of 66.91%, followed by Solana’s 54.03% and Ethereum’s 36.59%.”
(Photo source: chainplay)
(Photo source: chainplay)
Even so, we should not underestimate or guess whether meme coins have reached the end of the story.The cryptocurrency market has always been full of variables. As one of the most distinctive categories, meme coins are difficult to measure with a conventional perspective.
As Mathew McDermott, head of Goldman Sachs Digital Assets, said: “Meme projects that can still be financed after 2023 must prove that they have long-term value capture capabilities beyond simple hype.” As a16z researcher pointed out: “This cold winter is filtering out speculative bubbles, and what will be left behind will be digital assets with real cultural endurance.” The future pattern may prove that meme coins that can cross cycles will eventually become a key bridge connecting the crypto world and popular culture.
3. Disassemble in blocks and dig deep into key details:
3.1. Break the ground / Toujia (2013-2016)
The currency of this stage can be roughly divided into the following categories based on its life cycle, community activity, market value changes, etc.:
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
3.1.1. A flash in the pan
In a rapidly iterative ecosystem driven by innovation, projects that lack sustained vitality are destined to be passers-by.They may attract market attention in a specific period, but they will eventually find it difficult to get rid of the “flash-for-shortness” fate.Although it is gorgeous when blooming, it is difficult to maintain its popularity for a long time.
3.1.1.1. Mooncoin—An unfinished dream of “moon landing”
As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan of “To the Moon”, its slightly short life failed to bear the ambition of this grand narrative.As Crypto Briefing said in 2015, “Mooncoin has no actual use cases related to space or moon landing besides its name.”
Looking back at its development trajectory from 2014 to 2018 (its final submission of GitHub was in 2018 (v1.8.0), almost marking the substantial demise of the project), mooncoin’s early performance was amazing: it set a record of more than 300% in the first year of launch; the Reddit community r/Mooncoin discussion volume exceeded 5,000 posts per month; it cooperated with the game platform Moonrocket (later the project platform went bankrupt); it was even called “the most serious joke coin” by Coindesk.
However, the highlights are a long silence: in 2015, the removal of mainstream exchanges caused the market value to fall by more than 90%; the following year, members of the anonymous development team announced “indefinite dormancy”; it was not until 2018 that the project ushered in a brief rebate – but this was not due to its own breakthrough, but due to two external factors: one is the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market (Bitcoin rebounded from US$13,000 to US$17,000 in Q1 2018, leading to a general rise in altcoins); the other is that SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket launches rekindled the “To the Moon” network meme, and the “Mooncoin Countdown to the Moon” spoof video (Over YouTube views exceeded 500,000) produced by community members unexpectedly brought traffic.
Unfortunately, Mooncoin failed to seize this last opportunity.The development team claimed to build a “Moon Base” meta-universe game, but the white paper was not implemented in the end, and even the so-called “meta-universe game” was just one Unity demonstration video.After that, as Bitcoin plummeted 60% in April 2018 and market enthusiasm faded, Mooncoin completely faded out of the stage.As Delphi Digital’s Cryptocurrency Cycle Report (2019) summarized: “This rebirth confirms the cruel law of Meme coins – projects that lack cultural precipitation, and any technological update is nothing more than a life-sustaining needle.”
(Photo source: Bijie.com)
(The picture shows the latest interactive post in the mooncoin community / Source: Reddit)
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
3.1.1.2. Fedoracoin (TIPS) – a niche “gentleman” identification
FedoraCoin (TIPS) was born on December 22, 2013. Its core is not to target the mass market, but to accurately lock in the subculture group of “Fedora-wearing neckbeard” on Reddit.This highly vertical positioning made it quickly popular in specific communities in the early stage, but also laid the hidden danger of subsequent development limitations.
At the technical level, TIPS adopted the Scrypt algorithm that was more common at the time, and the design that supported GPU mining made it quite friendly to ordinary users.This simple and practical architecture helped it quickly accumulate a group of loyal fans in the early stages.
At the same time, just two months after it went online, the r/Fedoracoin sub-forum on Reddit set an amazing record of more than 2,000 posts in a single day, making it one of the most active meme coin communities.
(The picture shows the most popular post in the community by popularity / Source: Reddit)
However, the good times did not last long, and TIPS soon encountered a similar dilemma as Mooncoin.Due to the lack of practical application scenarios, this project based on the subculture meme map has never been able to break through the limitations of cultural symbols.Since 2015, as mainstream exchanges such as Cryptsy and Bittrex have successively removed TIPS, their liquidity has declined sharply.It can be seen from the initial positioning of the product to serve a specific subcultural group. Although this method accurately matches the target users, this niche attribute also makes it difficult for it to expand a wider market and subsequent marketing.
Although TIPS prices rebounded briefly when the cryptocurrency market overall rebounded in 2018.But unfortunately, like mooncoin, TIPS failed to take this opportunity to turn things around.
During the period 2014-2016, FedoraCoin gradually lost market attention.By the end of 2018, TIPS’s GitHub repository stopped in v1.8.0, and the last transaction record on-chain stayed in November.In 2019, this once-popular project was officially included in the “Deadcoins List”.
(The picture shows the latest TIPS-related and non-other token advertisement in the community / Source: Reddit)
(Photo source: coinmarketcap)
What it leaves to the crypto world is not only a vivid case of subculture experiments, but also a mirror reflecting the essence of meme coins.
3.1.1.3. Nyancoin—A brief “rainbow” light and shadow
As the second meme coin after DOGE, Nyancoin had the unique identity of “the first official authorized cryptocurrency in history” less than a month after its release on January 6, 2014, but it lags far behind the former in terms of market influence.
As far as the nature of the project is concerned, this gap is first reflected in the differences in cultural genes: the “Nyan Cat” emoticon package on which Nyancoin is based is far less than the “Shiba Inu” Doge emoticon package of DOGE – most people may have never seen the Rainbow Cat before they came into contact with these two cryptocurrencies, but almost everyone has been swept by the magic Shiba Inu.
In addition, in the fields of application scenarios and development directions, the direct manifestation of this cultural awareness gap is that Nyancoin lacks some breadth and depth than DOGE.DOGE has built an application ecosystem covering multiple dimensions such as payment, rewards, and charity, while Nyancoin’s application scenarios mainly used for transactions are relatively single.
(Photo source: Internet)
As for external empowerment, Nyancoin’s community activity and external traffic are not ideal.This vicious cycle—weak community support leads to weak project development and stagnation further weakens community enthusiasm—ultimately leads to Nyancoin’s decline step by step.
Nyancoin’s community r/nyancoins has only 1.5k subscribers, and the last active post stayed two years ago.This community fault directly led to mainstream data platforms (such as CoinMarketCap; Coincarp, etc.) stop updating Nyancoin’s real-time data after 2019 – at that time its 24-hour trading volume had been under $10,000 for a long time, and liquidity exhaustion caused it to be gradually removed from the exchange.Nyancoin’s case is enough to prove a cruel market rule: in the age of attention economy, the blessing of top IPs is often more decisive than the technical characteristics of the project itself.
(Photo source: reddit)
(Photo source: reddit)
(Photo source: CoinMarketCap)
(The picture shows the market value change of Nyancoin / Source: Coincarp)
3.1.2. The ever-winning general type
3.1.2.1. Dogecoin (DOGE) – An unexpected “grassroots carnival”
Born on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin was originally just a parody of Bitcoin fanatic culture by programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, but unexpectedly evolved into the most lasting phenomenon meme coin in cryptocurrency history.Its iconic Shiba Inu image originated from the “Doge” emoticon package that was popular on the Internet in 2013. This innate high-popular Internet IP made it quickly become popular on platforms such as Reddit.
In terms of design concepts and original intentions, it did not emphasize complex technologies, proclaim revolutionary blockchain technology, or promise a grand vision like other cryptocurrencies, but instead used a cute Shiba Inu emoticon as a symbol and entered this increasingly fanatical field at that time in the most playful way.
(The picture shows the change in DOGE’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
Looking back at DOGE’s several peak market value, the market value soared to US$10 billion in early 2021 due to the retail investment boom and strong community promotion; in May of the same year, DOGE’s market value reached US$80 billion under the effects of its number one fan Musk’s continued call on social media platforms and the “Saturday Night Live” (SNL) program effect.
(Photo source: X)
(The picture shows the market value changes of DOGE 2021/2 / Source: coingecko)
(The picture shows the market value changes of DOGE 2021/5 / Source: coingecko)
Although DOGE’s popularity and price fell and even entered a downward trend in the following years, the overall market trend was relatively stable and it still maintained a certain influence and popularity in the cryptocurrency field.It was not until November 12, 2024 that Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would co-lead the newly formed “Doctor of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) with the aim of cutting government spending.But the official abbreviation of this new department, “DOGE”, is exactly the same as the code name of Dogecoin, which has sparked heated discussions in the crypto community.Although Musk then clarified on the X platform that the two were not related, given his consistent style of conduct and his long-term admiration for DOGE, it is generally believed that this abbreviation choice is by no means accidental.
There are many interpretations of this intriguing naming coincidence: some people speculate that this is a clever arrangement of Musk’s attempt to bridge the cryptocurrency market and the political stage; some people think that this may be the foreshadowing to revive the popularity of the DOGE market; of course, it may also be just an interesting coincidence, as he himself said.What kind of real intentions are hidden behind this dramatic naming event? Perhaps only time can give the final answer.But it is undeniable that this incident once again highlights DOGE’s unique position in cryptocurrency culture and the subtle relationship between Musk and DOGE.
DOGE’s development history perfectly demonstrates the two sides of meme coins: on the one hand, it creates a financial miracle driven by ordinary netizens; on the other hand, it also exposes the risk that such currencies are prone to becoming speculative tools.
But what is admirable is that even when the entire meme currency market was in a downturn in 2025, DOGE still maintained a trading volume of more than US$1 billion per day, and its market value ranking is still stable in the top ten.Moreover, its community activity still has amazing vitality. I believe that this advantage can always be transformed into market momentum at critical moments, and then feed back with it, eventually forming a virtuous cycle.
It has to be admitted that this digital currency, which was originally created as a joke, has now become a unique and lasting existence in the cryptocurrency world.
(The picture shows DOGE’s market value ranking, as of 2025/5/9 Picture source: CoinMarketCap)
(Photo source: reddit)
Although the meme coins during this period showed two completely different life cycles and survival states, it is undeniable that they all have their own glorious years. Although the former’s market performance may not be grand and its popularity is far less than the latter, in the long history of the development of meme coins, these projects still leave a clear mark of the times and become an important milestone to witness the evolution of meme coins culture.Their rise and fall not only reflects the market’s continuous exploration of the meme currency model, but also provides valuable lessons for latecomers, leaving its own unique mark on the development map of cryptocurrencies.
3.2. Hole / Explosion (2017-2021)
After entering 2017, meme coins began to shift from simple joke coins to more complex ecological development. Some projects tried to combine new concepts such as DeFi and NFT, but they were still dominated by speculation and community-driven.According to the classification basis of the previous article, the currencies of this stage can be divided into the following categories:
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
3.2.1. Meteor shining type
Similar to the “flash-of-the-pan” mentioned in the previous article, they all have almost the same development trajectory and historical trends – they fall rapidly after a short-term outbreak, and then pass by like a meteor.Such currencies usually rely on speculative sentiment and short-term hot peaks rather than practical applications or community consensus.
3.2.1.1. Useless Ethereum Token (UET, 2017)
As the most honest scam in crypto history, UET was launched by developer “UselessEthereumToken” (anonymously) on June 17, 2017 at the craziest period of the ICO (initial token offering) bubble, directly stated on its official website: “This is a worthless token, and buying it is a waste of money.”
Is this anti-routine marketing or performance art financing?UET’s project party publicly acknowledged that the token has no functions, no team, no roadmap, and even the official website FAQ wrote: “Why should I buy this token? – You don’t need it.”
And its signs also deepen the irony. This challenge of the norm and breaking the existence of existing theorems has really brought an interesting fork in the cryptocurrency field.
(Photo source: X)
With such no concealment of its “uselessness”, UET still raised 310 ETH (about $93,000 at the time) in 48 hours, becoming one of the most absurd ICO cases in history.
When it comes to its token mechanism, it is a naked “self-explosion” design.It can be said that 100% honest economics has been implemented, and the total UET supply is fixed at 1 billion, with no additional issuance or destruction.All the recruited ETH was transferred to the developer’s address and no purpose was promised.At the same time, its zero-tech packaging and official Easter eggs all always strengthen the performance of this absurd drama: technically based on the most basic ERC-20 standard, no smart contract function, and no transfer restrictions are even opened.
Although UET’s uncovered attitude is shocking, the market response is not entirely negative.UET found its “soul” in the market and gained a group of followers. In the early stages of its launch, some exchanges (such as EtherDelta) launched UET due to curiosity, and the price briefly soared by 800%.Some Reddit netizens even launched the “UET challenge” – to see who can convince others to take over the most ridiculous reasons.
But soon, after the brief speculative carnival ended, UET also ushered in its own crisis and difficulties.First, in early 2018, security researchers discovered that there was a fatal vulnerability in UET smart contracts. Since then, the vulnerability has been exploited, UET prices plummeted and market value evaporated.After the 2018 bear market, UET liquidity dried up and was eventually labeled as a “failed project” by CoinGecko in 2020.
(Photo source: Internet)
(Photo source: CryptoRank)
This absurd success also seems to confirm the irrational qualities of the crypto market – despite UET’s explicit self-denial, the market will still pay for the vain narrative.When “worthless” can be a selling point, the fanatic period belonging to this field has just begun.
3.2.1.2. Hoge Finance (HOGE, 2021)—A community-driven deflation experiment
HOGE, which was born on the Ethereum blockchain in 2021, has its core positioning not to subvert new technologies, but to build a unique token economy through deflationary models and community governance.Each transaction automatically destroys 1% of the tokens while allocating 1% to the holders in an attempt to drive value growth with scarcity.This design also does attract a large number of retail investors, making it one of the most active community tokens in the near term.
Unlike other cryptocurrencies, HOGE emphasizes and implements the concept and method of “decentralization” to allow community members to decide the direction of project development through voting.This unique community-driven approach drives the rapid development of the community and has enabled HOGE to gain enough attention in the cryptocurrency market.At the same time, as DOGE has done, HOGE is also passionate about charity and committed to funding animal welfare projects, which has once again gained a lot of popularity and support.These popularity and support are directly reflected in the data, and HOGE’s discussion is active on large cryptocurrency forums and social media platforms.
(Photo source: Reddit)
However, similar to other similar projects, HOGE’s bottleneck quickly emerged: although the start was a hit, the lack of practical application scenarios led to its long-term reliance on speculative sentiment, and ultimately failed to break through the limitations of meme coins, and after the price fell, it showed a long-term downturn.
(The picture shows the change of HOGE’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
During the market winter in 2022, HOGE prices fell by more than 90% from their peak, and liquidity gradually shrank.Although the community tried to promote marketing gimmicks such as “Space Project” to boost popularity, it has never been able to turn the tide.As of 2024, its GitHub updates were stagnant and on-chain activity was significantly reduced, becoming another case from fanaticism to silence.
The rise and fall of HOGE reveals the core contradiction of the deflationary Meme currency: short-term speculative consensus is difficult to transform into long-term value.Its historical significance lies in proving the potential of community autonomy, but it also exposes the fatal wounds of lacking a technical moat – when market sentiment recedes, destruction mechanisms and slogan-like narratives alone cannot maintain fundamental vitality.
3.2.2. The star eternal shape
3.2.2.1. Shiba Inu (SHIB, 2020)—A transformation from meme carnival to ecological ambition
Shiba Inu, born in August 2020, was originally just a meme coin parody of DOGE on the Ethereum chain, with an issuance of up to 1,000 trillion coins. The nearly zero value setting makes it regarded as a “joking coin”.However, in May 2021, Musk’s tweet “Looking for Shiba Inu” ignited the market, and SHIB soared 1,200% in a single day.Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated over 50 trillion SHIB tokens to the COVID-Crypto relief fund in India, and then destroyed 45% of the SHIB coins, dramatically pushing it to the altar.This “destruction storm” not only created a scarcity narrative, but also made SHIB jump from garbage altcoins to the king of annual gains.
The early success of SHIB comes from its unique “rebel” character – claiming to be a “dogcoin killer” and even the community name is “SHIBArmy”, which quickly gained a large number of fans and supporters.As of May 2025, its community activity is still not low.
(Photo source: Reddit)
But it is not enough to rely solely on these popularity. What makes it different from other meme coin projects at this historic fork and has its long-term value is the “Shib ecosystem” gradually built by the team: decentralized exchange ShibaSwap, Layer2 network Shibarium, and token burning mechanism.This “meme shell + practical kernel” strategy has allowed it to successfully get out of the common traps and difficulties of meme coins.
(The picture shows the change in SHIB’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
Today, SHIB is at a crossroads: on the one hand, the open and secret struggle between DOGE and SHIB continues to be expected by everyone in 2025; on the other hand, the divergence of emerging meme coins (such as Solana Dogwifhat) has made “de-dogcoinization” a new proposition.Its story may also tell us that the way to get new life is not to wait for opportunities in the times, but to create new opportunities.
3.2.3. Transformation breakthrough type
3.2.3.1. Floki Inu (FLOKI, 2021)
Perhaps for the cryptocurrency field, dogs, especially Shiba Inu, seem to have unique significance and innate popularity.
Floki Inu was born in June 2021 and was inspired directly from a Twitter Twitter by Musk – he named his Shiba Inu “Floki”.This accidental naming gave birth to a canine-themed meme coin and quickly sparked a craze on platforms such as Reddit and Telegram, with many fans and supporters.It is more worth mentioning that unlike most short-lived meme coins, FLOKI’s ambitions are far more than simply hot topics, but rather trying to further rebrand and build a huge ecosystem covering DeFi (FlokiFi), NFT, Metaverse (Valhalla Metaverse Game), Floki Trading Bot, University of Floki, TokenFi, Floki Staking and even physical charity.(Source: Official White Paper)
In terms of market performance, FLOKI’s price trajectory can be a microcosm of the changes in the times: at the end of 2021, it reached an all-time high of $0.00034 with the bull market, and then plunged by more than 90% in the 2022 bear market.In 2024, as the meme currency market recovered, FLOKI rebounded again, and its market value once ranked among the top 50, but it never broke through the dominance of SHIB and DOGE.(As of 2025/5/9 Ranking 76)
(The picture shows the price change of floki / Source: CoinMarketCap)
(The picture shows the change in floki’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
Although the FLOKI team tried hard to downplay its meme origins, turning to the “utilitarian token” narrative, emphasizing brand reshaping, the slow-moving Valhalla game and limited FlokiFi adoption rate exposed the shortcomings of its ecosystem implementation.But FLOKI is improving its game, constantly adopting outside opinions and making adjustments in an attempt to revive the Valhalla gamer base.While this makes Valhalla NFT one of the most successful NFTs during the 2021 boom, it has very limited presence on OpenSea in 2024.
Faced with multiple survival difficulties and challenges, FLOKI is still constantly trying and breaking through.In addition to launching derivatives, FLOKI is also seeking more exposure for itself, hoping to boost the confidence of users and followers.In May 2024, FLOKI issued a statement saying that it had reached a cooperation with Biance and had a dedicated payment interface.Despite this, there are still voices of dissatisfaction in the market and call it “high volatility speculative assets.”
FLOKI 的未来将在进化与消亡之间诞生，如何平衡 meme 币的社区狂热和项目的可持续生态建设是属于它背后团队的命题。In its futuristic style, is it a replica of the transformation path of another successful dog or to take its own path of beauty?In this era of continuous acceleration of iteration, it will either become the next legend in evolution or become the next “Viking-style adventure” after its demise.
(The picture shows a statement about Biance Pay / Source: X)
(The picture shows a new improvement in its game / Source: X)
3.2.3.2. SAMO (Samoyedcoin, 2021) – A “mascot” of the Solana ecosystem
Born in the 2021 Solana ecological outbreak, Samoyedcoin quickly became popular with its cute Samoyeddog image.Unlike other meme coins, SAMO has carried the halo of “Solana official mascot” since its birth. This special positioning makes it unique among many goose tokens.
(The picture is the background picture of the official account / Source: X)
Unlike DOGE or SHIB with a spoof, SAMO tries to find a balance between entertainment and practicality.In terms of technical architecture, SAMO fully utilizes the low handling fee advantages of Solana chain and launches gameplay such as staking mining and NFT series.Its economic model of “destroy + buyback” (more than 66% of tokens destroyed) attempts to implant scarcity narratives in the meme carnival.At the end of 2021, with the explosion of the Solana ecosystem, SAMO’s market value once exceeded US$500 million, becoming one of the most active meme tokens on the chain.
(The picture shows the change in SAMO’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
However, the peak of 2021 is hard to reach after all, and the multiple downtimes in Solana chain in 2022 caused SAMO to suffer a heavy blow.Although the team tried to transform into “Solana Ecological Ambassador” and launched the “SAMO Visa Card” to implement the offline payment plan and cross-chain bridging function of Meme coins, the “mascot” label that once brought advantages has always restricted its development limit.As of 2024, its GitHub update frequency has slowed down significantly and even stopped updating, and its ecological construction lags behind emerging Solana meme coins such as Bonk in the same period.
SAMO’s dilemma reflects the double-edged sword effect of the deep binding of meme coins to the public chain: when Solana is thriving, it is a symbol of ecological prosperity; when the public chain encounters crisis, it is the first to become a victim.This Samoyed, wearing the “official certification” hat, is proving that even the mascot of the blockchain world is difficult to withstand the rapid fluctuation of popularity and attention by the wave of the times.
3.3. Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025)
After polishing and screening in the previous two periods, the meme coins in this stage are obviously more systematic and mature, but they are still trapped in new problems.Their issuance relies more on public chain ecosystems (such as Solana, Base), and new narratives such as political finance (PolitiFi), AI, etc.It is mainly divided into the following categories:
(The picture is original; source from the Internet)
3.3.1. Short-term hype
3.3.1.1. Trump (TRUMP, 2025)—A absurd marriage between politics and encryption
On January 17, 2025, then-US President Trump announced the launch of his personal meme coin $TRUMP on Truth Social and X. The token pattern originated from his iconic image of waving his fist when he failed to assassinate in 2024, with the slogan “Join My Trump Community”.This political token with the image of US President Trump cleverly combines election fanaticism with crypto speculation, creating an eye-catching market performance in a very short period of time.
Unlike ordinary meme coins, TRUMP has had a distinct political stance since its birth.Its supporters call themselves “MAGA Army” and launched the “Buy Trump Coin” campaign on social media, viewing token holdings as political support for Trump.This unique value proposition has made it spread rapidly among conservative voters, with a market value of over 10 billion US dollars at one point, becoming the top three meme coins.
(The picture shows the change in TRUMP’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
However, TRUMP’s surge and plummet perfectly replicates the dramatic qualities of its politician of the same name.As the election situation changes, token prices often fluctuate by more than 50% in a single day.What is even more worrying is that the project party has never fulfilled its promise to build a “decentralized political donation platform”, and the “blockchain voting system” described in the white paper has also disappeared.It is not so much an organic combination of politics and crypto markets, but rather a political means covered with financial skins.Zero-tech narrative makes TRUMP lack smart contract innovation, and its survival or failure depends entirely on Trump’s own IP effect and the pursuit and craze of supporters.Even when the institution criticized “using the presidential power for profit”, his eldest son Eric claimed that “this is the future of finance.”
As if to prove the game rules of heat, that is, temperature, the good times of TRUMP are not long.As market sentiment gradually recedes and diversion of the anime (his wife, Melania coin $MELANIA), the price of TRUMP plummeted and has continued to be sluggish for some time since then, with occasional rebounds but overall trends are on the decline.
(The picture shows the change in MELANIA’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
This decline continued until April 2025. Due to the relevant friendly policies and the ecological recovery of the public chain Solana, the public chain behind it, internally, its official account kept increasing popularity and exposure (such as posting that users who hold TRUMP and meet certain conditions can “have dinner with President Trump”, etc.), which has caused its price to rebound significantly, and “political meme” has warmed up again.
(Photo source: X)
Although TRUMP has rebounded recently, it is still unknown how long it can be written.Its core issues such as relying too much on market sentiment rather than its own value, highly centralized rather than dispersed power, and the controversy over the polarization of the outside world, are all challenges that TRUMP needs to face and solve.
In its less than half a year’s life cycle, we see absolute climbs and relative falls, which reveals to us the unique law of survival of meme coins – emotional pricing is much higher than actual value.For TRUMP, its life has been deeply bound to Trump’s political career, and unlike FLOKI or SAMO, where you can try to rebrand, the rise and fall of TRUMP will be closely related to what Trump has done.As industry analysts said, “Meme coins are the resonance of capital and faith, and TRUMP is the most extreme case of this resonance.”
3.3.2. Eco-driven
3.3.2.1. Dogwifhat (WIF, 2023) – A “absurdist” carnival of meme coins
As another canine meme coin on the Solana chain on December 13, 2023, WIF wore a cute pink knit hat to set off a nearly absurd carnival in the Solana ecosystem and the cryptocurrency market.
The price trajectory of this Meme coin, which was originally without technical endorsement and was spread only by community memes, was not mediocre and even full of drama.After WIF launched in 2023, its market value soared to $3 billion on March 26 of the following year, taking only 104 days.DOGE has taken this path for more than 7 years (it can be seen from coingecko data that DOGE’s market value exceeded 3 billion at the end of January 2021).
(The picture shows the change in WIF market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
In terms of market popularity, its official X account (@dogwifcoin) has accumulated more than 200,000 followers in 3 months, and the peak daily discussion volume of the r/dogwifhat section on Reddit exceeded 5,000 posts, and even derived the spontaneous promotion culture of “WIF Army”.As of May 2025, its community activity is still stronger than other weak meme coin projects online.
At the beginning of 2025, due to the overall pullback of Solana’s ecosystem, WIF fell from its high point.Although the market has been ups and downs since then, the market generally maintains an optimistic attitude.Although WIF has successfully entered the ranks of “top meme coins” and even has strong and excellent performance in transaction volume, its long-term survival still faces a classic dilemma: too much reliance on public chains will only lead to a destiny – either living together or dying together.Will WIF, which can create a spectacle of value by just a pink hat, eventually repeat the same mistakes? In the market ebb, which lacks practical application support, only the silence and death after the emotions fade?
In the future, whether WIF can break through the seemingly destined fate may depend on the capabilities of its own team, and it may also need to rely on whether its underlying public chain can break through the existing framework and find a new solution.Objectively speaking, the meme coins born at this stage generally show stronger vitality and are no longer as fragile and fleeting as early projects.However, for WIF, in order to truly get out of the current predicament, we still face challenges and pressures that cannot be underestimated.
(The above picture shows the first market value of SHIB exceeded US$3 billion on March 26, 2024, and the following picture shows the first market value of DOGE exceeded US$3 billion in January 2021 / Source: coingecko)
3.3.2.2. BONK——A “Saving the Market Dog” of Solana Ecology
On December 25, 2022, when the Solana ecosystem was on the verge of collapse due to FTX thunder, an anonymous team launched $BONK with the image of Shiba Inu and announced the so-called “airdrop rescue plan”: airdropping 50% of the total tokens to active users on the Solana chain.At the same time, BONK has an anti-VC narrative, which directly challenges the “institution-led” encryption model, and its official website also claims that “this is a meme coin belongs to retail investors.”
In terms of token mechanisms, it emphasizes ultimate communityism.In terms of technical features, BONK is based on the Solana SPL standard, relies on public chains, with transaction speeds of up to 65,000 TPS, and a single transaction fee is as low as $0.0001.
It is worth noting that BONK achieved a counterattack from $0 to $3 billion in market performance.Its first airdrop value soared from $20 to $2,500 (January 2023), successfully driving the monthly growth of Solana’s active on-chain addresses by 487%.And the price miracle belonging to it is far more than this: the unit price rose from $0.000002 to $0.000004 (2000% increase), and it landed on Binance in December of the same year; it went online in January 2024, and BONK’s market value successfully exceeded US$2.5 billion in March of the same year.
(The picture on the left shows the unit price increase in January 2023; the picture on the right shows the market value of March of the following year / Source: coingecko)
As Solana’s “life-saving straw”, BONK has indeed delivered a brilliant report card: it not only successfully promoted the return of developers, but also increased the number of Solana Hackathon participation projects from 23 in Q4 2022 to 217 in Q2 2023; it also promoted the revival of the NFT ecosystem, and the daily transaction volume of the “Bonkmas” NFT series funded by it exceeded 10,000 SOL.In terms of payment scenario expansion, BONK has also made significant progress: not only has it been adopted by blue-chip projects such as Mad Lads, but it has also been accepted by more than 200 offline merchants, but also has received payment support from Shopify plug-in.
Even so, BONK’s development path is not smooth.In June 2023, a single-day sale of a giant whale triggered a 40% flash crash, and was subsequently included in the “watch list” by the US SEC and received risk warnings from the UK FCA.
Faced with the controversy and challenges that followed, the BONK team is also actively responding.In terms of technology upgrades, BONK plans to integrate Solana Firedancer and develop an exclusive wallet BonkWalle; at the ecological expansion level, it will start to build BONK DAO and prepare to launch the BONK Visa card.
Although the history of BONK is still short, its development history contains profound inspiration: it not only proves that community forces can save the endangered public chain ecology, but also shows the possibility of practical application scenarios for meme coin construction.
3.3.3. Narrative innovation
3.3.3.1. Goatseus Maximus (GOAT, 2024) – An encrypted “package” under AI frenzy
This meme coin, born in October 2024, originated from an AI chatbot called “Truth Terminal” about the “Goatse Singularity”, but in just two weeks it evolved into a carnival worth more than $700 million on Solana chain.Its rise perfectly interprets the crazy logic of “narrative is value” in the crypto market, cleverly combining AI gimmicks, subcultural memes and VC halos, creating an eye-catching wealth effect, and writing the first biography of AI meme, a new field.
GOAT’s viral spread is built on a carefully designed narrative closed loop: AI robots continue to output subculture memes such as “Goatse Gospel”, anonymous team quickly deployed tokens at pump.fun, and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen’s strong sponsorship puts the project on the cloak of “mainstream recognition”.This trio of “AI God Creation + Human Speculation + VC Endorsement” has made GOAT soar more than 1,000 times in ten days, attracting countless retail investors to continue.
(The above picture is the price on the first day of release, and the following picture is the price after 8 days / Source: CoinMarketCap)
However, this AI puppet show quickly revealed flaws.The so-called “AI Autonomy” is nothing more than a carefully designed marketing rhetoric—Truth Terminal’s tweets need to be reviewed by founder Andy Ayrey, whose Solana wallet is actually controlled by humans.What’s even more ironic is that at 8 pm on October 20, 2024, “Truth Terminal” posted a tweet, which was a spelling error, which would not happen to AI at all. TA mistakenly spelled “group” as “grouops”.
In this regard, the market cannot help but ask – is there human beings behind Terminal?Although Andy Ayrey urgently clarified after the incident that “Truth of Terminal has a spelling error because the big language model is essentially a simulator that predicts “what will happen next” through a long list of texts, and the spelling error is “reasonable.” (The post has been deleted, and the information comes from the Internet), and no one knows how users and market acceptance are, but this ultimately leads to a halving of GOAT in a single day, completely exposing the fragile boundary between algorithm sentiment and market manipulation.
(Photo source: Internet)
(The picture shows the change in GOAT’s market value / Source: CoinMarketCap)
As the heat of discussion gradually declines, although GOAT’s price and market capitalization rankings have rebounded, the seeds of doubt have been deeply planted at this moment.In the so-called “AI meme”, the real participation of AI and the proportion of human control have become a false proposition in the contemporary meme currency field.Although GOAT ultimately failed to give a clear answer, it just lets the question collide with each other.But it is undeniable that its emergence has indeed brought new definition projects to the times and opened up innovative ideas for future development.However, the reality is that in terms of the current technical level and market environment, the true “AI meme” is still out of reach.Even for those new meme coin projects that boast about “AI independent writing and deployment participation”, we must be clear about the proportion of human participation in the generation mechanism and actual operations behind it.
The rise and fall of GOAT reflects the deepest absurdity of the crypto market: when AI learns to harvest leeks with Internet hot topics, the industry finally found its most “honest” prophet.It not only reveals the potential possibilities of AI-driven finance, but also reveals the essence of the current “AI token” – just another carefully packaged human speculation game.In this farce, perhaps the only real ones are the reaped retail wallets and the market fanaticism that is always looking for the next narrative.
3.3.4. Cultural symbolic type
3.3.4.1. MOODENG (2024) – An internet celebrity hippo who broke into the crypto world
Unlike previous canine and cat meme coins, MOODENG was inspired by a young pygmy hippo called MooDeng (meaning “lively pig”) at Khao Kheow Zoo in Thailand.When the keeper posted his videos on the social media platform, MooDeng quickly became popular and became a phenomenal Internet celebrity on the Internet around the world.
In the Web2 world, this cute little hippo shows amazing viral transmission. It not only continues to maintain its popularity, but also attracts well-known brands such as IMAX, McDonald’s, and Google to participate in interactive playlists – this level of IP influence is rare in past meme coin projects.
(Photo source: X)
On Web3, MooDeng’s performance is also impressive.On September 10, 2024, at the peak of Hippo’s popularity, the first Meme coin $MOODENG on the Solana chain with the theme of MooDeng came into being and quickly completed the initial liquidity accumulation on Pump.fun.After only 20 days of its launch, MOODENG’s market value exceeded US$270 million, successfully ranked among the top 10 Meme coins in Solana Chain, setting a record for the Pump.fun project.
(The picture shows the change in market value of MOODENG / Source: CoinMarketCap)
After that, just like DOGE, there are celebrity fans such as Musk, MOODENG also has its own “adoptive father” – Vitalik.On December 26, 2024, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin publicly claimed to be the “adoptive father” of MOODENG and held 40 billion tokens, pushing the market value of its ERC-20 version (MOODENG ETH) soared to $95 million.
(Photo source: X)
With advantages and peaks, MOODENG also faces problems and challenges.The high concentration of chips has made the “decentralization” claimed by its community questioned, with the top 5% of addresses controlling more than 85% of circulation, and the team is accused of manipulating on-chain data through a large number of addresses to create false prosperity.In addition, just like a common problem with meme coins, MOODENG, which lacks practical application scenarios, relies entirely on market sentiment to support value.With the market pullback in October 2024, MOODENG prices fell sharply.Although the zoo is still actively operating Moo Deng’s IP (such as launching peripheral products and 24-hour live broadcasts), the team behind MOODENG is also trying to make innovations and changes (such as establishing the Global Charity Foundation, trying to manage multi-signment wallets ($500,000 reserves) and currency listing in the form of DAO). These innovations have even received public support from V God, but the attention of the crypto market has turned to new animal-based Meme coins, such as Penguin (PESTO), Capybara (CAPY), etc.
The case of MOODENG reveals the typical life cycle of Meme coins: due to the rise of cultural symbols and the depletion of liquidity.Even though there is a glorious past, I mastered the timing at the most appropriate time＞The true meaning of technology: the precise positioning of the Internet celebrity IP explosion window is a more lethal existence than any white paper, and even has celebrity endorsements and a native marketing team (the support and operation of the zoo where MooDeng is located), but seniors such as PEPE and DOGE have proved that “Internet celebrity fatigue” is inevitable.How to get out of the cycle and break the rules is the issue that humans behind the hippos need to consider.
As the most unique phenomenon in the cryptocurrency market, Meme coins perfectly demonstrate the collision of speculation and culture.Their core advantage lies in their amazing communication power – whether it is DOGE, SHIB or WIF, it can spread viral on social media and create thousands of times the myth of wealth in the short term.With the rise of high-performance public chains such as Solana, the threshold for participation has been further lowered, making 2024, which has become a past year for Meme coins, with an overall market value achieving excess growth.
However, the accelerated market cycle and the continuous iterative traffic wave soon put the Meme coin boom in exhaustion.It is not that there is no new currency launch, but that there is a lack of phenomenon-level projects.As Kawhi said, “We are facing the increase in market information entropy, forcing weight allocation to upgrade, and the narrative and dissemination path of traditional meme have collapsed.” Like other innovative products, the development of Meme coins has also fallen into a dilemma of homogeneity, and most projects are still zero-sum games in essence.In the market adjustments that have not yet exceeded half of the time in 2025, most Meme coins that lack substantial support have been generally cut in half, and political concept coins such as TRUMP have plummeted by more than 50% in a single day due to regulatory risks and political public opinion.Now that the third virtual currency related to Trump is about to be launched, will the market believe in the story of “The Wolf is Coming” again?What’s even more serious is that as the US SEC strengthens regulatory scrutiny, more than half of Meme coin projects are facing a survival crisis, and the wave of exchange removal has led to a rapid depletion of liquidity.
These projects that are already on the edge of the cliff have not given up easily. Despite facing many restrictions and challenges, they are still striving forward on the road of transformation and innovation.Several canine meme coins such as FLOKI have tried to transform to practicality and extend their life cycle by building ecology such as games and DeFi.However, none of these plans are fully implemented, let alone large-scale applications. If at least one of the projects/products can be successfully implemented, it may win a glimmer of hope for FLOKI, otherwise it may be replaced by a new generation of canine meme coins.WIF wearing a pink hat continues to work hard to build practical application scenarios. Although it has accumulated enough community popularity and popularity, the lack of practical scenarios may become its fatal shortcomings.By contrast, BONK, known as the “Salvation Dog”, is in a slightly optimistic situation, with its main challenges coming from the SEC/FCA’s regulatory warnings and market competition, and its team has developed response plans including the BONK DAO and Visa Card Programs, which are expected to resolve the current crisis to a certain extent.
Meme coins that have recently relied on short-term IP popularity, such as TRUMP and MOODENG, are facing the survival problem of how to retain users and communities after the popularity fades.In terms of transformation strategy, TRUMP continues its usual style of celebrities. Whether it is the “Dinner Together” marketing campaign or the unplanned “political donation platform” vision, it focuses more on mobilizing public sentiment rather than technical consolidation.In contrast, the MOODENG team is trying to launch DAO governance and the launch of the new ERC-20 version. With the strong support of celebrity endorsements, MOODENG seems to be expected to go further on this transformation path.
Looking ahead, facing the coming new era, the meme coins, which are essentially the attention economy, cannot be abandoned by the times and the market.Technically, platforms such as PumpFun have continued to contribute to low-threshold, low-cost coin issuance and transactions; while the latest BlockMiner project launched in 2025 has brought a Renaissance to the market where the PvP model is prevalent – as its official website says, this mechanism that ensures fair competition is expected to bring a healthier development direction and a longer growth environment to the meme currency market.
(Photo source: Blockminer.fun)
In terms of innovation, the popularity of “AI+meme” has continued to rise since the advent of GOAT, and is expected to incubate the infinite possibilities of new paradigm transformation – the rise of DeFAI has pushed the value and narrative of AI meme to a new height.The currently rapidly developing AI Agent technology is also constantly expanding its application scenarios, laying the foundation and providing support for the large-scale popularization of AI.Although AI projects still face key challenges such as technology implementation and user trust, their core position in the future crypto ecosystem is beyond doubt.
At the same time, those meme coins with AI bonuses are likely to write their own success in the near future.Whether it is AI meme coins such as AI16z, GOAT, ACT, ARC, etc. that are still active until now, or a new round of technological innovations that have not yet been released, we can foresee that AI-driven projects will occupy an important position in the future crypto market.
From a non-technical perspective, the development of meme coins has always been inseparable from community support and popularity maintenance.In terms of emotional value and traffic effects, the phenomenon of using celebrity influence to create and issue cryptocurrencies has never stopped since the launch of Coinye West in 2014 (although not initially related to me) and has peaked after Trump issued the coin in 2025.This celebrity coin issuance boom will continue to drive up market popularity, and even affect the development momentum of AI meme coins to a certain extent.Although this type of celebrity meme coins are numerous and of varying quality, the market will eventually screen out truly high-quality projects.
When the times and the market work together to bid farewell to the past, the early meme coins needed to transform, while the meme coins in the new era needed to solve more multiple problems.This market is experiencing the necessary path from wild growth to rational development, and what is left in the end may not be the craziest meme, but the survivor who can best balance hype with substance.
