Love them or hate them, memecoins have cemented their place as a key part of the crypto economy particularly throughout the past year. They have arguably been the central narrative keeping cryptocurrencies afloat during the downturn phase of 2023, and now they are headlining the transition to bull market as well. While meme tokens are not celebrated for technical innovation or advancements in blockchain scalability—and some skeptics argue they have no inherent value—they have thrived through viral appeal and relatability to internet culture. Despite criticism from some developers who feel memecoins detract from crypto’s reputation as a groundbreaking technology, these tokens have seen accumulated substantial value. Let’s delve deeper into the history of meme coins and the various categories they can be divided into, in order to gain insights into their potential future trajectory.
History of Memecoins
The original blockchain meme coin is Dogecoin. It launched in 2013 as a layer 1 network parody of Bitcoin, inspired by a viral Shiba Inu meme that had gained popularity online. As a fork of Bitcoin created before tokenization became mainstream, $DOGE required its own layer 1 blockchain to operate. Since then, progress in blockchain technology has allowed the majority of newer meme coins to be created on top of other blockchain networks, such as $SHIB on Ethereum and $BONK on Solana. While Dogecoin serves as the gas token for transactions on its blockchain, the majority of today’s memecoins are native tokens with no practical application or associated blockchain. Instead, they serve as emblems of the community they represent and are mainly treated as speculative assets.
As memecoins have increased in number, their overall market size has also expanded. As of November 2024, the top memecoins collectively held a value of $112 billion, representing a nearly 7x increase from May 2023. In the current day 2024, Solana is the dominant blockchain for memecoins. Its low transaction fees make it easier for users to create and trade memecoins, while the fast processing speed offers an experience comparable to Web2 transactions that retail is used to. From August to November 2023, Solana averaged around 9,000 new tokens daily. By 2024, this number has 5x’d to over 50,000 new tokens daily and continues to grow, fueled by platforms like pump.fun which democratized the token launch progress.
Major Categories of Meme Coins
It may be an ironic statement, but the landscape of meme coins has become more sophisticated than ever. The sheer quantity of new tokens flooding into the market have made it so that “meme token” is now too broad and generalized of a term to classify all relevant projects. Some of the most prominent and extensive types of meme tokens are as follows:
Animal-Themed: By far the most successful memecoins are those representing animals, and the most dominant animal is the pet dog. After all, the OG meme token $DOGE was inspired by a shiba inu meme. Dog-themed meme coins make up nearly two-thirds of total meme token market capitalization, and 5 out of the 6 biggest meme projects are dog-themed (DOGE, SHIB, BONK, WIF, FLOKI). However, recently cat-themed coins have also taken the Solana blockchain by storm and three cat tokens have made their way into the top 100 projects by market capitalization (POPCAT, MOG, MEW). They have a total market capitalization of around $3.5 billion and daily trading volume of over $420 million at the time of writing. Sometimes other animals also garner internet virality and become relatively successful meme tokens, such as the hippo-themed MOODENG and gorilla-themed HARAMBE.
Top cat-themed crypto meme tokens $POPCAT, $MOG, $MEW
Politifi: Several political figures who have been the focus of viral mainstream memes have also inspired meme tokens. These projects often parody political figures to boost community engagement and market their meme coins. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is the leading figure in this category, a trend that has been further exacerbated after he won the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Tokens like $MAGA, $TRUMP, and $BODEN were fun to observe during the election cycle because their price often reacted in accordance with the prospects of the represented candidate. It remains to be seen how successful politifi tokens will continue to be when it’s no longer an election year.
Celebrity-Themed: Celebrity meme coins leverage the popularity of figures from various industries, including sports, music, fashion, and social media. Similar to the politifi category, celebrity-backed tokens use the fame of these individuals to enhance their virality. Such tokens can either be launched and promoted by the celebrities themselves or created without their direct involvement. Coins in this category currently hold a combined market cap of over $100 million, with the top ones being DADDY (started by Andrew Tate), MOTHER (started by Iggy Azalea), and JENNER (started by Caitlyn Jenner).
Artificial Intelligence: One of the newest yet most rapidly growing meme token categories is AI meme coin. These are crypto projects based off predictions and actions made by artificial intelligence bots. The original AI meme token GOAT launched in October 2024 and was originally suggested by AI Twitter bot Truth Terminal. Since then, GOAT has catapulted into the top 100 cryptos and inspired the creation of other AI memes. At the time of writing, the AI meme category boasts around $3.8 billion in market cap and daily trading volume of $1.4 billion.