A meme coin (also spelled memecoin) is a cryptocurrency that originated from an Internet meme or has some other humorous characteristic. [1]
The term is sometimes used interchangeably with the term shitcoin, which typically refers to a cryptocurrency with little to no value, authenticity, or utility. [2] It may be used in the broadest sense as a critique of the cryptocurrency market in its entirety—those based on particular memes such as "doge coins", celebrities like Coinye, and pump-and-dump schemes such as BitConnect—or it may be used to make cryptocurrency more accessible. [3]
The term is often used dismissively, comparing the value or performances of those cryptocurrencies to that of mainstream digital assets. Supporters, on the other hand, observe that some memecoins have acquired social currency and high market capitalizations. [3]
In late 2013, Dogecoin was released after being created as a joke on the Doge meme by software engineers. This sparked the creation of several subsequent meme coins. In October 2021, there were about 124 meme coins circulating in the market. Notable examples include Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. [3]
In late 2021, advertisements promoting the meme coin Floki Inu in London led to subsequent investigations around promoting the meme coin, considered to be an unregulated financial product by the United Kingdom Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). [4]
Some countries have taken steps to regulate meme coins. In early 2021, Thailand's Securities and Exchange Commission banned meme coins as part of a crackdown on digital goods with "no clear objective or substance". [5]
Meme coins have surged in popularity since Elon Musk endorsed the use of Dogecoin, one of the first meme coins. [6] He continued to post tweets about Dogecoin in 2022, including one in January where he stated he would eat a Happy Meal from McDonald's on live TV if they started accepting Dogecoin as payment. [7] While the risk of losing money is significant, some projects seem to be successful and sustainable over time. [8]
Meme coins have seen a resurgence following Donald Trump's victory in the 2024 United States presidential election. [9] [10] [11] One such example is Fartcoin, whose valuation briefly surpassed $1 billion dollars in December 2024. [12] [13] [14] Trump himself launched the meme coin $Trump three days before his second inauguration as president of the United States. [15] [16]
American investor David Einhorn stated, “We have reached the ‘Fartcoin’ stage of the market cycle...Other than trading and speculation, it serves no other obvious purpose and fulfills no need that is not served elsewhere.” [17]
This list includes meme coins that have received significant amounts of media coverage:
Elon Reeve Musk is a businessman and political figure known for his key roles in the automotive company Tesla, Inc. and the space company SpaceX. He is also known for his ownership of X Corp., and his role in the founding of the Boring Company, xAI, Neuralink, and OpenAI. Musk is the wealthiest individual in the world; as of January 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$427 billion.
Gary S. Gensler is an American government official and former investment banker who served as the chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 2021 to 2025. Gensler previously worked for Goldman Sachs and has led the Biden–Harris transition's Federal Reserve, Banking, and Securities Regulators agency review team. Prior to his appointment, he was professor of Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
The "PayPal Mafia" is a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies based in Silicon Valley, such as Tesla, Inc., LinkedIn, Palantir Technologies, SpaceX, Affirm, Slide, Kiva, YouTube, Yelp, and Yammer. Most of the members attended Stanford University or University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign at some point in their studies.
A cryptocurrency, crypto-currency, or colloquially, crypto, is a digital currency designed to work through a computer network that is not reliant on any central authority, such as a government or bank, to uphold or maintain it.
Litecoin is a decentralized peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and open-source software project released under the MIT/X11 license. Inspired by Bitcoin, Litecoin was among the earliest altcoins, starting in October 2011. In technical details, the Litecoin main chain shares a slightly modified Bitcoin codebase. The practical effects of those codebase differences are lower transaction fees, faster transaction confirmations, and faster mining difficulty retargeting. Due to its underlying similarities to Bitcoin, Litecoin has historically been referred to as the "silver to Bitcoin's gold." In 2022, Litecoin added optional privacy features via soft fork through the MWEB upgrade.
Doge is an Internet meme that became popular in 2013. The meme consists of a picture of a Shiba Inu dog, accompanied by multicolored text in Comic Sans font in the foreground. The text, representing a kind of internal monologue, is deliberately written in a form of broken English. The meme originally and most frequently uses an image of a Shiba Inu named Kabosu, though versions with other Shiba Inus are also popular.
Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who decided to create a payment system as a joke, making fun of the wild speculation in cryptocurrencies at the time. It is considered both the first "meme coin", and more specifically the first "dog coin". Despite its satirical nature, some consider it a legitimate investment prospect. Dogecoin features the face of Kabosu from the "doge" meme as its logo and namesake. It was introduced on December 6, 2013, and quickly developed its own online community, reaching a peak market capitalization of over US$85 billion on May 5, 2021. As of 2021, it is the sleeve sponsor of Watford Football Club.
Kabosu was a Shiba Inu dog from Japan. Adopted in 2008 by kindergarten teacher Atsuko Sato, she is prominently featured in the original Doge meme.
Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is a fork of bitcoin. Launched in 2017, Bitcoin Cash is considered an altcoin or spin-off of bitcoin. In November 2018, Bitcoin Cash further split into two separate cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV).
A cryptocurrency bubble is a phenomenon where the market increasingly considers the going price of cryptocurrency assets to be inflated against their hypothetical value. The history of cryptocurrency has been marked by several speculative bubbles on a boom to bust cycle.
Shiba Inu token is a decentralized cryptocurrency created in August 2020 by an anonymous person or group using the pseudonym "Ryoshi". It is inspired by the Shiba Inu (柴犬), a Japanese dog breed, which also serves as the mascot for Dogecoin, another cryptocurrency with meme origins. Some categorize Shiba Inu as a "meme coin." Concerns have been expressed about the concentration of the coin with a single "whale" wallet controlling billions of dollars' worth of the token, and frenzied buying by retail investors motivated by fear of missing out (FOMO). Shiba Inu was introduced with a branding that positioned it as a potential 'Dogecoin competitor'.
SafeMoon LLC was an American cryptocurrency and blockchain company created in March 2021. The company created the SafeMoon token (SFM) which traded on the BNB Chain blockchain. The token charged a 10% fee on transactions, with 5% redistributed to token holders and 5% directed to wallets in a different currency, Binance Coin (BNB), controlled by the coin's authors. The token reached its all time high market cap in April 2021 of $17b.
Sriram Krishnan is an Indian-American venture capitalist, podcaster, product manager and author. He was a general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. On December 22, 2024, US president-elect Donald Trump announced that he would be Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence in his incoming administration.
Pawthereum is a decentralized, animal welfare–focused cryptocurrency created in October 2021, running on the Ethereum network. A percentage of every transaction goes to a charity wallet, and an additional percentage goes back to token holders in the form of reflections.
DOGE-1 is a CubeSat mission planned by Geometric Energy Corporation. The mission is being paid for entirely with the cryptocurrency Dogecoin, which is known for its popular "Doge" meme. DOGE-1 is being developed by Geometric Energy Corporation, which announced the project in May 2021. The satellite will be launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and will be used to collect "lunar-spatial intelligence" using onboard sensors and a camera. Mission to launch a small (40 kg) satellite into lunar orbit to explore the Moon and display images and digital art on a small screen on lunar orbiter that will be broadcast back to Earth. According to Samuel Reid, a miniature screen on the DOGE-1 satellite will display advertisements, images and logos, which will subsequently be broadcast to the Earth.
"Chill guy", also known as "My new character", is a digital artwork and internet meme first posted by artist Phillip Banks on Twitter on October 4, 2023. The artwork consists of an anthropomorphic dog wearing a grey sweater, blue jeans, and red sneakers, giving off a "chill" expression by smirking with his hands in his pockets. While the artwork had some success after publishing, it only became viral about a year later on August 30, 2024, when a user on TikTok made a slideshow with the artwork, combining it with other popular memes at the time. In the following days, similar memes gained tens of millions of views, attracting the attention of larger corporations including the video game franchise Halo and the European distributor for Sprite, who used the artwork in their promotions.
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), officially the U.S. DOGE Service Temporary Organization, is a temporary organization under the United States DOGE Service, formerly known as the United States Digital Service. Despite the name, DOGE is not a federal executive department, the creation of which would require the approval of the U.S. Congress.
$Trump is a meme coin associated with U.S. President Donald Trump, hosted on the Solana blockchain platform. One billion coins were originally created; 800 million remain owned by two Trump-owned companies, after 200 million were publicly released in an initial coin offering (ICO) on January 17, 2025. Less than a day later, the aggregate market value of all coins was more than $27 billion, valuing Trump's holdings at more than $20 billion.