What are Meme Coins? Unravelling their Success in 2025

Everyone enjoys funny memes on various social media platforms. They have become a significant part of our lives because they make us smile during our daily hustles. Beyond fun and jokes, meme culture is sparking a new revolution in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. Meme coins, which started as jokes, have gained immense popularity and created a new revenue stream for meme creators and social media users.

As per the report of MetaTech Insights, the meme coin market was valued at $68.5 billion in 2024 and is projected to touch $925.2 billion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of around 26.7% between 2025 and 2035.

Meme coins are a subset of cryptocurrencies but are more volatile than traditional crypto tokens. Their market size suggests their popularity is growing exponentially, especially among youth. In this article, we will explore the world of meme coins and unravel the reason behind their immense success.

What are Meme Coins?

Meme coins are digital tokens similar to crypto tokens (other than Bitcoin and Ethereum), inspired by pop culture and memes. Initially created as jokes, meme coins gained huge popularity in a few years and have now become an integral part of the decentralized finance (DeFi) economy. They are basically a combination of pop culture and digital finance and are mostly driven by social media trends, which also makes them highly speculative investments. Their journey from jokes to becoming an internet phenomenon has sparked a debate over their utility and future. Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Pepe, Dogwifhat, Sponge V2, and Smog are some of the well-known meme coins trending worldwide.

A Brief History of Meme Coins

The first meme coin is Dogecoin, which was launched in 2013 as a layer1 network parody of Bitcoin. Since then, various meme coins have surfaced and become popular. They have also faced legal and regulatory challenges. In 2021, Thailand’s SEC banned meme coins, citing them as goods with “no clear objective.” The Advertising Standards Authority of the United Kingdom also declared them unregulated financial products. The popularity of the meme coins peaked in 2021 and 2022 when Elon Musk endorsed Dogecoin. For some time, their market started falling apart, but after the thumping victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential elections, 2024 meme coins are regaining the lost ground. The official Trump Coin ($Trump), which Donald Trump launched, has become immensely popular.

Types of Meme Coins

Animal-themed Coins

This type of meme coin is among the world’s most successful meme coins. This category is further classified into Doge-themed meme coins and Cat-themed meme coins. Dogecoin, the most popular meme coin, is a Dog-themed coin; other such coins include Shiba Inu, Dogwifhat, and Bonk. Some famous Cat-themed coins are Popcat, Mog coin, and Cats in a Dogs World (MEW). Other popular Animal-themed coins are MOODENG, SLERF, and PENG.

Politics-themed Coins

Some political figures who are famous on social media have become the subject of meme coins. These coins are created to engage people and market the political ideology the political figure represents. Notable politics-themed coins include MAGA, TREMP, and BODEN.

Celebrity-themed Coins

This type of meme coin is created as a marketing effort for celebrities from various backgrounds, such as sports, music, movies, fashion, and social media influencers. The celebrities launch many celebrity-themed coins to generate revenue and remain in the limelight. Some celebrity coins are MOTHER, JENNER, and DAVIDO.

Pepe-related Coins

Pepe is a very famous comic book character, and Pepe-related meme coins have also gained huge popularity in the meme coin market. Multiple meme coins have surfaced as variants of Pepe. BOME, PEPECOIN, and APU are some notable Pepe-related meme coins.

Key Characteristics of Meme Coins

Meme coins are a unique combination of finance and cultural phenomena. Their popularity justifies the deep impression of meme culture in today’s world.

Cultural Phenomenon

Meme coins are created to reflect popular internet memes that have become a cultural phenomenon. Meme coins combine the fun of internet memes with financial instruments and bring these aspects to the world of cryptocurrencies.

Fan Engagement

Political figures and celebrities use viral internet memes and jokes to increase engagement with their fans. This helps them communicate better with their followers and promotes their ideology.

Speculative Investment

Beyond being funny and light-hearted, these meme coins often offer the potential for significant market gains in a very short time.

Lack of Intrinsic Value

Meme coins are built on jokes and social media trends; except they do not have any use cases. Their price may rise exponentially, but they do not have any real intrinsic value.

Typically short lifespans

Meme coins are digital applications of jokes and social media trends; there is no guarantee that they will remain popular for a long time. The related meme coin may also lose its hype as soon as the jokes lose relevance. Except for a few meme coins, none had a notable lifespan.

High Volatility

Since social media trends and viral memes drive all the meme coins, the prices, volume, and liquidity depend highly on these trends. That’s why meme coins have high volatility, which can positively and negatively impact investors.

How Do Meme Coins Work?

Cryptocurrencies and meme coins basically work similarly. Both are blockchain-based, which means they operate in a decentralized ecosystem. Meme coins foster ownership and anonymity. Their value is decided by their demand and supply in the crypto market and is highly dependent on the popularity and social media trends of the joke on which the meme has been created.

Many meme coins enable exclusive features such as staking or community rewards with the help of smart contracts. Everyone can enjoy funny and light-hearted memes on social media. However, everybody cannot trade meme coins in the crypto market, and it needs a good knowledge of the crypto market and analysis of meme coins prices to trade them.

How to Create a Meme Coin?

Here is the step-by-step guide on how to create a meme coin:

Define Objective

The Foremost step to create a meme coin is to understand the motive and objective behind developing that meme coin. It is essential to have a clear objective. It may include a tribute to a celebrity, support to a political figure or anything else. It is also important to decide whether the purpose of meme coin development is just fun or to create any real-world use case.

Choose the Blockchain Platform

Choosing an ideal blockchain platform for meme coin development is the most important step in the entire process. Solana, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Binance smart chain (BSC) are major platforms suitable for meme coin development. BSC offers lower transaction fees than Ethereum blockchain and a faster processing time.

Integrate Smart Contracts

After deciding on the blockchain platform, the next step in creating a meme coin is to write a smart contract, which will define the coin’s rules, such as the number of tokens that need to be created, the basis of their transfer, and their validation on the blockchain.

If you do not have any knowledge of meme coin development, you can connect with Delta6Labs, a pioneer in the field.

Launch

Your meme coin is ready to launch once the smart contract is integrated with the blockchain.

Marketing

A strong marketing strategy is mandatory to promote your meme coin and build a user community. As we know, meme coins are highly dependent on social media trends and viral memes. Funny and engaging memes should be created to run viral marketing campaigns.

An Overview of Top 5 Meme Coins

This section will analyze some notable meme coins in the crypto market, their market size, and prices.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin is the most popular and earliest meme coin in the world. Introduced in 2013 as an homage to famous memes featuring Shiba Inu dogs, Dogecoin has a current market cap of $23.18 billion, a trading volume of $2.01 billion, and a circulating supply of 148.79 billion DOGE. Its blockchain-based payment mechanism, complemented by low fees, makes Dogecoin a worthy investment for meme coin enthusiasts.

Shiba Inu

Shiba Inu was launched in 2020 as a direct competitor of Dogecoin. It uses the Proof of Stake consensus mechanism for validation, which saves energy. On the other hand, Dogecoin uses the PoW mechanism, which is a highly energy-consuming process. Currently, the market cap of Shibu Inu coin is $7.04B. Its total volume is $328.1M, and it has a circulating supply of 589.25T SHIB.

Pepe

Pepe meme coins are inspired by a famous comic book character of the same name. They are based on the Ethereum blockchain and are among the fastest-growing crypto assets. Pepe meme coins were created for entertainment purposes only and do not have any intrinsic value.

Its circulating supply is 420.69 trillion PEPE, an average volume of $1.78B, and a total market cap of $7.68B.

Official Trump

Currently, the market cap of the official Trump coin is $71.6B. Its total volume is $654.61M, and it has a circulating supply of 199.99T TRUMP.

Dogwifhat

After reading this article, it has become clear that no other meme coin has come closer to the success of dog-themed coins. Dogwifhat is another dog-inspired meme coin that has become hugely famous in the crypto market. The Solana ecosystem powers dogwifhat meme coin, which has helped it grow.

Its total market cap and volume are $385.39 and $189.42, respectively, and its circulating supply is 998.84 WIF.

Final Words

In conclusion, meme coins have transformed from simple jokes into a significant force in the cryptocurrency landscape. Their rise reflects the dynamic interplay between pop culture and digital finance, captivating the imagination of a generation eager to engage with both humour and investment.

While the volatility and lack of intrinsic value in meme coins present unique risks, their undeniable popularity and ability to harness social media trends offer opportunities for substantial gains. As we move into the future, the potential for continued market growth, fuelled by innovative concepts and the lasting influence of internet culture, cannot be overlooked.

Whether you consider them speculative assets or cultural phenomena, meme coins represent a captivating intersection of finance and entertainment that is likely to evolve in the coming years.