What Is a Meme Coin?

Meme coins are altcoins (cryptocurrencies that are not Bitcoin) named after trends, humorous or fun topics, or anything else someone can think of. They are usually created to enꦺgage a community and can be used in peer-to-peer payments, speculative investing, or trading. In many cases, they are accompanied by websites with comical themes, sometimes nonsensical terms, and their creatorꦕs and fans market a sense of community to attract others.

Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe are generally the most popular meme coins. By 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:market capitalization, they accounted for more than 67% of the total meme coin market cap on Feb. 20, 2025, at 10:40 a.m. EST.

How Meme Coins Work

Meme coins generally work the same way other cryptocurrencies work: An individual or group conceives of and creates a token, usually on an existing 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:blockchain, and begins marketing it. For example, Solana and Base were the most popular blockchains used by meme coin creators in 2024.

Most meme coins are usually created without a use case other than being tradable and convertible. They have become popular with 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cryptocurrency traders on exchanges—daily trading volumes consistently exceeded $6 billion in early 2025.

Meme coins are made available to the public via decentralized exchanges, with some 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:centralized exchanges listing the more popular memes—and there are millions available. Crypto data aggregator and analysis site CoinGecko reported that there were 5.3 million meme coins launched on Pump.fun alone between Jan. 19, 2024 (its launch date) and Jan. 1, 2025. This equaled about 15,229 meme coin launches per day on one platform.

Types of Meme Coins

Not surprisingly, meme coins generally fall into themes that follow current trends, events, pop culture, other memes, or anything that grabs attention. CoinGecko lists most meme coins and categorizes them. Here are some of the meme coin themes:

• Dog-Themed
• Elon Musk-Inspired
• Solana Meme (built on Solana)
• Frog-Themed
• The Boy’s Club (inspired by Matt Furie’s comics)
• PolitiFi (political figure inspired)
• AI Meme (use artificial intelligence in some way or mimic human behaviors, such as producing a fart sound when a transaction is processed)
• Cat-Themed
• Murad Picks (Murad is a cryptocurrency and meme coin enthusiast)
• Base Meme (Base blockchain)

How to Make a Meme Coin

Meme coins are very simple to make, as far as cryptocurrencies go, and you don’t need to know how to code or program blockchains. Many websites can automate the process for you, which only takes a few minutes. In most cases, you’ll need a cryptocurrency wallet and some crypto to pay blockchain and service fees, which are usually fairly low. To begin, find a meme coin creation site and

• Connect your wallet
• Ensure you own at least some of the cryptocurrency the coin creation site runs on for payments
• Choose a name for your token
• Choose a symbol (sometimes limited to a specific number of characters)
• Choose the number of decimals (nine for a meme coin)
• Enter the total supply you want circulating
• Upload an image (logo) for your token (usually in PNG format)
• Have a description ready for your token, then enter the description in the description box. You can include your social media and website links here too.
• Choose the “meme” tag in the tag block
• Click on “Create Token,” accept the transaction, and wait for your tokens to be ready

Pros and Cons of Meme Coins

The Bottom Line

If you enjoy making lots of small trades, hoping for profits, and participating in a different type of asset, meme coins can provide a way to become involved. However, volatility and the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:prospect of scams or project abandonment are even higher than those of other cryptocurrency cate🍸gories.

There is much debate regarding cryptocurrency’s intrinsic or other value, so it’s best to approach meme coins with an air of caution—d🐟o your own research, establish some fundamental criteria and goals for purchasing memes, and ignore all the hype. Most importantly, follow the reason for𝐆 most meme coin creations: Have fun.

The comments, opinions, and analyses expressed on Investopedia are for informational purposes only. Read our 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:warranty and liability disclaimer for more info. As of the date this article was written, the author owns 0.00001 BTC.