As their name implies, meme coins are a category of cryptocurrency inspired by memes or which possess a comedic trait. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are two well-known examples.

Key Takeaways:

• Meme coins are generally highly volatile, as they often have an abundant supply and their popularity is largely driven by pop culture.
• Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the leading meme coins, though there are hundreds of others available.
• Having a thorough understanding of a meme coin requires verifying that liquidity pools are tied to burn addresses, ensuring third-party audits have been completed on the project, and confirming no one entity owns more than 5% of the total supply.
• Meme coins’ reputation of offering no clear use case or benefits is changing with the emergence of utility meme coins.

What Are Meme Coins?

Meme coins are cryptocurrencies (like Bitcoin or Ethereum) that pay homage to a meme, which is an interesting or funny idea captured in an image, video, or another form of media. Like the memes they’re based on, meme coins are designed to go viral and be shared. 
Dogecoin (DOGE), the original meme coin and category leader by market capitalisation, was created in 2013 as a joke to satirise the hype around Bitcoin and other mainstream cryptocurrencies. Its developers, software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, intended for Dogecoin to be a fun and accessible altcoin, which is why it doesn’t have a capped supply. Dogecoin was an instant success upon launch and surged in popularity on platforms like Reddit. 
The coin became a staple of the crypto space in early 2021 when celebrities like Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and Snoop Dogg backed Dogecoin, sending it soaring more than 800% in 24 hours. Since then, Dogecoin has had instances where it leapt in value when Elon Musk tweeted about it. Hundreds of other meme coins have also entered the scene, including dozens based on the doge meme. 
Despite its ups and downs over the years, Dogecoin has consistently maintained a passionate community and, at one point, surpassed Bitcoin in daily transaction volume.
Read our University article about Dogecoin to learn more about the meme coin that started it all.

Popular Meme Coins in 2024

The excitement around meme coins is unbroken in 2024, with new meme coins constantly entering the market.
Besides Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, also known as ‘doge killer’ in the space, here are the top meme coins with the highest market cap as of March 2024:
Token NameWhat Is It?Dogecoin (DOGE)Based on the popular ‘Doge’ internet meme and featuring a Shiba Inu on its logo, Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency that was forked from Litecoin in December 2013.Shiba Inu (SHIB)SHIB is an experiment in decentralised spontaneous community building created under the Shiba Inu ecosystem. Unlike Bitcoin, which is designed to be scarce, SHIB is intentionally abundant — with a total supply of one quadrillion.Pepe
(PEPE)The Pepe meme coin is a cryptocurrency inspired by the popular internet meme featuring the character Pepe the Frog, embodying elements of internet culture within its blockchain-based ecosystem.Bonk
(BONK)The Bonk meme coin operates through blockchain technology, utilising decentralised governance and community participation to facilitate transactions and perpetuate the ‘Bonk’ meme within its ecosystem.Floki Inu (FLOKI)FLOKI’s ecosystem offers a 3D NFT metaverse, DeFi utilities, a crypto education platform, NFTs, a merchandise store, and more. The community has pledged to build schools as part of its charitable initiatives.CorgiAI
(CORGIAI)The CorgiAI meme coin uses blockchain technology, community governance, and artificial intelligence algorithms to facilitate transactions, incentivise holders, and perpetuate the corgi dog meme culture within its decentralised ecosystem.

How Do Meme Coins Work?

Meme coins work like any other cryptocurrency, taking full advantage of the blockchain and related technology. They’re often built on blockchains that use smart contracts, like Ethereum and Solana. Today, there are over 300 meme coins in existence.

Gaining Value Through Volatility

Since meme coins are community-driven, their value is considered to be speculative and incredibly volatile. When Elon Musk and Mark Cuban promoted Dogecoin, its value skyrocketed. But once the hype died down, its price fell just as quickly. Another reason meme coins undergo such extreme changes in value is because of the way they’re designed. Unlike fiat currencies and most cryptocurrencies, meme coins often have an uncapped supply, making them inflationary in nature. An exception is Shiba Inu (SHIB), which has a total supply of 1 quadrillion tokens. 
While the financial risk of investing in meme coins is high, they’re still an important part of the cryptocurrency market. In fact, the market capitalisation of the top two meme coins, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, is in the billions. Keeping abreast of cryptocurrency trends requires an understanding of how meme coins work and how they’re changing. 
To summarise, here are the characteristics of meme coins that differentiate them from traditional cryptocurrencies:

• Meme coins are highly volatile and subject to extreme changes in value over very short periods of time.
• They generally have a massive or uncapped supply.
• Meme coins’ values are driven by the current buzz surrounding the token.
• They can have a very low value per token.

Why Do People Buy Meme Coins?

In its early days, Dogecoin was mainly used for ‘tipping’, which is the practise of rewarding people on the internet for doing a good deed. Some meme coins offer utility or are now part of wider decentralised finance (DeFi) ecosystems. For example, Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) is the governance token of ShibaSwap, a decentralised exchange (DEX). 

Are Meme Coins Safe?

Meme coins’ high supply and volatility make them more speculative than other cryptocurrencies. While Elon Musk (or some other celebrity) could tweet about Doge and send its value soaring tomorrow, it could just as easily fade away into obscurity. Remember, meme coins are based on internet memes. As such, they share many traits with them, including the potential for going viral and becoming quickly outdated.

How to Buy Meme Coins

In the Crypto.com App, users can conveniently buy meme coins and 250-plus other coins using Apple Pay, Google Pay, a credit/debit card, or 20-plus fiat currencies transferred from their bank account. To do so, users can tap ‘Buy’ from the home screen and select the token to purchase plus the payment method. 
Visit the Help Centre for more information, and download the Crypto.com App here. 

What to Keep in Mind When Buying Meme Coins:

• Verify that liquidity pools are held by burn addresses to avoid buying a cryptocurrency that can face malicious activity, such as a rug pull.
• Always ensure that a reputable third-party firm has audited the meme coin project.
• Be wary of any coin where developers hold most of the tokens. Ideally, no single person or organisation should control more than 5% of the token’s total supply.

Keeping these things in mind and performing research (DYOR) on any coin of interest will help to minimise unnecessary risks.

Future Trends for Meme Coins

At the moment, meme coins do not have the same widespread adoption as the leading cryptocurrencies. However, that doesn’t mean they’re on the way out. The main barrier for meme coins is the same as other cryptocurrencies: Many people are still unfamiliar with them. 

More Businesses Are Accepting Meme Coins as Currency

Several mainstream businesses have expressed an openness to meme coins. Knowing Elon Musk’s appreciation for meme coins, it’s not surprising that the Tesla store has begun accepting Dogecoin for certain items.
But Musk isn’t the only business person who’s been open to meme coins. AMC, GameStop, Newegg, and Twitch have already begun accepting meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.