Solana memecoins and tokens: Starter guide (2024)

Solana is experiencing a memecoin and token resurgence.
In this guide, we’ll explore the space and highlight tools so that you too can kickstart your Solana memecoin and token journey.

Memecoins and tokens: The origin story

The history of memecoins is relatively recent and tied closely to the emergence of cryptocurrencies and the culture surrounding internet memes.
One of the earliest and most influential memecoins is Dogecoin, which laid the foundation for the concept of using memes as a basis for creating digital currencies.
Dogecoin, launched in December 2013, was initially created as a joke by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. It featured the Shiba Inu dog from the popular "Doge" meme as its logo.
Despite its origins, Dogecoin quickly gained traction and developed a passionate community.
As such, the success of Dogecoin set a precedent for other memecoins to emerge. Over time, numerous cryptocurrencies with meme-inspired branding and themes started to surface, often capitalizing on internet trends and social media hype.
However, the market for memecoins is highly speculative and volatile, with prices often driven by “clout” rather than an underlying technology or utility. While some memecoins have seen brief surges in value, others have experienced significant price fluctuations and faced scrutiny due to their lack of intrinsic value or real-world use cases.
Overall, memecoins represent a niche within crypto that leverages internet culture, memes, and community-driven enthusiasm, but they also come with heightened risks and speculation.
Due to their volatile nature and potential lack of long-term sustainability, it’s always a good idea to approach memecoins with caution and conduct thorough research before investing.

Memecoins and tokens on Solana

On Solana, there are two types of memecoins and tokens:

• SPL tokens: Solana Program Library (SPL) tokens are digital assets with a standard set of functionality.
• Token-22/SuperTokens: Token-22 (aka “SuperTokens”) is a token program on Solana, defining a common implementation for fungible and non-fungible tokens (think of it like the ERC-20 standard of Solana). The program allows developers to create coins and tokens with novel functionality, which increases composability and may attract new users.
• The most interesting SuperToken extensions include:
  • Transfer fees: Token can only be traded when you pay a specific rate
  • Interest accrual: Token becomes more valuable the longer you hold it
  • Soulbinding: Token cannot be moved/transferred from your wallet
  • Privacy: ZK proofs encrypt your token balances/transfer amounts
  • Memo: You’ll receive a short note with an incoming token transfer
  • Immutability: Prevents your token ownership from being transferred

One thing to keep in mind with Solana tokens is: Older memecoins, such as SAMO and BONK, tend to use the SPL standard while newer memecoins, such as BERN, use the SuperToken program.

SAMO

Samoyedcoin (SAMO) is a dog-themed meme token on the Solana blockchain that launched in 2021. The SAMO community, dubbed “The Samo Famo,” helps educate and onboard people into the Solana community—helping to accelerate the adoption of blockchains and all things self-custody.

BONK

Similar to SAMO, BONK is also a dog-themed memecoin. The team designed it with the Solana ecosystem in mind, which is why it airdropped 50% of its supply to the community. The remaining 50% was allocated to five key categories: team development, marketing, initial liquidity, BONK DAO, and early contributors. Today, BONK is well integrated into Solana DeFi and functions as a community activation and user-onboarding tool.

BERN

BERN, a partner token to BONK, was the first SuperToken released on Solana. As such, the Solana memecoin is leveraging the transfer fees function of the SuperToken program, which is structured as follows:

1. 5% token tax on all buy and sell transactions gets sent back to holders
2. 1% buys and burns BONK
3. 0.5% burns BERN

Token Discovery and Research

Here are some tools to make your memecoin and token trading on Solana easier and safer.

Birdeye

Birdeye is a platform that offers unique insights such as real-time price updates and historical data analysis for established and newly-launched coins and tokens on Solana and other blockchains. As such, users can leverage Birdeye to monitor market trends to make more informed trading decisions.

RugCheck

Trading Solana memecoins and tokens can be exciting, but the safety of your funds should always be your top priority. The more dynamic the market, the higher the influx of new memecoins and tokens—making it difficult to differentiate between legitimate assets and scams. Before trading memecoins, make sure to grab the token address and submit it to RugCheck. RugCheck will evaluate the coins and tokens and tell you if they’re legitimate or not. However, sometimes it’s buggy. If so, check the validated tokens list to see if the memecoin or token is verified and legitimate.

SolanaFM

If you’d like to look under the hood of your favorite Solana memecoins and tokens, SolanaFM is the best tool to do so. SolanaFM is a block explorer, similar to Etherscan, which you might be familiar with. Just like Etherscan, SolanaFM keeps track of all the public data on the Solana network and displays the results like a search engine. This data includes transaction data, wallet addresses, smart contracts, and much more. When you paste a token address into SolanaFM, you’ll be able to see the associated transactions, transfers, instructions, and the distribution among the largest holders.

Trading Memecoins and Tokens

Phantom

The easiest way to trade Solana memecoins and tokens is through your Phantom browser extension or mobile app.

• Log in to your mobile app or browser extension
• Select the crypto you’d like to swap and the memecoin you want
• Click the swap icon (arrow) at the bottom
• In the swap widget, select the memecoin or token you’d like to trade for
• Review the order, then submit!

Jupiter
If your desired token pair isn’t available in our Cross-Chain Swapper, try Jupiter. Jupiter is a liquidity aggregator (Think: the 1Inch or Uniswap of Solana). On Jupiter, you’ll find all verified coins and tokens that are tradable on Solana.

Step

Tracking all your crypto trades can become complex, which is why a portfolio management tool such as Step is helpful. With Step, you can visualize your portfolio and view aggregations of all LPs, tokens, farms, and positions on a seamless dashboard, with all the functions and information you need to stay informed at all times.

How to bridge tokens to Solana with Phantom?

If this is your first time using Solana, you might have most of your assets on other blockchains, such as Ethereum—which is perfect for our Cross-Chain Swapper.
With Cross-Chain Swapper, you can bridge tokens across Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon right in your Phantom wallet.

How to set up a Phantom wallet?

If you’d like a friendly multichain wallet for crypto, NFTs, and DeFi, try us out! We offer browser extensions for Firefox, Chrome, Brave, and Edge, as well as apps for iOS and Android.
First, download Phantom. Then, create a new wallet.
If you’d like to fund, or send funds to, your Phantom wallet, you can do so via the “Buy” button on your asset tab. We offer various funding options such as MoonPay, PayPal, and Robinhood to make it easy for you to fund your wallet.
Once you do that, you're ready to go!
And that’s it — we’re stoked to welcome you to crypto and the Phantom community!
Disclaimer: This guide is strictly for educational purposes only and doesn’t constitute financial or legal advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.