What are Meme Coins, and Do They Have Potential?

The age of the internet has significantly impacted our society on numerous levels. With the rapid expansion of digital connectivity, the online culture has penetrated almost every aspect of our everyday lives, influencing global events and possessing immense power. Naturally, the digital culture has influenced crypto in a significant way, birthing one of the most fascinating and successful sectors – meme coins. 

Since 2013, the meme coin niche has become a prominent player in the cryptocurrency market, taking the industry by storm and going against the conventions. With DOGE and Shiba Inu tokens occupying 9th and 12th spots on the global crypto list, it’s a great time to ask – What are meme coins, and why should they matter for crypto enthusiasts? Let’s discuss. 

Key Takeaways:

• Dogecoin was the first meme coin project that created this inventive and unconventional niche. 
• The industry has become wildly popular, with DOGE and SHIB becoming the 9th and 12th most significant currencies. 
• Meme coins became popular due to their non-mainstream appeal, focus on community and various utilities. 
• To select a proper meme coin for investment, you must evaluate the team behind the project and conduct due diligence. 

How Dogecoin Created an Entirely New Market

In late 2013, two talented engineers at Adobe and IBM created a parody project targeting the crypto industry. When Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus started working on Dogecoin, they only aimed to make a lighthearted joke at the expense of Bitcoin and the newly developed crypto field. The name DOGE was borrowed from a famous dog meme in 2013 internet culture. 

However, the joking nature of Dogecoin was not limited only to its name. Billy and Jackson deliberately created a network that went against Bitcoin’s conventions, having no supply limits, no burning mechanisms, and presenting one of the most convoluted systems of handling payments. The entire network design was conceived to go against Bitcoin’s market conventions and contribute to the popularity of internet memes. 

Fast Fact:

Unlike Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies with a fixed supply limit, Dogecoin has no maximum cap. This allows for the continuous creation of new coins through mining, leading to an increasing supply of dogecoins over time.

However, in early 2014, Dogecoin was bought at a massive rate across the globe, quickly accumulating over $9 million in market cap only two months after its launch. At this point, Billy and Markus realized that they had something special on their hands—a project that garnered global attention from the newly developed crypto market. 

After that, creators started to treat DOGE as a serious project, creating P2P functions and division utilities. Billy and Markus also created a fully-fledged community around DOGE, giving users voting rights to decide the future of Dogecoin and its activities. And with that, a completely new crypto space was established in 2014. 

Reasons Behind DOGE’s Colossal Success

While DOGE’s colossal success might seem like lightning in a bottle caused by random chance, the original meme coin had a lot going for it. Beyond the meme culture, Dogecoin created an alternative approach to building a crypto network, capturing the interest of millions of crypto enthusiasts along the way. 

The primary catalysts behind DOGE’s success became more evident once the meme coin industry took off. Strong community engagement, real-world P2P transfer functionality, low gas fees, and a democratic voting system were widely appreciated by the crypto audience. Moreover, DOGE became a hub for experimental projects that tried to implement unconventional blockchain technologies and concepts. 

As a result, DOGE transformed into the first successful meme coin on the crypto market, garnering a massive following and becoming a go-to community for younger crypto enthusiasts worldwide. Today, DOGE still sits at the top of the popular meme coins chart, amassing an impressive $30 million market cap. 

The Foundation of a Meme Coin Market

While Dogecoin’s success was a global phenomenon, it took a while before the new meme coins emerged. Despite its popularity within crypto circles, Dogecoin’s big break happened in 2020, with Elon Musk promoting the currency on Twitter. Soon after, other projects started entering the cryptocurrency field, each presenting its unique spin on the DOGE concept. 

During this period, thousands of meme projects staked their claim on becoming a new sensation and replicating the success of Dogecoin. However, only Shiba Inu accumulated a significant following and benefited from the rise of this niche. 

The SHIB meme token employed a similar approach to Dogecoin, creating a near-infinite supply of coins and constructing a convenient payment system as a core utility of the project. Moreover, the Shiba Inu network rewards community members, validators, and miners for their efforts. 

While many meme coins failed to reach the heights of DOGE and SHIB, the total meme coin market grew tremendously from 2020 to 2024, creating a sector that taps into the online culture and emphasizes utility for average users instead of whale investors. 

Characteristics of Successful Meme Coins

To understand the seemingly spontaneous emergence of meme coins, we must examine how these digital currencies have captured the attention of younger audiences worldwide. While Dogecoin paved the way, today’s top meme coins are iterating on the initial formula and creating fast-growing communities in the digital scene. Here’s what makes the meme coin sector relevant in 2024. 

Emphasis on Community, Democracy, and Tokenomics

Internet communities have been around since the late 90s, giving individuals across the globe a way to join a group of like-minded enthusiasts united by a specific interest. Once the crypto market became a worldwide sensation, the demand for tightly-knit and well-constructed communities became massive. 

Millions of crypto owners and traders wanted to join a digital space where they would discuss crypto, exchange ideas, co-fund projects, or even acquire funding for their undertakings. 

The decentralized nature of blockchain networks is a perfect match for these communities, promoting a democratic approach to managing the group members. Additionally, strong tokenomics has become a staple of meme coins, allowing the community members to have faith in the underlying success of the project, even if the cultural hype slows down. 

Meme coins leverage these concepts meaningfully, creating a community around digital culture and motivating individuals to join a lighthearted but value-driven cryptocurrency group. This setup is ideal for users who might not be interested in conventional crypto communities like Ethereum or Bitcoin that focus on investment activities and employ a more conservative approach to experimentation. 

Major crypto networks have become too big to test new ideas on a regular basis, focusing strictly on the established values of their systems. In such a climate, meme coins have become even more important, creating a space where experimentation is not just permitted but incentivized by the community. 

Non-Mainstream Appeal

Going against the crypto conventions makes meme coins an alternative way to consume the blockchain experience. Non-mainstream quality has always been an asset regardless of the industry and medium, as individuals are driven towards outliers and out-of-the-box concepts. 

Non-mainstream popularity is especially effective with younger audiences who wish to stand out from the crowd and pursue progressive and experimental interests. Meme tokens perfectly encapsulate this rebellious nature but provide substance with style. 

The unconventional appeal of meme coins is not just limited to their cultural impact but the ability to provide a special product in the crypto field. Meme coin projects are often surprisingly serious about pushing the blockchain medium forward, with various communities focusing on different values and technology. 

For example, many of the newer meme crypto coins have decided to reinvigorate the Web3 and NFT landscape after the 2022 market crisis. Numerous meme coin projects promote the development of Web3 platforms, games, applications, and new networks, paving the way for a more sustainable growth of this medium. While the general public is still sore on Web3 and NFT projects, the gradual uptick of meme coins focused on this field has accelerated the resurgence. 

Encouraging Experimentation and Utility

When the meme coin popularity exploded in 2020, the entire point was to capitalize on DOGE’s cultural success without replicating its utilities. Only SHIB managed to take a value-driven approach in the saturated meme coin market. Unsurprisingly, SHIB is the only project to withstand the 2022 market downturn. 

However, the situation in the modern crypto landscape has changed. Newer meme coins are no longer exclusively associated with the hype propagated on social media platforms. The latest generation of meme tokens is very serious about presenting real-world utility and value, from building communities and creating payment solutions to developing brand-new digital products based on the blockchain system. 

As a result, many meme coins have transcended their speculative nature, which is widely recognized as a problem in the crypto scene. After all, a digital currency without any pegs to other commodities or real-life value can be devalued since there are no safeguards to offset negative trends. Fortunately, many meme coins no longer deal with this volatile problem. 

How to Select a Promising Meme Coin in 2024

The question, “What is a meme token?” is no longer frequently asked in the crypto landscape, with millions of individuals becoming familiar with this unconventional niche. However, selecting a high-value meme coin still remains a mystery to many crypto enthusiasts. 

Meme coins are notoriously challenging to forecast, even more so than the rest of the unstable crypto market. However, there are specific strategies to employ if considering investing in meme coins. 

Evaluate the Utilities

As discussed above, meme coins have come a long way from being hype-driven projects with little substance. Today, meme coins are often backed by meaningful technologies and utilities. From Web3 and P2P systems to smart contract functionality, meme coins often present some of the most exciting blockchain innovations. 

So, seeking meme coin projects with a strong focus on utility is advisable. As a result, the price fluctuations will be severely limited, and the general public will have more incentive to invest in the particular meme coin. For example, the Dogwifhat coin has introduced value through an inventive ownership structure. 

The creators of Dogwifhat have completely renounced their ownership of the network and coins, giving 100% of their creation to the community. As a result, investors know that the Dogwifhat coin is completely controlled by a democratic model, ensuring the absence of centralization and manipulation. 

Assess the Team and Community

Creative teams always matter when it comes to startups of any kind. The technical prowess, experience, and transparency of the founding members are crucial in developing a solid network that stands the test of time. 

Since most of the meme cryptocurrency projects are now focused on utilities, community engagement and decentralisaiton, the team that creates everything should be well-versed in the blockchain concept. As a result, they will construct a blockchain network that is technically fluent and actually keeps the initial utility promises of the project. 

During the 2020-2022 period, numerous newcomers started creating meme coins without any experience in crypto and its underlying concepts. Most of these projects were subpar in numerous ways, including their technical capabilities. So, investing in meme coins with experienced team members at the helm is much more profitable. 

Conduct Due Diligence

The virtual currency meme genre is still relatively new, but there is an abundance of information online that you can utilize for due diligence. Evaluating the white paper of the project is the initial step that you can’t miss. White papers provide most of the technical and business information about the meme coin projects, describing the tokenomics, operating protocols, currency characteristics, and team credentials. 

Next, it is important to check the information provided by the developers against the actual facts. This part might be more challenging due to the scarcity of information. However, online forums and communities might assist in this process, sharing negative or positive information about the project. 

Finally, you should stay informed about the latest events associated with your chosen meme coin. Any updates related to the launch of the project details should be evaluated carefully, as they could lead to massive changes in the coin’s valuation. 

Final Takeaways – Should You Invest in Meme Coins?

We’re long past the stage of asking, “What is a meme coin?”. Today, meme coins dominate the crypto market, becoming the most talked-about blockchain projects aside from the usual suspects like Bitcoin. 

This young niche has refined itself in the last two years, focusing more on actual values instead of only providing laughs through internet memes. So, becoming a meme coin investor is a much more promising prospect in 2024. However, volatility is still high in this niche, and making investments is a dangerous proposition. So, conducting research and due diligence becomes even more important in this sector. 

FAQ

What are meme coins? 

Meme coins are crypto networks and currencies based on internet memes. DOGE was the first meme coin project that led to the creation of a new sector within the blockchain landscape. 

Are crypto meme coins valuable? 

Meme coins used to be completely speculative but have become utility-based in recent years. Currently, most meme coins have a real-life value attached to them, which makes them an attractive investment option. 

How do you buy meme coins?

Meme coins are available on the most popular exchanges. Coinbase and Binance offer a selection of the most popular meme coins on the market.