The Path of Meme Tokens: from Jokes To Scam

What started as a joke, meme coins have become an integral part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. Based on popular characters and humor, some coins have found their audience and attracted many supporters, forming strong communities and developers.

It would seem that the sector has examples of how to develop further. But instead of offering something unique or innovative, in general meme coins have become one of the most volatile and speculative markets.

The community closely follows every word of opinion leaders to turn the appropriate into a token, newcomers hope to get rich on it (but only insiders get rich), even politicians get involved in this race. What can lead to this trend and what it threatens the cryptoindustry, we understand in the material.

This is not a joke

The most famous representative of the segment is considered Dogecoin (DOGE). It was the first to enter and consolidate in the top 10 cryptoassets by capitalization (CoinGecko), competing with more serious projects.

Dogecoin was conceived as a joke about the rapidly growing number of cryptocurrencies, but a strong community immediately formed around it. The most important ambassador of the project was billionaire Elon Musk – his active promotion restarted the development of the network and expanded the circle of users. Among other things, this was due to celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Lil Yachty and Mark Cuban.

Dogecoin probably owes its popularity to its non-serious approach to serious things. The project has infrastructure, development plans and a team of developers. In 11 years, the meme token has traveled a long path of acceptance, becoming a popular tool among merchants to pay for purchases. It also launched the trend for the emergence of “dog coins”.

Shiba Inu and Floki Inu turned out to be as good as Dogecoin in terms of ideas and internal content. The team of the first project is actively developing it, offering the community a meta-asset, L2 solution on top of Ethereum and plans to turn SHIB – the main asset of the ecosystem – from a meme into a utility token.

Serious plans were also shared at Floki Inu. At the end of 2024, the developers announced preparations to launch an ETP for European investors.

The above examples demonstrate that meme coins are capable of evolving into full-fledged cryptoecosystems with real developments. However, this requires team effort, attention to the final product and community support. As practice shows, such projects are rather the exception, and most of the sector’s representatives become tools for speculation.

Young and bold

Mem-coins lowered the barrier to entry into the industry – no need to buy the first or second cryptocurrencies in the hope of Xs, now you can get them by investing in mem-coins in time. But even this stage still held back mass speculation – creators need to at least understand the technical part, which not everyone could.

The situation was changed by Pump.fun – a platform based on Solana, which simplified the process of new assets to a minimum. Since the launch of the “meme-token factory”, its total revenue from commissions reached $431 million. Users launched over 6.3 million coins with a total capitalization of over $5 billion, but not all of them eventually continued their existence.

The ease of creating a meme token led to a boom in speculative coins that were not backed by anything. The work of fraudsters became much easier, and insider trading began to flourish. Any statement by opinion leaders was perceived as a signal for the appearance of another shitcoin.

In January 2025, a class action lawsuit was filed against the operator of Pump.fun, Baton Corporation. The project was accused of selling unregistered securities in the form of tokens, assisting in the organization of Ponzi schemes and Pump & Dump. However, this came at a time when changes in the approach of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and authorities in general to regulating the crypto market had already begun.

Politicians

The meme-coin sector has attracted Donald Trump, who has become unexpectedly friendly to cryptocurrencies. He was not embarrassed by the status of the head of state, possible violations of laws and ethical issues. Two days before the inauguration, the politician announced the launch of TRUMP, which skyrocketed and quickly went into correction – investors suffered losses of about $2 billion. Melania Trump followed her husband’s example. At the time of writing, neither the SEC nor any other regulator has yet taken an interest in the asset.

Around the same time, a strange story was developing on another continent. On February 9, Central African Republic (CAR) President Faustin Archange Touadera’s X-account announced the launch of the state-issued meme token CAR. Many doubted the reality of what was happening, although at the peak the capitalization of the asset reached $1.05 billion. But within a day CAR fell in price by 96%, and if it was really an “experiment” designed to help national development and bring the country to the international arena, it failed.

The title of the most scandalous project so far is held by LIBRA, not without the help of Argentine President Javier Miley. He promoted the token, which provoked its growth, which was also short-lived. Subsequently, the head of state tried to dissociate himself from the project, but he was still accused of fraud, participation in the Pump & Dump scheme and threatened with impeachment.

For some reason regulators were not interested in the situation again, but instead researchers and analysts took up the case. They saw a connection between the teams responsible for launching LIBRA and MELANIA meme-tokens.

Consequences

What’s happening doesn’t seem like a disaster yet, but it already carries serious reputational risks for the crypto industry, which seems to have passed the “Wild West” stage.

Speaking to reporters, BOB co-founder Dom Hartz noted that the scandals surrounding LIBRA, and previously TRUMP, MELANIA, BARRON and HAWK, have undermined Solana’s reputation. Thus, the network, conceived as a “killer” of Ethereum, has become increasingly associated not with innovation but with fraud, scam, insiders and pamp schemes.

According to Chainplay’s survey of 1,066 respondents, nearly 80 percent of crypto investors invested in the president-approved meme coins TRUMP, CAR and LIBRA, but two-thirds lost money.

According to other data, for 37% of investors, the “presidential” tokens were their first experience in the digital asset industry. 21% of newcomers refused to participate further in the market afterward. Thus, an unstable and speculative sector threatens to hinder the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies, which the industry is striving for.

Conclusion

Meme-coins have for the most part ceased to be projects with their own history, infrastructure and goals. They now look like an opportunity to enrich insiders, scammers, and those looking to make a quick buck.

If the industry needs long-term growth, it is important for its participants to make users see cryptocurrencies not only as a tool for speculation, but also as a financial system of the future.