Top Meme Coins Market Cap 2024

What are meme coins and tokens?

Inspired by internet memes and current events, and promoted by influencers, meme coins and tokens rose to prominence.

Influencers have always had a prominent presence in cryptocurrency culture, but never more so than recently. When Elon Musk took aim at the original cryptocurrency meme, Dogecoin, this spawned a wave of copycats, promoted by influencers on social media platforms like TikTok.

Some call it insanity to invest in meme currencies, others think of it as a cheap gamble with the potential to make 1000% profits. Whoever is right, interest in meme coins or tokens has increased in recent months. Here is the summary.

What are cryptocurrencies meme?

Typically, a meme coin has no inherent value and often has no use. As the name implies, these cryptocurrencies are often – but not exclusively – themed around Internet memes: jokes and images shared on social media.

The original meme currency, Dogecoin (DOGE), is based on the long-running Doge meme, which originated with the image of a Shibu Inu dog. It runs on its own blockchain and as such can be distinguished from meme tokens, which run on top of an existing blockchain.

Two of the most popular meme tokens are Doge-imitator Shibu Inu (SHIB), an ERC-20 token built on top of Ethereum, and SafeMoon (SAFEMOON), which runs on Binance SmartChain. But there are dozens of others.

How did meme tokens become so popular?

Since Dogecoin was released in 2013, it has become much easier to create a cryptocurrency, and meme tokens can be released quickly after events or become popular due to their associations with influencers.

For example, in May 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a photo of his pet goats with the caption “My goats: Max and Bitcoin”. Soon after, a meme token called Aqua Goat saw its value increase by about 300% hours after posting on social media.

When Elon Musk tweeted that if there was a scandal about him, he should be coined “Elongate”, an ELONGATE token was released within an hour. Mercenary motives? Perhaps, but so far, developers claim to have donated $3 million of their proceeds from the token's ascension to charity.

How do you buy coins and meme tokens?

As the leading meme currency, Dogecoin is available in a wide variety of encryption exchanges, including Coinbase, Binance and Kraken.

Meme tokens tend to be available in a more limited range of exchanges. Shiba Inu, for example, can be traded on Binance, Crypto.com and KuCoin, as well as on decentralized exchanges ( DEXs ) such as Uniswap . A listing on Coinbase Pro was temporarily delayed in June 2021. Safemoon, being based on Binance Smart Chain, can be traded on Binance and on BSC-based DEXs such as PancakeSwap.

Often, when first started, meme tokens are distributed. Many small print meme tokens are only available on DEXs like PancakeSwap and can only be purchased with other cryptocurrencies.

How are meme currencies and tokens different from other cryptocurrencies?

All cryptocurrencies have strong community and influencer support. But meme tokens have gained in popularity due to their disproportionate association with influencers, especially Elon Musk. The main single Tesla needs to tweet about a topic, such as the shark-based baby on popular children's song to send the price of the related meme tokens soaring .

Meanwhile, meme token developers use advertising gimmicks to raise the price. The team behind the Shibu Inu coin decided to give half of all SHIB tokens to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin. But he thwarted their plan by dumping the chips (donating the money to charity), asking the projects not to give him coins without his consent and stating that "I don't want to be a locus of power."

Meme tokens represented about 2,8% of cryptography's market value as of mid-June 2021, and the industry is worth more than $38 billion, according to an aggregator. But large price swings are not uncommon.

Typically, crypto meme have a large circulating supply – usually in the quadrillions.

What are the most popular meme tokens?

CoinMarketCap lists the three most popular meme coins and tokens like Dogecoin, Shibu Inu and Safemoon (June 2021). Here's a quick snapshot of each one.

1. Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin was invented by developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. It started out as a joke, but has become a serious proposition since Elon Musk started defending it in 2019.

Dog-themed encryption has seen its value skyrocket in recent months, reaching a market capitalization of $9 billion at its peak in January 2021.

Musk is now working with Doge developers to improve the platform, optimize it as a means to pay for goods and services and reduce its carbon footprint.

2. Shibu Inu Currency (SHIB)

Shibu Inu was launched in April 2021 as an “experiment in decentralized spontaneous community building” and quickly increased in value by more than 2.000.000% before reaching the highest point in early May.

The token benefited from the attention received by Dogecoin, especially when Elon Musk appeared on SNL last month, leading to a DOGE sale after he apparently called the coin a "hustle".

SHIB has a total supply of one quadrillion and is designed to allow users to keep billions or even trillions of tokens. Still, analysts warned that it would need to climb about 12 million percent to reach its magic $1 goal.

What are the dangers of meme tokens?

Not everyone sees the funny side of Dogecoin and its like. Thailand's regulator ordered the exchanges to remove meme tokens in June 2021, along with NFTs and fan tokens.

There's also the ever-present danger of “carpet pulling” – when developers hold a bunch of coins, make people buy and then throw their coins away. This causes the market to plummet as they escape with their booty. Even experienced investor Mark Cuban was a victim.

One way to mitigate the risk of carpet pulls is to buy only coins and tokens that are verified, audited, or that have some sort of reliable third-party oversight.