Meme Coin: From Community Joke to Speculative Asset

Meme coins, which originate from community jokes rather than fundamentals, have evolved from a fringe novelty into an important speculative asset. They are influencing liquidity trends, social media sentiment, and even political brand shaping.

The following data-driven insights outline the current landscape of the Meme coin sector.

Recent Updates

In 2024, the total capital in the Meme coin sector increased by over 500%, prompting speculative funds to rapidly shift from large-cap coins to Meme altcoins at the beginning of 2025. In 2025, the U.S. SEC officially classified many Meme coins as collectibles rather than securities, reducing regulatory protections for investors.

Since its launch on January 17, 2025, $TRUMP's market capitalization soared to $27 billion in less than a day, sparking further interest in presidential-themed tokens. Within weeks, over 700 Trump-themed copycat Meme coins emerged, of which 192 included the names of Trump family members, and 67 used the “official” branding.

By mid-2025, BNB Chain will occupy a 45% share of the trading volume in Meme coin DEX, surpassing SOL, whose share has dropped to 25%, while Ethereum ranks third with 20%.

The report shows that less than 1% of new tokens on a certain platform can upgrade to mainstream DEX trading. The platform is currently facing a federal lawsuit, accused of charging nearly $500 million in fees and issuing over 11 million tokens, 98% of which collapsed within 24 hours.

The SOL economy is highly dependent on Meme coin activities

Currently, over 60% of the economic activities in the SOL ecosystem are highly reliant on Meme coin-related businesses, which highlights the increasingly prominent Meme-driven ecological characteristics of this public chain.

The Telegram bot leads various sectors with 26% of application revenue, driven by trading automation and Meme coin issuance.

The issuing platform ranks second with 23%, indicating a surge in the issuance of new Meme coins on SOL.

The wallet contributes 18% of the total income, driven by on-chain transactions and user growth.

The trading application accounts for 14%, reflecting the high daily activity of Meme coin swaps and speculation.

Derivatives, coin trackers, and other applications each account for 5%, indicating a moderate level of engagement beyond the core Meme functionality.

DEX only accounts for 4%, with some exposure risk, as many Meme coin traders prefer bots and issuing platforms over traditional decentralized exchanges.

Market Overview

The Meme coin market is increasingly becoming a field driven by speculative capital rotation.

In 2025, meme coins will account for 5% to 7% of the total value of the global cryptocurrency market, with a total market value of approximately $63.6 billion. The 24-hour trading volume is about $7.61 billion.

The market cap high point in the sector is still driven by a few coins (such as DOGE, SHIB, PEPE).

Meme coin发行统计

In early 2025, the average monthly issuance of Meme coins exceeded 800,000. Among them, 1.7 million new Meme tokens were issued in January 2025. Some issuance platforms even claim to have issued millions of Meme coins through their platforms.

The best-performing Meme coin in 2025, with an average realized return on initial investment of 150%.

The issuance of Meme coin has surged, driving its development service market currently estimated to be worth over 70 million USD.

However, the surge in issuance indicates that the low creation threshold remains a significant characteristic of Meme coins. Many issuances bypass strict reviews or audits, increasing the likelihood of rug pulls or fraud.

Meme coin price prediction

2025

The average market price of Meme coin is expected to be $0.0226, with a potential high of $0.0245, indicating an early stabilization in the market.

2026

The average price of Meme coin is expected to rise to $0.0278, an increase of 23% compared to the average price in 2025.

2027

Predictions show that Meme coin will continue to rise to an average price of $0.0379, with a peak close to $0.0409.

2028-2029

The average price of Meme coin is expected to stabilize at $0.0501.

2030

With the popularization of applications and the enhancement of token utility, the average price may reach $0.0572, with a peak possibly touching $0.0613.

2031

The long-term outlook shows significant growth, with the average price expected to reach $0.0811, a high of $0.0836, representing an increase of over 250% compared to the 2025 level.

Active Meme Coins Count

In 2024, a certain data platform listed a total of 2229 Meme coins. Many newly issued tokens quickly disappear or get delisted. Therefore, the actual number of active ones continues to fluctuate.

The analysis report indicates that there are thousands of active Meme coins at any given point in 2025. They have active quotes in 217 trading markets worldwide, confirming the regulatory effect of their token economics model on activity.

New Meme coins often quickly fall into market saturation, leading to minimal liquidity for most tokens. Additionally, the survival rate of new tokens beyond 6 to 12 months is very low, but exact loss data is difficult to publicly track.

Investors can use a professionally screened index and ranking mechanism to filter out low-activity meme coins.

Top Meme coins ranked by market capitalization

In October 2025, the top Meme coins tracked by market capitalization in a certain Meme coin index include: DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, FLOKI, and TRUMP. The top 10 Meme coins account for about 90% of the total capital in the entire Meme coin sector.

Dogecoin

With a market capitalization of over $31.59 billion, it remains the highest valued Meme coin.

Shiba Inu coin

With a market capitalization of 6.29 billion USD, it ranks second.

PEPE

following closely with $3.2 billion.

Floki

The market cap fluctuates around $705 million, while the ranking of Meme coins often changes within hours due to social popularity.

BONK

In July 2025, the daily increase exceeded 15%, with a market value of 1.6 billion USD, becoming the fifth largest Meme coin.

TRUMP

Reached a peak market value of $27 billion within 24 hours of launch, then significantly fell back during huge trading.

About 80% of the total supply of $TRUMP tokens is held by entities controlled by Trump or his affiliates.

$TRUMP issued over $350 million in token sales and related platform fees.

Meme Coin Volatility Indicator

The U.S. SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) pointed out in its regulatory notice in February 2025 that Meme coins often exhibit significant market price volatility, with a risk level higher than most crypto assets.

• BONK is the most volatile major Meme coin, with a daily price change correlation of over 0.72–0.83 with JEETS, PEPE, and BOME.

• The survival rate of newly issued tokens is less than 8% after 60 days, with most losing over 97% of their peak value in a rapid crash cycle.

Research has found that the volatility of Meme coins typically exceeds 11.7% daily, which is far higher than the average levels of most altcoins or Bitcoin. POPCAT and similar Meme tokens have demonstrated daily price fluctuations of up to 53%, making sudden reversals the norm in this field.

In 2025, Meme coins often trade within the “squeeze zone” and are typically followed by a 2-4 times breakout after a social-driven surge. Additionally, price waterfalls driven by whales or bots can amplify hourly volatility by 6 times.

The Meme coin sector achieved an average year-to-date return of +1,313% in the first half of 2025, becoming the only profitable crypto segment during that period. Before the third quarter, the average profit and loss of the Meme coin sector was +33.08%, driven by a few outstanding performers.

Meme coin trading volume

• In the first quarter of 2025, when the Meme coin sector reaches a local peak, its trading volume accounts for a maximum of 25% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.

• Between January and April 2025, the Meme coin sector lost approximately 58% of its value, with trading volume declining by about 63%.

• By mid-2025, Dogecoin and PEPE will maintain 24-hour trading volumes of over $500 million and $760 million respectively.

• In early October 2025, top Meme coins continue to maintain a 24-hour trading volume of over $9 billion, led by peak popularity.

• During the summer and autumn of 2025, the daily trading volume of a certain platform fluctuated between 96 million and 320 million USD, depending on the issuance quantity of Meme coins. The platform reported a daily trading amount of approximately 264 million USD, and as of the fourth quarter of 2025, the historical total trading volume exceeded 73 billion USD.

Among all the issued Meme coins, less than 5% can maintain high trading volume after the first 72 hours. The core driving forces behind the sudden surge in trading volume are viral spread on social media, celebrity catalysis effects, and influencer-driven issuances, often growing 2 to 5 times within a few hours.

The Most Popular Meme Coin Themes

Animal-themed Meme coins: Such as DOGE, Shiba Inu, BONK, WIF, with a total market value exceeding $30 billion in 2025, dominating the Meme brand space.

Among them, BONK is about to reach the milestone of burning 1 trillion tokens this year.

Frog and Amphibian Themed Meme Coin: Led by PEPE, the trading volume surged over 1.7 billion USD in July 2025, with a 27% month-on-month increase in social engagement.

Meme coins centered around political satire: Such as TRUMP, MAGA, BODEN, during major political events in the United States, pushed the trading volume of SOL's meme coins to $26 billion.

Among them, $TRUMP was launched in 2025, reaching a historical high market value of 14.9 billion USD, and then the volatility erased 5 billion USD in market value within minutes after the peak.

Meme coins associated with pop culture: During the surge in hashtag trends on platform X, daily price peaks of 300–600% can occur.

The ultra-deflationary Meme coin with a burn mode accounts for about 21% of the best-performing issuances this year; tokens lacking practical utility and promising “10x returns” account for about 17% of the daily trending Meme coin issuances, often surging dramatically before fading within a few weeks.

As of April 2025, less than 10% of the top 100 Meme coins by market capitalization still reflect their original themes from the first quarter, highlighting the rapid shift in trends.

Distribution of Meme Coins on the Blockchain

Meme coins are increasingly migrating to blockchains with average transaction fees below $0.01, driving adoption on SOL, BNB, and Base, with SOL, Base, and BNB collectively accounting for 95% of new Meme token issuances.

Ethereum's market share in Meme coins fell below 5% in the second quarter of 2025.

SOL

Issuance Data

Since the platform was created in January 2024, over 6 million Meme coins have been issued on a certain platform for SOL.

In February 2025, with the market cooling down and retail interest waning, the platform's daily issuance of meme coins has fallen from a peak of 70,000 coins to 25,000 coins.

By mid-2025, the platform will support the issuance of an average of 65,000 SOLMeme tokens daily and expand to the Base chain through the Meme coin minting API.

DEX Trading Volume

The trading volume of SOL Meme coin DEX reached a peak of 206 billion US dollars in January 2025, accounting for 79% of the total trading activity of SOL that month.

Only less than 2.1% of SOLMeme coin can “upgrade” from the issuance platform to certain mainstream DEXs like some DEXs, and most have failed to establish sustainable liquidity.

In addition, liquidity fragmentation continues to exist, and successful Meme coins are usually spread across 3 to 5 major chains, but many liquidity pools on each chain are still shallow.

Multi-chain Meme coin statistics

In 2025, 21% of the top 100 Meme coins implemented a cross-chain minting/burning mechanism to maintain supply balance between networks; there are over 13 million unique wallet addresses interacting with multi-chain Meme coin bridges.

In the second quarter of 2025, during the celebrity token issuance and major NFT airdrop, the total cross-chain bridging volume of Meme coin increased by 420%.

The Meme coin project utilizing chain-agnostic token contracts achieved a distribution that is 2-3 times wider, but the wallet retention rate is 17% lower than that of similar projects on a single chain.

By the end of the third quarter of 2025, DOGE and SHIB will each support more than four major chains, with an active multichain bridging network covering BNB, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Ethereum.

Ethereum and SOL account for 78% of the total cross-chain settlement value of all Meme coins, while Base's share is expected to grow to 16% in the summer of 2025.

In addition, by September 2025, security incidents related to multi-chain bridging have caused losses exceeding $190 million for Meme coin holders.

Social Media Activities and Trends

The mention volume of #Meme币# and related tags is expected to grow by approximately 53% from January 2024 to 2025, surpassing discussions in many altcoin verticals. 病