Meme Coin: A Speculative Asset from Fringe to Mainstream

Meme coins have evolved from a niche novelty to an important speculative asset, influencing liquidity trends, social media sentiment, and even political branding. The following data-driven insights outline the current landscape of the Meme coin space.

Recent Updates

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

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

By mid-2025, the BNB chain will account for 45% of the trading volume in Meme coin DEX, surpassing SOL, which will drop to 25%, while Ethereum will rank third with 20%.

The report shows that less than 1% of new tokens on a certain platform can upgrade to mainstream DEX trading. This 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 economic activity in the SOL ecosystem highly relies on Meme coin-related businesses, which highlights the increasingly prominent Meme-driven ecological characteristics of this public chain.

Telegram bots lead all sectors with 26% of application revenue, driven by trading automation and the issuance of Meme coins. Issuing platforms rank second with 23%, reflecting a surge in new Meme coin issuances on SOL. Wallets contribute 18% of total revenue, driven by on-chain transactions and user growth. Trading applications account for 14%, reflecting high daily active users in Meme coin swaps and speculation.

Derivatives, coin trackers, and other applications each account for 5%, indicating a moderate level of participation beyond the core Meme functions. DEX only accounts for 4%, partially exposing risks, as many Meme coin traders prefer bots and issuance platforms over traditional decentralized exchanges.

Market Overview

The Meme coin market is increasingly becoming a space driven by speculation and capital rotation. By 2025, meme coins are expected to account for 5% to 7% of the total value of the global cryptocurrency market, with a total market cap of approximately $63.6 billion. The 24-hour trading volume is around $7.61 billion. The market cap peak in the sector is still driven by a few coins (such as DOGE, SHIB, PEPE).

Meme coin issuance statistics

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. Moreover, some issuing platforms claim to have issued millions of Meme coins through their platforms.

The best-performing Meme coin in 2025 achieved an average initial investment return rate of 150%. The surge in the issuance of Meme coins has driven the estimated value of the development service market to over $70 million.

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

Meme coin price prediction

• Year 2025: The average market price of Meme coin is expected to be $0.0226, with a potential high of $0.0245.
• 2026: The average price is expected to rise to $0.0278, an increase of 23% compared to the average price in 2025.
• 2027: Predictions indicate that the average price will continue to rise to $0.0379, with a peak close to $0.0409.
• 2028-2029: The average price is expected to stabilize at $0.0501.
• 2030: With the widespread adoption and increased utility of the tokens, the average price may reach $0.0572, with a peak possibly hitting $0.0613.
• 2031: Long-term outlook shows significant growth, with an average price expected to reach $0.0811, a maximum of $0.0836, an increase of over 250% compared to 2025 levels.

Active Meme Coins

In 2024, a data platform listed a total of 2229 Meme coins. Many newly issued tokens quickly disappear or are 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 role of their token economics model in regulating activity.

New Meme coins typically quickly fall into market saturation, resulting in most tokens having negligible liquidity. Additionally, the survival rate of new tokens beyond 6 to 12 months is very low, but exact loss data is difficult to publicly track.

Top Meme Coins Ranked by Market Capitalization

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

• DOGE: Leading with a market cap of over $31.59 billion, it remains the highest valued Meme coin.
• SHIB: Ranked second with a market value of $6.29 billion.
• PEPE: Following closely with a market cap of 3.2 billion dollars.
• Floki: Market cap fluctuates around $705 million.
• BONK: In July 2025, it surged over 15% in a single day, reaching a market capitalization of $1.6 billion, becoming the fifth largest Meme coin.
• TRUMP: Reached a peak market value of $27 billion within 24 hours of launch, then significantly declined in massive trading. Approximately 80% of the total supply of $TRUMP coins is held by entities controlled by Trump or his affiliates. The issuance of $TRUMP generated over $350 million in token sales and associated platform fees.

Meme Coin Volatility Indicator

The U.S. SEC pointed out in its regulatory notice in February 2025 that Meme coins often exhibit significant market price volatility, with risk levels higher than most crypto assets.

• BONK is the most volatile major Meme coin, with a daily price 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 during rapid crash cycles.

Research shows that the volatility of Meme coins typically exceeds 11.7% daily, far higher than the average level of most altcoins or Bitcoin. Some 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 segment in the crypto space during this period. Before the third quarter, the average gain/loss in 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 will account for up to 25% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.
• From January to April 2025, the Meme coin sector lost approximately 58% of its value, with trading volume decreasing 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 continued to maintain a 24-hour trading volume exceeding 9 billion dollars, driven 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 amount of Meme coins. The platform reported a daily trading volume of approximately 264 million USD, and by 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. Viral spread on social media, celebrity catalytic effects, and influencer-driven issuance are the core driving forces behind the sudden surge in trading volume, often growing 2 to 5 times within a few hours.

Most Popular Meme Coin Themes

1. Animal-themed Meme coins: such as DOGE, Shiba Inu, BONK, WIF, with a total market value exceeding 30 billion USD in 2025, dominating the Meme brand sector.

2. Frog and amphibian themed Meme coin: Led by PEPE, the trading volume surged over $1.7 billion on July 1, 2025, with a 27% increase in social engagement.

3. 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 dollars.

4. Meme coins associated with pop culture: During the surge of trending hashtags on a certain social platform, daily price peaks of 300-600% can occur.

Hyper-deflationary Meme coins with a burn mechanism account for about 21% of the best-performing issuances this year; tokens lacking real utility and promising “10x returns” account for about 17% of the daily trending Meme coin issuances, often experiencing a surge followed by a decline 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 changes in trends.

Meme coin's blockchain distribution

Meme coin issuance is increasingly migrating to blockchains with average transaction fees below $0.01, driving adoption on SOL, BNB, and Base, which together account for 95% of new Meme token issuance.

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

SOL

Issuance Data

Since the platform's creation 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 investor interest waning, the daily issuance of meme coins on that platform has fallen from a peak of 70,000 coins to 25,000 coins. As of mid-2025, the platform supports an average daily issuance of 65,000 SOLMeme tokens and expands 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 in January 2025, accounting for 79% of the total trading activity of SOL that month. Less than 2.1% of SOL Meme coins were able to “upgrade” from the issuing platform to mainstream DEXs like Raydium, with most failing to establish sustainable liquidity.

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

Multi-chain Meme Coin Statistics

In 2025, 21% of the top 100 Meme coins implemented cross-chain minting/burning mechanisms 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 issuance of celebrity tokens and major NFT airdrops, the total cross-chain bridging volume of Meme coin increased by 420%.

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

By the third quarter of 2025, DOGE and SHIB will each support more than four major chains, with an active multi-chain 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% by the summer of 2025.

In addition, as of September 2025, security incidents related to multi-chain bridging have caused losses of over $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 about 53% from January 2024 to 2025, surpassing discussions in many altcoin verticals. Viral memes, influencer posts, and coordinated activities can trigger price changes of over 20% in just a few hours.

Certain social platforms are the main drivers of emotions. However, comment bots and fake accounts exaggerate engagement metrics, obscuring genuine interest.

Among them, many Meme coin community members in active Discord or Telegram groups number over 50,000 to 100,000.

Some projects will hold “Meme contests”, AMAs, or NFT giveaways to stimulate viral social sharing and engagement.

Investor Demographics and Profiles

A survey indicated that among cryptocurrency investors in the United States, about 31% reported that their first exposure to cryptocurrency was through Meme coins. Among them, younger investors are more active in the Meme coin space.

Many Meme coin holders have smaller positions, often