Behind the crazy growth of Meme coin: 95% is eyewash, but this 5% changed the entire crypto market.

From a fringe joke to a mainstream speculative asset, the rise of Meme coins in the past two years has been outrageously fast.

They not only drain liquidity and manipulate social sentiment but even begin to influence political branding. Marketing teams use them to drive engagement, and some hedge funds have even started to allocate small positions in these high-volatility things.

The numbers below will make you re-evaluate this crazy track.

Crazy 2024-2025: Capital Influx and Regulatory Shift

In 2024, the total market value of Meme coin skyrocketed by over 500%. This wave of speculation continued to brew in early 2025, with funds crazily shifting from large-cap coins to various altcoin Memes.

Then the US SEC suddenly made a bold move: officially classifying many Meme coins as “collectibles” rather than securities. Sounds good, right? In fact, it means that the level of investor protection is significantly reduced.

On January 17, 2025, $TRUMP burst onto the scene. In less than 24 hours, its market capitalization soared to $27 billion. This figure ignited the entire presidential-themed token market—within weeks, over 700 Trump-themed clones appeared on the market, 192 of which directly used the names of Trump family members, and 67 even dared to label themselves as “official.”

By mid-2025, the BNB chain will account for 45% of the trading volume in Meme coin DEXs, surpassing SOL (which will drop to 25%), while Ethereum will only have 20% in third place.

Let's take another look at the data from Pump.fun: less than 1% of new tokens can “graduate” from this platform to mainstream DEXs. This platform is now being sued by the federal government, accused of charging nearly $500 million in fees and issuing over 11 million tokens, of which 98% collapsed within 24 hours.

SOL: A Public Chain Hijacked by Meme Coins

Currently, over 60% of the economic activity in the SOL ecosystem is related to Meme coins. That's right, this chain has been completely Meme-ified.

Specifically:

• The Telegram bot accounts for 26% of the app's revenue, earning money through trading automation and Meme coin issuance.
• The issuance platform accounts for 23%, direct evidence of the explosive increase in the issuance of new Meme coins.
• Wallet contribution 18%, driving on-chain transactions and user growth
• Trading app 14%, high daily activity of Meme coin swaps and speculation.
• Derivatives and coin trackers each account for 5%
• DEX only accounts for 4%—this number is a bit alarming, indicating that many traders do not use traditional decentralized exchanges at all, preferring bots and issuance platforms.

Market Overview: A Speculation-Driven Capital Rotation Game

In 2025, Meme coin accounts for 5%-7% of the total market value of the global cryptocurrency market, with a total market value of approximately 63.6 billion USD and a 24-hour trading volume of about 7.61 billion USD.

The market capitalization of the sector mainly relies on the old faces of DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE.

Issuance Frenzy and Low Barrier Traps

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

The best-performing batch of Meme coins in 2025 had an average return rate of 150%. This has led to the emergence of a Meme coin development service market worth over $70 million.

However, the surge in issuance has also exposed problems: the entry threshold is too low, most issuances skip review or auditing, and the probability of rug pulls and fraud has risen sharply.

Price Prediction: Rational or Fantasy?

2025: The market average price is expected to be $0.0226, with a potential high of $0.0245, indicating an early stabilization trend.

2026: The average price is expected to rise to $0.0278, an increase of 23% compared to 2025.

2027: Continuing to rise to an average price of $0.0379, with a peak close to $0.0409.

2028-2029: The average price is expected to stabilize at 0.0501 USD.

2030: Widespread application + enhancement of token utility, the average price may reach $0.0572, with a peak possibly touching $0.0613.

2031: Long-term outlook shows significant growth, with an average price expected to be $0.0811 and a maximum of $0.0836, increasing by over 250% compared to 2025.

Of course, no one can say how many of these predictions will come true.

Number of Active Meme Coins: Survival or Extinction?

In 2024, CoinMarketCap listed 2229 Meme coins. However, many newly issued tokens quickly disappear or are delisted, and the actual number of active ones continues to fluctuate.

At any point in 2025, there will be thousands of active Meme coins with active quotes in 217 trading markets worldwide.

New Meme coins often quickly fall into market saturation, resulting in minimal liquidity for most tokens. The survival rate of new tokens beyond 6-12 months is extremely low, but exact loss data is difficult to track.

Market Cap Ranking: The Dominance of Leading Players

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

Dogecoin: With a market value exceeding $31.59 billion, it remains the highest valued Meme coin.

Shiba Inu Coin: $6.29 billion market cap ranks second.

PEPE: $3.2 billion follows closely behind.

Floki: The market cap fluctuates around $705 million, with rankings changing within hours due to social popularity.

BONK: In July 2025, it surged over 15% in a single day, reaching a market cap of $1.6 billion, becoming the fifth largest Meme coin.

TRUMP: Launched with a peak market value of $27 billion within 24 hours, followed by a significant drop in massive trading. About 80% of the $TRUMP supply is controlled by Trump or his affiliates, generating over $350 million in token sales and platform fees.

Volatility: More Exciting than a Roller Coaster

The US SEC pointed out in its regulatory notice in February 2025 that the price of Meme coins is highly volatile, with a risk level higher than that of most crypto assets.

• BONK is the most volatile major Meme coin, with a daily price change correlation of up to 0.72-0.83 with JEETS, PEPE, and BOME.
• The survival rate of newly issued tokens is below 8% after 60 days, with most losing over 97% of their peak value in a rapid collapse.

Meme coin volatility typically exceeds 11.7% daily, much higher than the average for altcoins or Bitcoin. Meme tokens like POPCAT have demonstrated daily price fluctuations of up to 53%, with sudden reversals being the norm.

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

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

Trading Volume: From Peak to Decline

• In the first quarter of 2025, when the Meme coin sector reaches a local peak, the trading volume will account for up to 25% of the total cryptocurrency trading volume.
• From January to April 2025, the Meme coin sector lost about 58% of its value, with trading volume decreasing by approximately 63%.
• By mid-2025, Dogecoin and PEPE are expected to 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.
• During the summer and autumn of 2025, Pump.fun's daily trading volume fluctuated between 96 million and 320 million USD, with a total historical trading volume exceeding 73 billion USD by the fourth quarter.

Among all issued Meme coins, less than 5% can maintain high trading volume after the first 72 hours. Viral spread on social media, celebrity catalysis, and influencer-driven factors are at the core of the sudden surge in trading volume, often growing 2-5 times within a few hours.

Popular Topics: From Animals to Political Satire

Animal Theme: DOGE, Shiba Inu, BONK, and WIF will exceed a total market value of 30 billion USD in 2025, dominating the Meme brand sector. Among them, BONK is set to achieve the milestone of burning 1 trillion tokens this year.

Frog and Amphibian Theme: Led by PEPE, the daily trading volume surged to over $1.7 billion in July 2025, with social engagement increasing by 27% month-on-month.

Political Satire: During major political events in the U.S., the trading volume of SOL's meme coins surged to $26 billion with figures like TRUMP, MAGA, and BODEN. The market cap of $TRUMP reached a historical high of $14.9 billion, and then the volatility erased $5 billion in market cap within minutes after the peak.

Pop Culture Relevance: During the surge of tag trends on platform X, daily price peaks can occur ranging from 300% to 600%.

The ultra-deflationary Meme coins with a burn mode account for about 21% of this year's best-performing issuances; tokens lacking real utility and promising “10x returns” account for about 17% of daily trending issuances, often surging dramatically before fading within 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, with trends changing rapidly.

Blockchain Distribution: The Victory of Low-Fee Chains

Meme coins are increasingly migrating to blockchains with average transaction fees below $0.01. SOL, Base, and BNB together account for 95% of new Meme token issuance, while Ethereum's market share falls below 5% in the second quarter of 2025.

SOL's Meme coin craze

Issuance Data:

• Since its creation in January 2024, over 6 million Meme coins have been issued on Pump.fun.
• In February 2025, as the market cooled, the daily issuance decreased from a peak of 70,000 coins to 25,000 coins.
• By mid-2025, Pump.fun will support an average daily issuance of 65,000 SOLMeme coins.

DEX trading volume:

• The trading volume of SOLMeme coin DEX reached a peak of 206 billion USD 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 issuing platform to mainstream DEXs like Raydium.

Liquidity fragmentation continues to exist, and successful Meme coins are usually distributed across 3-5 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 cross-chain minting/burning mechanisms; over 13 million independent wallet addresses interacted 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%.

By the third quarter of 2025, DOGE and SHIB will support more than four major chains each, with an active multi-chain bridging network covering BNB, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, and Ethereum. Ethereum and SOL together account for 78% of the cross-chain settlement value of all Meme coins, with Base's share growing to 16% in the summer of 2025.

As of September 2025, security incidents related to multi-chain bridging have caused losses of over $190 million to Meme coin holders.

Social Media: The Core Driver of Emotions

#Meme币# and related tag mentions are expected to increase by about 53% from January 2024 to 2025, surpassing many altcoin verticals. Viral memes, influencer posts, and coordinated activities can trigger price fluctuations of over 20% within hours.

X, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok are the main platforms driving emotions. However, comment bots and fake accounts exaggerate engagement metrics, masking genuine interest.

Many active Discord or Telegram group members in the Meme coin community exceed 50,000 to 100,000. Some projects hold “Meme contests”, AMAs, or NFT giveaways to stimulate social viral spread.

Investor Profile: The Adventure Game of Young People

A survey indicated that among cryptocurrency investors in the United States, approximately 31% reported that their first exposure to crypto was through Meme coin. Younger investors are more active in this field.

• Many Meme coin holders have small positions, often accounting for less than 1% of the total portfolio.
• Some “whales” or large holders may control 20-50% of the circulating supply of certain coins.

Many retail investors entered the market after observing short-term price increases, exposing themselves to the risk of price reversals. Institutional investor interest is evident, but the main avenues remain limited to structured thematic funds or small allocations in alternative asset classes.

In emerging markets, Meme coins often overlap with speculative trading in local forex/crypto channels.

Risk Factors: 95% Likely to Be a Scam

The meme coin craze requires large-scale detection of rug pull risks, backdoor liquidity extraction, and malicious token logic. From 2025 to now, the crypto service sector has lost over $2.17 billion.

Analysts estimate that up to 95% of newly issued tokens may involve scams or are low-probability successful projects, and most will collapse rapidly. 60% of new issued tokens have an active lifecycle of less than 24 hours.

Security and Vulnerabilities

In the Meme coins issued in 2025, less than 15% have undergone any form of smart contract audit.

• Over 25% of the audited SOLMeme coin smart contracts have been marked with centralized token distribution risk.
• Over 91% of new Meme coins on the Base chain have been found to have at least one security vulnerability.

The main attack modes include: inflation and destruction logic vulnerabilities, owner withdrawal vulnerabilities, and misuse issues of deleGatecall.

Automated robot-driven sandwich attacks and front-running exploit vulnerabilities, leading to over 35% of low liquidity pools experiencing market manipulation.

Sniper Robot: The Real Winner

On platforms like Pump.fun, up to 80% of early trading volume is driven by sniper bots, especially within the first few blocks.

Robots can execute trades in less than a second after new Meme coin liquidity events occur, far faster than humans. In certain issuances, robots account for over 70% of the total unique wallet interactions within the first 10 blocks of the transaction.

The trading volume bot simulates organic order flow through randomized wallet rotation and intervals to avoid detection, providing liquidity for over 100 new tokens daily.

The largest robot-driven Meme coin trading can create price peaks of 100-500% within minutes, followed by a rapid reversal as investors follow in.

A single sniper robot accumulated over 6.8 million dollars in profit in just one month through Pump.fun, with a single trade return rate as high as 2227 times. During the peak activity period in 2024, the sniper robot achieved over 15,000 SOL in realized profits across thousands of trades.

The complex sniper bot monitors the DEX memory pool to analyze new contract deployments, anticipating thousands of issuances each month.

Historical Performance: From Soaring to Plummeting

2023-2024 Bear Market Cycle: The price of Meme coins has dropped by as much as 85%, quickly wiping out speculative gains; over 60% failed to survive six months.

Early 2024: The top five Meme coins account for over 40% of all cryptocurrency speculative trading volume.

Between the first and second quarters of 2024: The market value of Meme coin has increased by over 550%, surpassing most other crypto sectors.

May 2024: The number of independent wallet holders of Meme coins exceeds 18 million.

End of 2024: Over 30% of leading Meme coins have added community governance features to enhance resilience.

In 2024, the trading volume of Meme coins surged to over $35 billion. Dogecoin maintained a market value of over $10 billion throughout the year, remaining the most prominent Meme coin by valuation. Tokens like PEPE and FLOKI recorded over 100 times returns from their issuance to their respective peaks.

Final Words

Meme coin has transformed from a fringe sideshow in the crypto market into an undeniable player in the speculative market.

Data speaks: capital is flowing in, trading volume is surging, and new coins are being issued wildly. However, at the same time, scams, hacking attacks, and ruthless volatility are also on the rise.

If you want to enter this field, strict due diligence, on-chain analysis, and community signals are not optional - they are essential for survival.

Remember: 95% might be scams, but that 5% is truly changing the game. The question is, can you find that 5% and get out before they crash.