Meme Coin Development History: From Frenzy to Settling, A Three-Stage Evolution Panorama

Summary

This article comprehensively outlines the development process of meme coins and analyzes their unique value logic: unlike traditional financial assets, the core value of meme coins is reflected as “cultural dissemination power × community consensus,” rather than technical or practical value. Based on evolutionary characteristics, it can be divided into three key development stages:

Breaking Ground/Expanding Foundation (2013-2016) - Period of Wild Growth

• Ephemeral type: Lacks cultural accumulation, quickly disappears (Mooncoin, TIPS, etc.)
• Invincible General Type: Cultural Symbol + Community Driven, Long-Term Survival (e.g., DOGE)

Hibernation/Outbreak (2017-2021) - Smart Contracts Bring Qualitative Change

• Meteor Shining Type: Speculative driven, bubble bursts quickly (UET, HOGE)
• Stellar Everbright: Ecological Expansion, Breaking Limitations (ShibaSwap of SHIB)
• Transformational breakthrough: attempting innovation but progress is limited (FLOKI’s metaverse plan, SAMO public chain binding)

Consolidation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) - Market Restructuring Period

• Short-term speculation type: relies on hot topics, extremely high risk (political narrative craze)
• Ecosystem-driven: Based on public chains, short-term explosion (WIF, BONK)
• Narrative Innovation Type: AI + Meme Concept Speculation (GOAT)
• Cultural Symbol Type: Internet Celebrity IP, Short-term Popularity (MOODENG)

Meme coin will continue to face the balance test of “speculation and substance,” with technological innovation (AI, DeFAI) and community building becoming key factors. Although the market is adjusting, as a typical product of attention economy, meme coin will still maintain its unique position in the cryptocurrency field.

Reviewing history, tracing the context

As one of the most unique existences in the cryptocurrency space, meme coins possess both cultural attributes and financial characteristics. From their origin as a satirical joke to now holding a place in the market as a virtual currency, meme coins are telling us that in today’s era, perhaps cultural resonance and community belief can drive value creation more than technical whitepapers.

In an era dominated by social media, the speed and manner of information dissemination have undergone fundamental changes. A meme that becomes popular on social platforms can achieve hundreds of millions of global exposures within hours, and this viral propagation is now directly converted into financial value. Meme coins, as the perfect vehicle for this conversion, are writing their own legendary stories on the timeline.

Breaking Ground/Establishing Foundation (2013-2016) - In a time of rising trends, the pioneers bravely stand at the forefront; in the midst of the waves, the disappointed silently exit.

This period witnessed the original innovation journey of meme coins from zero to one, presenting a unique ecology of both wild growth and natural selection. Marked by the birth of DOGE in December 2013 and culminating with the maturity of smart contract technology in 2016, it constitutes the purest “Genesis Era” in the history of meme coin development.

On the technical level, with few exceptions, almost all meme coins at this stage are based on code forks of Bitcoin or Litecoin.

In terms of market performance, historical data shows that meme coins born during this period have an average active cycle of only 11.7 months, but survivors like DOGE have demonstrated remarkable vitality.

The foundational significance of this stage cannot be underestimated. History tells us that true innovation often emerges when rules have not yet been established, and the experimental field from 2013 to 2016, which had not yet formed a system, preserved the most precious rebellious genes and innovative spirit for the world of cryptocurrency.

Lurking/Outburst (2017-2021) - Amid the tidal fluctuations, the wise rise to the occasion; in the midst of changing winds and clouds, the strong are defeated and sink into the sand.

The past five years have witnessed the transformation of meme coins from a fringe subculture to mainstream financial assets. With the popularization of the ERC-20 standard in 2017 as a technical turning point, and the record market capitalization of SHIB in 2021 as a milestone, meme coins have undergone a qualitative change from “internet jokes” to “phenomenal investment targets.”

From a technical perspective, the maturity of smart contracts has completely restructured the issuance logic of meme coins. Data shows that most meme coins born during this period adopted the ERC-20 standard or relied on other protocols, with issuance costs reduced to less than one-thousandth (compared to the tens of thousands of dollars for independent chain development). This technological democratization has given rise to a craze of “everything can be a meme”, but it has also laid the groundwork for homogeneous competition.

At the market narrative level, the market capitalization of DOGE exceeded $1 billion for the first time in December 2017, and the single-day trading volume of the meme coin sector at its peak in 2021 exceeded $30 billion, accounting for 12.3% of the entire crypto market. It is worth noting that the life cycle of meme coins born at this stage has improved compared to the previous period, but research data shows that in 2020, meme coin projects died on average every month.

Throughout the entire history of cryptocurrency, the most profound change during this period is the reconstruction of value perception. When DOGE was listed on mainstream exchanges, and when the SHIB founder remained anonymous yet could leverage a market value of billions, traditional finance had to re-examine the essence of meme coins—just as the research report revealed: “The value capture mechanism of assets like DOGE essentially transforms network attention into liquidity premiums.” This shift in perception laid the foundation for subsequent social finance experiments in the Web3 era.

Sedimentation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) - When the great wave has fallen, true gold begins to reveal its nature; in a world of great contention, the pattern finally becomes clear.

Since 2022, the meme coin market has begun a deep adjustment from frenzy to rationality. Marked by the collapse of Terra in May 2022, and the rise of the BRC-20 standard in 2023 as a turning point, the meme coin ecosystem is undergoing a cruel yet necessary reassessment of value.

Data statistics show that the overall market value of meme coins shrank by 82% in 2022, but leading projects DOGE and SHIB still maintain a ranking in the top 20 by market value. A new report indicates that “97% of meme coins have died,” with different blockchain platforms exhibiting varying death rates: Base leads with a death rate of 66.91%, followed by Solana at 54.03% and Ethereum at 36.59%.

Nevertheless, the future development of meme coins should not be underestimated. As experts say: “Meme projects that can still secure funding after 2023 must prove their ability to capture long-term value beyond simple speculation.” This winter is filtering out speculative bubbles, leaving behind digital assets that possess true cultural durability. Meme coins that can transcend cycles will ultimately become the key bridge connecting the crypto world with mass culture.

Block Analysis, Deep Dive into Key Cases

Land Breaking/Foundation Laying (2013-2016)

The cryptocurrencies in this stage can be roughly classified into the following categories based on their lifecycle/community activity/market value changes, etc:

Ephemeral Type

In the rapidly evolving cryptocurrency ecosystem, projects lacking sustainable vitality are destined to become fleeting visitors. They may garner attention during specific periods, but ultimately struggle to escape the fate of being a “flash in the pan.”

Mooncoin - An Unfinished “Moon Landing” Dream

As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan “Moon Landing”, its brief life cycle has failed to carry the ambition of this grand narrative. Looking back at its development trajectory from 2014 to 2018, Mooncoin’s early performance was quite remarkable: in its first year, it set a record for a single-day increase of over 300%; community discussion volume exceeded 5,000 posts in a month; it was even referred to by the media as the “most serious joke coin.”

However, after the highlight comes a long silence: in 2015, mainstream exchanges delisted it, resulting in a market value drop of over 90%; the following year, the development team announced an “indefinite hibernation”; it wasn’t until 2018 that there was a brief resurgence—mainly due to two external factors: the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market and the SpaceX rocket launch reigniting the “To the Moon” internet hotspot, with a parody video created by the community unexpectedly bringing in traffic.

Unfortunately, Mooncoin failed to seize this last opportunity. The development team claimed to create a “Lunar Base” metaverse game, but ultimately it did not materialize. With the market crash in April 2018, Mooncoin completely faded from the stage.

Fedoracoin(TIPS) - A niche “gentleman” recognition

TIPS was born in December 2013, with a core positioning precisely targeting subcultural groups on specific social platforms. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly become popular within certain communities early on, but it also planted the seeds for potential limitations in its subsequent development.

On the technical level, TIPS adopted the then commonly used algorithms, and its design supporting GPU mining made it user-friendly for average users. Just two months after its launch, its subforum set a record for daily discussions exceeding 2000 posts, becoming one of the most active meme coin communities.

However, the good times didn’t last long, as TIPS soon encountered difficulties. Due to the lack of practical application scenarios, this project, built on subcultural meme images, struggled to break through the limitations of cultural symbols. Starting in 2015, as mainstream exchanges gradually delisted it, its liquidity plummeted sharply. This niche positioning, while precisely targeting its intended users, also made it difficult to expand into a broader market.

As the discussion cooled down, by the end of 2018, the TIPS codebase stopped updating, with the last on-chain transaction record remaining in November, and it was officially listed on the “dead list” in 2019.

Nyancoin - A Brief “Rainbow” Light Shadow

As the second meme coin after DOGE, Nyancoin was released in January 2014 and within a month became “the first officially licensed cryptocurrency in history,” but its market influence is far inferior to that of DOGE.

This gap is first reflected in the cultural genes: the “rainbow cat” meme that Nyancoin is based on has a much narrower spread and cultural penetration compared to the “Shiba Inu” meme of DOGE, resulting in a lower recognition of the rainbow cat among the general public.

In terms of application scenarios, the application of Nyancoin is relatively singular, mainly focused on the trading field, while DOGE has built a multi-dimensional application ecosystem that includes payments, tips, charity, and more.

The community’s activity level and external traffic are equally unsatisfactory, creating a vicious cycle—weak community support leads to sluggish project development, while stagnation further dampens community enthusiasm, ultimately resulting in the project’s decline. Its community has only a small number of members, and the last active posts date back a long time ago, with mainstream data platforms stopping the update of real-time data after 2019.

Invincible General Type

Dogecoin(DOGE) - An Unexpected “Grassroots Carnival”

Launched in December 2013, Dogecoin initially started as a programmer’s parody of Bitcoin but unexpectedly became one of the most enduring phenomenon meme coins in crypto history. Its iconic Shiba Inu image comes from the meme that was popular on the internet at the time, and this innate internet IP helped it gain popularity rapidly.

In terms of design concept, it does not emphasize complex technology or grand visions, but instead uses the cute Shiba Inu meme as a symbol, entering this increasingly fervent field in a humorous way.

The market cap journey has been dramatic: at the beginning of 2021, it soared to $10 billion due to a retail investor frenzy; in May of the same year, it reached $80 billion under the celebrity effect of its top fan. Although the price subsequently fell, the overall market trend remained relatively stable. In November 2024, when a political figure announced that Musk and others would lead a newly established department abbreviated as “DOGE,” it sparked a new round of discussion.

DOGE perfectly shows the two sides of meme coins: on the one hand, it has created a financial miracle promoted by ordinary netizens; On the other hand, it also exposes the risks of such coins as speculative tools. However, what is admirable is that even when the entire meme coin market is sluggish, DOGE still maintains a daily trading volume of more than $1 billion, ranks among the top 10 in terms of market capitalization, and the community activity is still amazingly vibrant.

Hibernation/Outbreak (2017-2021)

After entering 2017, meme coins began to transition from being purely joke coins to more complex ecological developments. Some projects attempted to integrate new concepts such as DeFi and NFTs, but they still primarily focused on speculation and community-driven initiatives.

Meteor Shining Type

Similar to “ephemeral types”, they share a similar development trajectory – a short-term explosion followed by a rapid decline. These types of coins typically rely on speculative sentiment and short-term hype peaks, rather than actual application or community consensus.

Useless Ethereum Token(UET, 2017) - The most honest scam in crypto history

UET was launched in June 2017 during the most frenzied period of the ICO bubble, and its official website stated directly: “This is a worthless token, buying it is a waste of money.” Is this a reverse marketing strategy or an art-style fundraising?

UET openly admits that the token has no functionality, no team, and no roadmap, and even the FAQ states: “Why buy this token?—You don’t need to.” Despite its unabashed “uselessness,” UET still raised about $93,000 within 48 hours, becoming one of the most absurd ICO cases in history.

Its token mechanism is a bare “self-destruct” design: the total supply is fixed at 1 billion, with no issuance or destruction. All raised funds are transferred directly to the developer’s address, with no promised use. Technically based on the most basic ERC-20 standard, it has no smart contract functionality.

The market response is not entirely negative. At the initial launch of UET, some exchanges listed it due to curiosity, resulting in a temporary price surge of 800%. The community even initiated the “UET Challenge” – to see who can convince others to take over with the most absurd reason.

But after the speculative frenzy ended, security vulnerabilities were discovered and exploited, leading to a sharp drop in UET prices. After the 2018 bear market, liquidity dried up, and it was ultimately marked as a “failed project.” This absurd success confirmed the irrational nature of the crypto market—projects that are self-negating still find the market willing to pay for their illusory narratives.

Hoge Finance(HOGE, 2021) - A community-driven deflationary experiment

Launched in 2021, HOGE is primarily positioned to build a unique token economy through a deflationary model and community governance. Each transaction automatically destroys 1% of the tokens while allocating 1% to token holders, attempting to drive value growth through scarcity, which has attracted a large number of retail investors.

HOGE emphasizes community leadership, allowing members to decide the direction of the project through voting. Similar to DOGE, it is also enthusiastic about charitable causes, funding animal welfare projects. These factors have led to positive discussions on social platforms.

However, similar to other projects, the bottleneck of HOGE quickly became apparent: although it had a good start, the lack of actual application scenarios led to its long-term reliance on speculative sentiment, ultimately failing to break through its limitations.

During the market winter of 2022, the HOGE price dropped over 90% from its peak, and liquidity shrank. Although the community launched marketing campaigns to boost interest, the effect was limited. Its code updates stagnated, and on-chain activity significantly decreased, becoming another case of going from frenzy to silence.

The rise and fall of HOGE reveals the core contradiction of deflationary meme coins: the difficulty of transforming short-term speculative consensus into long-term value. Its historical significance lies in proving the potential of community autonomy, but it also exposes the fatal flaw of lacking a technological moat.

Stellar Luminous Type

Shiba Inu(SHIB, 2020) - The transformation from meme frenzy to ecological ambition

Born in August 2020, Shiba Inu was initially just a meme coin parodying DOGE on Ethereum, with a total supply of up to 1 quadrillion coins. In May 2021, a social media post about Shiba Inu ignited the market, with SHIB skyrocketing 1200% in a single day. The founder of Ethereum donated over 50 trillion SHIB to a charity fund and subsequently burned 45% of the tokens, dramatically elevating its status. This “burning storm” not only created a narrative of scarcity but also propelled SHIB from a nascent project to the king of annual gains.

The early success of SHIB stemmed from its “rebellious” positioning - self-proclaimed as the “Dogecoin killer”, with the community named “SHIBArmy”, quickly attracting a large number of fans. To this day, its community activity remains considerable.

But SHIB has come this far not only because of its popularity, but also due to the “Shib Ecosystem” built by the team: the decentralized exchange ShibaSwap, the Layer 2 network Shibarium, and the token burning mechanism, etc. This strategy of “meme exterior + practical core” allows it to successfully evade the common pitfalls of meme coins.

Today, SHIB stands at a crossroads: on one hand, the competition with DOGE continues; on the other hand, the diversion of emerging meme coins has made “de-Doge-ization” a new proposition. Its story tells us that gaining a new life is not about waiting for opportunities, but about creating them.

Transformation Breakthrough Type

Floki Inu(FLOKI, 2021)

Launched in June 2021, FLOKI was inspired by a well-known figure naming his Shiba Inu “Floki”. This accidental naming gave birth to a dog-themed meme coin that sparked a frenzy on social media. Unlike most short-lived meme coins, FLOKI’s ambitions go beyond mere hype; it aims to reshape the brand and build an ecosystem that encompasses DeFi, NFTs, metaverse games, trading bots, educational platforms, and more.

In terms of market performance, FLOKI’s trend can be described as a microcosm of the times: it surged to a high point at the end of 2021, followed by a drop of over 90% during the bear market. With the market warming up again in 2024, it rebounded and briefly entered the top 50 by market capitalization, but it has never been able to break through the dominance of the leading projects.

Despite the team’s efforts to downplay the meme origins and shift towards a “utility token” narrative, the progress of its gaming projects is slow, and the adoption rate of DeFi applications is limited, exposing the shortcomings of its ecological implementation. In the face of difficulties, FLOKI continues to seek breakthroughs by launching derivatives, striving for more exposure, and establishing partnerships with platforms.

The future of FLOKI will be a choice between evolution and extinction. The key lies in how to balance the community enthusiasm for meme coins with sustainable ecological development. Will it replicate the paths of other successful cases, or carve out its own unique way? In this era of accelerated iteration, one will either become a legend through evolution or a footnote in history after extinction.

SAMO(Samoyedcoin, 2021) - the “mascot” of the Solana ecosystem

Born during the explosive period of the Solana ecosystem in 2021, SAMO quickly became popular with the image of the Samoyed dog. Unlike other meme coins with grassroots origins, it has carried the halo of being the “official mascot of Solana” since its inception, making it stand out among the many canine tokens.

Unlike other projects with a parody nature, SAMO attempts to find a balance between entertainment and practicality. It technically takes full advantage of Solana’s low transaction fees to launch features such as staking mining and NFT series. Its “burn + buyback” economic model ( has already burned over 66% of the tokens ) in an attempt to instill a narrative of scarcity. At the end of 2021, with the explosion of the Solana ecosystem, SAMO’s market cap once exceeded $500 million.

However, in 2022, Solana faced multiple technical issues that severely impacted SAMO. Although the team attempted to transform into an “ecological ambassador” by launching payment cards and cross-chain features, the “mascot” label limited its growth potential. The frequency of code updates has noticeably slowed down, and ecological development has lagged behind emerging projects in the same period.

The dilemma of SAMO reflects the double-edged sword effect of the deep binding between meme coins and public chains: when public chains thrive, it symbolizes the ecosystem; when public chains are in crisis, it becomes the first victim. This project, wearing the “officially certified” hat, is proving that even blockchain mascots find it hard to withstand the tides of time that wash away their popularity.

Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025)

After the selection in the previous two periods, the meme coins in this stage are more mature but face new challenges. The issuance relies more on public chain ecosystems and new narratives such as political finance and AI have emerged.

Short-term speculative

Trump(TRUMP, 2025) - The Absurd Union of Politics and Cryptocurrency

In January 2025, a political figure announced the launch of their personal meme coin $TRUMP on a social platform, featuring a design inspired by their iconic image, with the slogan “Join my community.” This politically themed token combines electoral enthusiasm with crypto speculation, creating astonishing performance in a short period.

Unlike ordinary meme coins, TRUMP carries a distinct political stance. Supporters refer to themselves as the “Legion” and view holding the coin as political support. This value proposition has allowed it to spread rapidly among certain voters, with its market cap once surpassing ten billion dollars, making it one of the top three meme coins.

However, the dramatic rise and fall of TRUMP mirrors that of its namesake figure. With political changes, the price often fluctuates by more than 50% in a single day. Even more concerning is that the project team has failed to fulfill its promise of building a “decentralized political donation platform,” and the envisioned “blockchain voting system” has yet to be seen. Rather than a combination of politics and crypto, it is more accurate to say it is a political maneuver cloaked in financial attire.

With the market sentiment receding and competitors siphoning off (such as $MELANIA), the price of TRUMP has plummeted and remains sluggish. It wasn’t until April 2025, due to friendly policies and the revival of the underlying public chain, coupled with continuous marketing from the authorities (such as promising holders the opportunity to dine with political figures), that the price finally