The Truth About Meme Coins: Stop Urging for Price Pumps, You Are the Real "Whale"

In May 2021, something quite surreal happened—a “joke coin” that had been around since 2013 suddenly shot into the crypto market cap TOP 10.

When Dogecoin soared to a market cap of several billion dollars, many people were baffled: Why would a token with a Shiba Inu dog’s face be worth so much?

The secret actually lies in every “To the Moon” comment, in those viral memes, and even more so in the kind of faith that millions of people have formed on their own.

Today, let’s break down why the value logic of meme coins has nothing to do with you pushing the project team to pump the price.

An Accident Born From Mockery

The story starts back in 2013. Programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer just wanted to make a joke—the crypto world was always hyping up technology and concepts, so they decided to do the exact opposite.

They took the most popular Shiba Inu meme as the logo and made the supply? Unlimited. This setup was the biggest satire of the “scarcity” doctrine at the time.

And what happened? The first batch of participants actually loved it. Reddit users started tipping interesting posts with Dogecoin, the community spontaneously organized charity events, and even crowdfunded sponsorships for NASCAR drivers and the Jamaican bobsled team. No whitepaper, no technical innovation—just community passion. Dogecoin peaked at $0.74 in 2021, with a market cap once exceeding $85 billion.

Elon Musk’s tweets did pour gasoline on the fire, but what really kept Dogecoin alive all these years? It’s the holders who have been making memes and organizing events day in and day out for a decade. When other altcoins have died out, the Dogecoin community is still making jokes and spreading the word.

This kind of cultural stickiness is its true moat.

When Memes Become Tradable Assets

If Dogecoin was a happy accident, then 2020’s Shiba Inu (SHIB) was a precise copycat move. Calling itself the “Dogecoin killer,” it used the Shiba Inu image to unite the community, rallied the “SHIB Army,” and made every holder feel like part of a cultural movement.

In 2021, SHIB’s price skyrocketed by 120,000 times, with a peak market cap of $36 billion.

Even crazier was 2023’s PEPE coin. A “sad frog” meme with no endorsements, spread purely by internet users, broke $7 billion in market cap within two weeks.

What do these cases tell us? The price of a meme coin doesn’t come from how great its code is, but from how widely its cultural symbols are spread. Just like Disney makes money from Mickey Mouse, meme coins turn memes into tradable cultural assets.

The more people recognize, use, and spread the symbol, the more valuable it becomes. It’s as simple as that.

Stop Waiting for the Pump—You’re the “Whale”

A lot of newbies buy meme coins and then ask in chats all day: “When is the team going to pump the price?”

You’ve got it backwards.

Meme coins aren’t like stocks or Bitcoin. Stocks have company earnings behind them, Bitcoin has blockchain technology, but the only “fundamental” of meme coins is community consensus and cultural spread. At most, the project team just lights the spark—the real whales are every single holder.

Look at PEPE—it has no founder, no team, and relies entirely on users creating memes and sharing jokes on Twitter and Telegram. When you share a PEPE meme, or tell your friends how funny the frog is, you’re “empowering” it. Every act of spreading increases the value of this cultural symbol.

On the other hand, if the community just waits for the team to pump, it’s like a group of people sitting around a fish pond that doesn’t breed—sooner or later, it’ll dry up. Recently, hundreds of new meme coins are born every day on Pump.fun, but 99% don’t last a week because they only have code, not culture, and no community willing to spread them.

Attention Is the Real Mining

In the age of information overload, attention is the scarcest resource. Meme coins, at their core, are the securitization of attention—turning users’ focus, discussions, and shares into tradable assets.

Platform algorithms love interesting content, and meme coins are made for social media. A funny meme spreads better than any whitepaper, and a “To the Moon” slogan triggers more FOMO than technical specs. When you post a SHIB meme in your friend circle, you’re helping it capture others’ attention, which eventually turns into buying pressure.

Meme coins on Solana and Base are especially active because these chains are fast and cheap, perfect for retail traders to trade and spread rapidly. Technology is just the infrastructure—the real engine is the “social currency” generated by the community.

Three Survival Rules

If you decide to join this cultural game, remember these three points—they’re more important than staring at price charts:

Pick a cultural symbol you truly identify with

Don’t buy meme coins you don’t understand. If you think a meme is boring, don’t expect others to share it. Most PEPE holders grew up using this frog meme; they spread it because they genuinely like it, not just to make money.

Be a spreader, not just a speculator

Instead of asking “when pump,” think about how to get more people to know about this meme. Make a funny meme, write a post, or leave a comment under relevant topics. Every creative act of spreading adds value to the tokens you hold.

Treat your investment as entertainment

Meme coins are basically “cultural lottery tickets.” While they have more cultural value than pure gambling, they’re still highly speculative. Never invest more than you can afford to lose. Treat it like buying a ticket to an amusement park—having fun is most important; making money is just a bonus.

The IPO of Internet Culture

When we turn memes into cryptocurrencies, we’re essentially holding an IPO for internet culture. Every meme coin’s surge is a grassroots culture raid on the traditional financial system.

But remember: without spreading, there’s no value.

Project teams’ pitches and KOL “calls” are nothing compared to the meme in your phone, ready to be posted to your friend circle. Instead of waiting for someone else to pump the price, open your drawing app now and create a financial culture symbol for this era.

After all, in the attention economy, everyone is their own whale.