2024 was the year of meme coin investing. Lots of coins were launched across networks like Solana, Ethereum, and other layer-1 networks.
The likes of Doge, the king of the memes, took off, and the trend continued in the early weeks of the year, especially as investors and analysts awaited Donald Trump’s promised cryptocurrency policies.
Trump himself, as well as his wife Melania, launched their own tokens in the early weeks of 2025. However, since then, TRUMP, MELANIA, and even the likes of Doge have all slumped in value.
Meme Coins As Investments
Meme coins are considered high-risk investments. Many of them fail as soon as they begin, but for investors who find the next Dogecoin, the returns can be massive.
As such, speculative investors pore over the list of upcoming meme coins to find those with utility, strong community backing, and solid tokenomics.
According to crypto expert Ilija Rankovic, the likes of DOGE and SHIB still dominate the market, but some projects show potential for gains.
What Are Meme Coins?
Strictly speaking, a meme coin is a crypto coin or token based on an Internet meme, joke, or other online trend. Typically, these coins have no utility and rely solely on community backing and general market trading to influence their price and liquidity levels.
However, as the crypto market has matured, the lines of what is a meme coin have blurred. Pretty much any token without utility is considered a meme coin, while some meme coins are launching with considerable utility, even including those that introduce new protocols to original layer-1 networks.
The Meme Phenomenon
The idea of using a meme like Pepe the frog or Kabosu the Shiba Inu is to elicit attention and develop a following. The tokens have no utility, which means they use the meme as a means of attracting buyers.
The meme itself doesn’t necessarily have to have been that popular. But they tend to be memorable.
Peak Performance
While meme coins don’t have utility, they do have potential. Doge launched in 2013 at $0.00026. Today, it is $0.21. In 2021, it was $0.64, and at its 2024 peak, it was $0.46. Early investors could easily have earned 1,000x their initial investment.
It can be more difficult to visualize increases in other meme coins because of the incredibly low cost they launch.
PEPE, for example, launched in 2023 at a price of around $0.0000003 per coin. Today, it costs $0.00001052 and has an all-time high of $0.00002513. If you’d invested $100 at launch, you could have cashed out more than $8,000 at its peak.
The Downside
It’s easy to see the appeal. However, estimates suggest that around 97% of all meme coins created by this time last year were already dead. If you’d invested $100 in one of those, you’d have $0 and a pile of useless meme coins to show for it now.
And, other research suggests that more than half of meme coins are set up with malicious intent – scams created by bad actors with no aim other than taking money off unsuspecting visitors. Which highlights the downside.
Why 2024 Was A Golden Year For Meme Coins
In 2024, as the world had fully emerged from global lockdowns and economies were doing OK, investors had a little spare money to play with. This meant they were willing to speculate by investing in meme coins, which have been described, with some degree of accuracy, as gambling. If they lost $100, they could recover.
The 2025 Challenge
This year, however, investors have faced the very real threat of recession, caused by economic instability, rising prices caused by prolonged wars, and a host of other socioeconomic problems. Investors are much less willing to take a punt on meme coins during these periods.
A lot of cryptocurrency attention is currently centred on stablecoins after President Trump signed the GENIUS Act that paved the way for stablecoin adoption.
Stablecoins are pegged to the value of the dollar, and creators will need to hold dollar reserves equal to the market capitalization of their coins under these new laws.
Other countries are expected to follow the US’s lead with the implementation of their own regulatory frameworks.
While there is less potential for making massive profits with these coins, their stability means that users can enjoy low-cost and lightning-fast borderless transactions without running the risk of them losing value overnight.
The Modern Meme Coin Market
With all that said, meme coins are far from dead. Dogecoin’s market capitalization may have slipped, but it still has a total cap of $30bn and is the 9th largest coin, ahead of Cardano and just behind Tron. Shiba Inu, Pepe, and Bonk are other meme coins that still retain sizeable market caps.
The entire meme coin sector has a total market capitalization of $66.37bn. We are seeing the meme coin market mature with coins that combine meme elements with actual utility, which could shape the future of meme coin investing and ultimately benefit both investors and crypto users.
Do Your Own Extensive Research
Investors do need to take the time to research any meme coin they intend to invest in. That’s always been the case, but it’s especially true now.
We know that a lot of existing coins have potential upside, because we’ve seen those coins hit highs that are substantially above their current prices.
At least some of the market will likely bounce back. There are still calls for Doge to reach $1, although that isn’t guaranteed to happen.
Check whitepapers, research the community backing a project has, and get involved in Telegram and Discord channels, as well as Reddit pages, to determine the interest and level of likely buyer activity for a particular coin.
Only invest what you can afford, diversify your portfolio, and don’t bank on any meme coin making 1,000x gains.
Meme Coin Investing: Risks, Rewards, and 2025 Market Realities
The crypto market’s meme coin sector remains a high-risk, high-reward arena. While 2024 saw explosive growth and life-changing gains for some, 2025’s economic uncertainty has tempered investor enthusiasm.
Success in this volatile space depends on thorough research, disciplined risk management, and a willingness to treat these tokens as speculative plays rather than guaranteed jackpots. Meme coin investing requires balancing optimism with caution to avoid costly mistakes.
