What Are Meme Coins and Types of Meme Coins

Types of Meme Coins

The most popular type of meme coin is dog-themed tokens like DOGE, WIF, and SHIB. Other popular types include animal-themed ones like cats, penguins, sloths, and more. PEPE started out as a character from a comic book, but has since spun out into an entire Pepe-themed category. There are also meme coins tied to the physical world, featuring political figures, celebrities, and even Wall Street Bets. 

Key Takeaways

• Meme coins are fun projects built around comic figures, events, or animals and promoted by a community.

• The key idea of meme coins is to drive the asset’s value up through community activities aided by funny takes on the viral meme that make up the project’s branding.

• Meme coins have wide appeal due to their low barrier of entry as they are focused on fun and community, instead of complex technical utilities. 

• Meme coins have become a major asset class in the crypto space; there are more meme coins than any other category.

• Some popular types of meme coins include: dogs, cats, politics, celebrities, The Boy's Club, and Pepe-inspired meme tokens.

According to data from CoinGecko, the market cap of meme coins is over $54 billion, spread over more than 1,000 meme coins tracked by the platform. With the combination of cheaper transaction fees thanks to Layer 2s and other developments, like Solana’s parallelization, along with token creation platforms like pump.fun, there has been a proliferation of meme coins, with many untracked by CoinGecko (although you can find them on GeckoTerminal).

What Are Meme Coins?

Meme coins are tokens whose brand is built around a meme, which is usually an image accompanied by humorous text that can be adapted to a variety of situations. Unlike traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, which are focused on utility and aligned with the vision of enabling decentralization, security, and creating an alternative financial system, meme coins just want to have fun.

A meme coin derives its value from the strength of its community, featuring takes on the titular meme. For example, dogwifhat; almost every image on their X page features their mascot with a different hat. 

Feeling brave, might go outside today.$WIF https://t.co/jciwVQJdB7 pic.twitter.com/sIgbPpbvSo

— dogwifcoin (@dogwifcoin) June 22, 2024

To further raise awareness of their project, meme coins also feature over-the-top marketing stunts, like frog meme coin Apu Apustaja appearing on 13 billboards across Manhattan in New York, with one in Times Square. 

Hi Frens 🐸

Apu has really enjoyed his time so far in the Big 🍏 In fact, he's had so much fun he's decided to hit Times Square for the next week to share the news about https://t.co/KyytaYV5BZ.

Apu's taking over the web and NYC, you enjoying this next sprint so far?

What do… pic.twitter.com/DGtNRuPC5L

— Apu Apustaja (@ApusCoin) June 3, 2024

There’s also dogwifhat’s plan to light up the Las Vegas Sphere – funds have already been raised, although the date is not yet finalized. 

The main advantage of meme coins is the low entry barrier, especially ones that are launched via fair launch events. They are easy to understand since they are not attached to any advanced fundamentals. Anyone can purchase meme coins, join their communities, and participate in promotional events.

Meme coins can be categorized by their primary themes. Some notable meme coin categories include;

• Dog-themed 

• Cat-themed

• The Boy's Club 

• Politics-themed

• Celebrity-themed

• Wall Street Bets

• Pepe-related

• Other animals

Dog-Themed Meme Coins

Dogs are the most popular pets around the world, and dog-themed meme coins are some of the most successful in the space. Starting with Dogecoin, dog-themed meme coins are prevalent across almost every blockchain network. The dog-meta is one of the strongest meme coin trends, with dogs of popular figures like Elon Musk also serving as inspiration for meme coins. The most popular dog breed for dog-themed meme coins is the Shiba Inu, with the four of the top five meme coins by market capitalization featuring a Shiba Inu dog in their logo. 

 Dog-themed meme coins dominate the meme coin category, they have a cumulative market cap of over $38 billion at time of writing, making up two-thirds of the total meme coins market capitalization. 

Some popular dog-themed meme coins include:

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin (DOGE) was created as a fun alternative to traditional cryptocurrencies, featuring the Doge meme as its inspiration and logo. Dogecoin is one of the earliest meme coins, and was launched in 2013 by Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus with the idea of creating an easy-to-mine coin. It has since this time grown into a multi-billion dollar meme coin project. The market cap of Dogecoin is around $18 billion at the time of writing, and it is one of the top 10 crypto projects by market cap.

Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu (SHIB) is the second largest meme coin project, with a market cap of over $11 billion. Shiba Inu was created by Ryoshi in 2020 as a competitor to Dogecoin, and is intentionally abundant with an initial total supply of 1 quadrillion. Unlike Dogecoin, which operates on its own chain, Shiba Inu is issued as an ERC-20 token and is compatible with the larger Ethereum ecosystem. Shiba Inu has also launched its own Layer 2 – Shibarium, which has recorded over 417 million transactions since its launch in August 2023. 

dogwifhat (WIF)

WIF is the meme coin built around the viral image of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a beanie. The dogwifhat community is best known for raising over $650,000 in a bid to light up the Las Vegas Sphere with the dogwifhat meme. Dogwifhat is launched on the Solana blockchain, and is the largest meme coin on the network and the fourth largest meme coin with a market cap of over $2.2 billion at the time of writing.

Bonk (BONK)

Bonk is inspired by the meme of a Shiba Inu dog being ‘bonked’ on the head with a bat. It is the second largest meme coin project on the Solana network and the fifth largest meme coin project with a market cap of over $1.9 billion. Like Shiba Inu and FLOKI, Bonk is now more than just a meme coin project, as it has also launched a Telegram trading bot (BONKbot) on Solana.

FLOKI

FLOKI was inspired by Elon Musk’s dog – a Shiba Inu named Floki. FLOKI started out as a meme coin with no clear utility, but has since evolved to become a web3 project including DeFi, NFTs, and creating its Metaverse. FLOKI is a multi-chain token that operates on Ethereum and BNB Smart Chain and is both ERC-20 and BEP-20 compliant, making it easy to bridge FLOKI between the two chains. It is the sixth largest meme coin with a market cap of around $1.8 billion at the time of writing.

Cat-Themed Meme Coins

Like dogs, cats are one of the most commonly owned pets in the world, and there are a whole bunch of memes related to felines. Meme coin projects capitalize on some of these memes to brand their tokens, building their communities around the comedic themes of these cat memes. Following the outbreak of dog-themed meme coins, meme coins with a focus on cats have also become widespread. While dogs are the most popular animals in the meme coin space, cats have also inspired some very successful meme coin projects. According to data from CoinGecko, cat-themed meme coins control a market cap of over $2.8 billion and a daily trading volume of over $423 million.

Some notable cat-themed meme coins include:

Popcat (POPCAT)

POPCAT is the largest cat-themed meme coin by market cap and on the Solana network. It has a market cap of over $800 million at the time of writing. POPCAT was launched on December 12, 2023. It originates from the 2020 viral memes of a cat named Oatmeal, with its mouth open and edited to a large ‘O’ shape . The project thrives on memes that incorporate the cat’s imagery. 

Mog Coin (MOG)

MOG claims to represent self-confidence and constant growth. It is the second largest cat-themed meme coin by market cap. MOG uses the Joycat emoji as part of its branding, and claims that the emoji captures the values of the community. Mog launched in 2023 in a fair launch on the Ethereum blockchain. It currently has a market cap of over $790 million.

Cat in a Dogs World (MEW)

MEW is the third-largest cat-themed meme coin with a market cap of over $370 million at the time of writing. The idea behind MEW is to grow a strong cat-themed meme coin in a space that is overly dominated by dog-themed meme coins. MEW was launched on the Solana network on March 26, 2024.

The Boy’s Club Meme Coins

American comic artist Matt Furie created the ‘Pepe the Frog’ character and the rest of his roommates as part of his 2005 popular comic book, Boy’s Club. Thanks to Pepe’s breakthrough as a meme on the 4Chan message board, it has become a viral image among internet communities. The book’s popularity continues in the crypto space with meme coin communities creating tokens branded with characters from the book. According to data from GeckoTerminal, meme coins in this category have a cumulative FDV of $7.36 billion, with a daily trading volume of over $72.5 million. Most of the this comes from PEPE and BRETT, as the two most popular Boy’s Club characters at the moment. There are also multiple iterations of the Boy’s Club characters as meme coins, so the list below is not meant to be exhaustive. We have featured the tokens that have the highest market cap for their mascot. 

Pepe (PEPE)

The breakout character from Matt Furie’s book is not only an internet sensation but a meme coin sensation as well. PEPE was launched on the Ethereum blockchain on April 14, 2023. It draws its branding primarily from images of the comic character. Pepe is the third-largest meme coin by market cap with over $5.2 billion market cap at the time of writing. There are multiple Pepe variants, some of which have also grown to significant market caps. 

Brett (BRETT)

The BRETT meme coin community dubs it the mascot of Base chain. Brett was launched on the Base network on March 8, 2024. It currently has a market cap of over $1.4 billion. Brett is one of the characters of Matt Furie’s book and is regarded as Pepe’s best friend. The meme coin thrives on the imagery of the character and his relationship with Pepe which has become a successful meme project. In Q2 2024, BRETT topped the list of top gainers for the quarter with over 99% gains.

ANDY ETH (ANDY)

ANDY ETH was launched on the Ethereum network on March 9, 2024, joining the list of meme coin projects using imagery from the popular comic book. Andy benefits partly from the success of Pepe and also the activities of the community. It has a market cap of over $155 million at the time of writing. 

LANDWOLF (WOLF)

Landwolf was launched on the Solana network in June 2024. It features another character from the Boy’s Club comic book. It has a market cap of over $91 million at the time of writing. As in the case of the other Boy’s Club tokens, there are also other tokens that share the same name and ticker. 

Politics-Themed Meme Coins

Some political figures have been the subject of viral mainstream memes. In the crypto space, these figures have also been used as a theme for meme coin projects. These projects parody these political figures as a way to drive community engagement and marketing for the community’s meme coin. Former US president, Donald Trump has become a dominating figure in the category, with four out of the top five tokens featuring him. According to data from CoinGecko, politics-themed coins (PolitiFi) control a market cap of over $987 million and a daily trading volume of over $572 million at the time of writing.

Some notable politics-themed meme coins include;

MAGA (TRUMP)

MAGA is inspired by Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. Like other politics-themed tokens, its value is influenced by public sentiment and news around Trump. For instance, after the assassination attempt on July 13 2024, tokens related to Trump saw a surge in value. MAGA also supports certain charitable causes like veteran causes and human trafficking. It currently has a market cap of over 355 million.

Donald Tremp (TREMP)

TREMP is built around poorly drawn images of the former American president – Donald Trump. It thrives on the misspelling of the political icon’s name and memes featuring poorly drawn images of him used in making comic presentations of certain events. Tremp was launched on the Solana network on February 28, 2024, and currently has a market cap of over $54 million.

Jeo Boden (BODEN)

BODEN was launched on the Solana network on March 3 2024 and fits the same category as Tremp. Both memes are poorly drawn images of political icons. Current US president – Joe Biden is the subject of the BODEN meme coin. Boden has a market cap of over $25 million at the time of writing. However, BODEN appears to be currently on the decline, reflecting public opinion of the president, where 57% of Americans disapprove of the president according to a Reuters poll. 

Celebrity Meme Coins

Celebrities are popular figures from different sectors such as sports, music, fashion, or social media influencers.  Just like politics-themed meme coins, celebrity meme coins tap on the popularity of these figures and their real-life activities to create a meme coin brand. Meme coins in this category benefit from using these celebrities as part of their marketing efforts. 

Celebrity tokens can be launched and promoted by the celebrities themselves, or can also be created without the direct involvement of the titular celebrity. Meme coins in this category control a market cap of over $43 million with over $20 million daily trading volume.

Some notable celebrity-themed meme coins include:

Mother Iggy (MOTHER)

MOTHER was created by Australian rapper, Iggy Azalea who has also been actively promoting the project alongside the community she has built around the project. MOTHER thrives off meme variants created with images of the rapper in place of the original figures. MOTHER operates on the Solana network. It has a market cap of about $32 million, at the time of writing.

Caitlyn Jenner (JENNER)

There are two versions of the JENNER token on the Solana and Ethereum network respectively. Based on information from the team, the Solana version was not officially launched by Caitlyn Jenner, although the Ethereum version is officially endorsed by the American celebrity and former athlete. At the time of writing JENNER on Ethereum sits at a market cap of about $1.9 million.

Davido (DAVIDO)

DAVIDO was created by Davido, a Nigerian Afrobeats musician. Davido was launched on May 29 2024 by the artist and reached a market cap of over $10 million on the launch date. According to data from Gecko Terminal, it trades at a market cap of just over $100K at the time of writing.

Wall Street Bets Meme Coins

The ‘Wall Streets Bets’ subreddit became popular for its community, which was behind the infamous short squeeze for GME, the Nasdaq-listed stock of GameStop. The subreddit has become an icon of community-led price development on stocks, an idea that resonates with the meme coin community as well. 

In the same light, cryptocurrency communities have created parodies of stocks with the same ticker as the main stock. The idea is to replicate the events of 2021 on the blockchain – grow value simply through community actions. Meme coins in this category thrive from comic presentations of the stock itself or events related to Wall Street and the short-squeeze story. Wall Street Bets-themed meme coins have a cumulative market cap of over $52 million with around $24 million in daily trading volume. Do note that there are multiple tokens and tickers that reference the same icon from Wall Street Bets and the ones below are only meant for illustration purposes of the meme coin category. 

Some notable Wall Street bet themed meme coins include:

GME

The GME meme coin was created on January 28, 2024, on the Solana blockchain. The intent is to create value solely on the power of the community. GME adopts the slogan ‘we love the coin’ a pluralized form of the phrase used first by Keith Gill and draws its popularity from the original GameStop story and the community members that have shown support for the project through marketing. GME has a market cap of almost $45 million at the time of writing.

Roaring Kitty (KITTY)

KITTY references the social media pseudonym of Keith Gill, the primary character in the GameStop story. The meme coin is branded with the YouTuber’s iconic cat picture and memes incorporating this picture. KITTY operates on the Solana blockchain and has a market cap of over $3.7 million at the time of writing. Do note that the token is not affiliated with Keith Gill. 

AMC

AMC launched on the Solana network on January 28, 2024. Just like GME, the idea is “to infuriate Wall St. and every big-shot hedge fund manager out there”. AMC also draws its theme and branding from the 2021 short-squeeze story, where AMC was another meme stock. It has a market cap of over $1.8 million at the time of writing.

Pepe-Related Meme Coins

Following the success of Pepe, many meme coins have jumped on the trend around the comic book character, resulting in hundreds of variants. Projects in this category benefit from the virality of the character and the popularity of Pepe which has grown into one of the biggest meme coins in the space by market cap. 

Some of the notable projects in this category include:

Book of Meme (BOME)

BOME was created on March 14, 2024 on the Solana network by an artist who goes by the pseudonym, Dark Farms on social media platform X. BOME features graphic variants of the Pepe character as the primary branding of the project. BOME has a market cap of over $629 million at the time of writing.

Pepecoin (PEPECOIN)

Pepecoin was launched shortly after Pepe on April 28, 2024 on the Ethereum blockchain. Pepecoin features the Pepe character branding and an ecosystem of ‘applications’ that run on the ‘PepeOS’, including an AI trading engine and a wallet-to-wallet messaging service. It has a market cap of almost $394 million at the time of writing.

Apu Apustaja (APU)

APU was created on the Ethereum blockchain on June 4, 2024. It currently has a market cap of over $189 million. The imagery of the project is a variant of the popular Pepe character, which the community explains as a younger, humbler, and naïve version of Pepe. The community has also paid for billboards and bus stop ads in New York City. 

Hi Frens! 🐸

Recently our Bus Stop Ads in NYC have gotten quite a lot of attention on social media, garnering 2+ million impressions on X in 48hrs. A lot of you frens have really enjoyed these and it caused quite the wave amongst the Crypto Community.

Whether you love or hate… pic.twitter.com/ZWNkbndUP5

— Apu Apustaja (@ApusCoin) June 26, 2024

PeiPei (PEIPEI)

PeiPei was launched on the Ethereum blockchain on June 4, 2024, featuring memes of a Chinese version of the Pepe character. Peipei has a market cap of over $126 million at the time of writing.

Other Animal Meme Coins

Dogs, cats, and comic frogs dominate the meme coin space. However, other animals have also been featured by meme coin communities. Some of these projects have seen significant success.

Notable meme coins featuring other animals include:

Moo Deng (MOODENG)

Moo Deng was launched on Solana on September 11, 2024, ad currently has a market cap of over $119 million. It pays tribute to the adorable baby pygmy hippopotamus that lives in Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, who became a popular meme after images of her went viral on the internet.

Slerf (SLERF)

Slerf was launched on the Solana blockchain on March 24, 2024 after a pre-sale. It has a market cap of over $108 million at the time of writing. Slerf features the sloth as its meme animal with the idea of building a community and creating fun in the process.

COQ INU (COQ) 

Coq Inu is one of the largest meme coin projects on the Avalanche network (by market cap). It was created on December 7, 2024, and currently has a market cap of over $115 million. Coq Inu features the cockrel as its brand animal.

Peng (PENG)

Peng was launched on the Solana blockchain on March 7, 2024. It features comic images of a penguin with a ‘hint of Pepe the frog’. Peng has a market cap of over $26 million at the time of writing. 

Final Thoughts

Despite the extreme volatility and uncertainties that meme coins are known for, they still build an interesting use case for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology due to their low barrier to entry. Meme coin projects are a major opportunity for onboarding new people to crypto, as users don’t necessarily need to have an understanding of the cryptocurrency space before buying meme coins. Coupled with fair launches, where everyone has an equal opportunity to acquire tokens upon launch, anyone can acquire and bet on meme coins, transacting them via self-custody solutions.

Decentralized solutions like DEXs and token creations like Pump.fun have boosted the ease of creating them and developing a market for them, aiding the progress of meme coins and leading to the proliferation seen in recent times. For every successful meme coin, new communities arise and promote not only the project but related decentralized solutions as well.

However, the low regulation and quick swing in value are key points to consider for investors looking to purchase meme coins. It is therefore important to apply risk management strategies for price volatility and be aware of the security risks as well. Also, note that this article only takes a look at the meme coin, it is meant for informational purposes and should not be taken as financial or investment advice. Featured projects are not endorsed.