Analyzing the Development History of Meme Coins: From Internet Jokes to Billion-Dollar Market Capitalization Assets

This paper systematically sorts out the development process of meme coins, analyzes them through typical cases, and reveals their unique value logic: unlike traditional financial assets, the core value of meme coins is "cultural communication power × community consensus", rather than relying entirely on technical or practical value. According to its evolutionary characteristics, it can be divided into three key stages of development:

1. Groundbreaking/Topping (2013-2016) – Wild growth, big waves and sand

• Ephemeral Type: Short-term popularity, lack of cultural accumulation, quick demise. (e.g., Mooncoin, TIPS, Nyancoin)

• Ever-Victorious General Type: Cultural symbol + Community-driven, long-term survival. (e.g., DOGE)

2. Hibernation/Outbreak (2017-2021) - The Era of Smart Contracts, meme coins Experience a Qualitative Change

Meteor Shining: Speculatively driven, the bubble bursts quickly. (e.g. UET, HOGE)

• Stellar Everbright Type: Ecological expansion, breaking limits. (e.g., ShibaSwap of SHIB)

Transformation Breakthrough Type: Trying to innovate, but due to various constraints, progress is slow. (e.g. FLOKI's metaverse blueprint, SAMO's public chain binding)

3. Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) – The rise of a new narrative and the beginning of a reshuffle in the market

• Short-term speculation: Relies on trends, extremely high risk. (e.g., the political narrative craze of TRUMP)

• Ecological-driven: Based on public chains, short-term explosion. (e.g., WIF, BONK)

• Narrative Innovation Type: AI + Meme, concept hype, trust crisis. (e.g. GOAT)

Cultural symbol type: Internet celebrity IP, short-term popularity. (e.g. MOODENG)

Look back at the history and count the context

As one of the most unique entities in the cryptocurrency space, meme coins possess both cultural attributes and financial characteristics. Reflecting on the history of meme coins is also reflecting on the collision history of internet culture and financial speculation.

From a sarcastic joke at the beginning to a virtual currency that now holds a place in the market, meme coins are telling us through their experiences that perhaps cultural resonance and community belief can drive value creation more than technical white papers in today's era. While the traditional financial world is still trying to create new value, meme coins have already reshaped people's understanding of "value" itself.

In an era dominated by social media, the speed and manner of information dissemination have undergone fundamental changes. A meme that gains popularity on social media can achieve hundreds of millions of exposures globally within a few hours, and this viral propagation power is now directly transformed into financial value. Meme coins, as the perfect vehicle for this transformation, have written their own stories and legends on the time-based axis.

Pioneering/Foundational (2013-2016) — In a time of great potential, the brave stand at the forefront; in the midst of the waves washing away the sand, the disheartened quietly exit.

This period witnessed the original innovation process of MEME coins from zero to one, showing a unique ecology of wild growth and natural selection. From the birth of DOGE in December 2013 as a symbolic starting point to the maturity of Ethereum smart contract technology in 2016, it constitutes the purest and most authentic "Genesis Yuan" in the history of meme coin development.

On a 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 astonishing vitality.

In terms of historical significance, the foundational meaning of this stage cannot be underestimated. In fact, history tells us that true innovation often arises 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.

Hibernation/Outbreak (2017-2021) - Amidst the ebb and flow of tides, the wise rise with the momentum; in the midst of changing circumstances, the powerful meet their demise.

In the past five years, the market has witnessed the metamorphosis of meme coins from fringe subcultures to mainstream financial assets. With the popularization of the ERC-20 standard in 2017 as the technological inflection point, and the historical market value of SHIB in 2021 as the mark, the meme coin has completed the qualitative change from an "online joke" to a "phenomenal investment target".

In terms of technology, the maturity of smart contracts has completely reconstructed the issuance logic of meme coins. According to Ethereum on-chain data, most of the meme coins born between 2017 and 2021 chose to adopt the ERC-20 standard or rely on other protocols, and the issuance cost was reduced to less than one thousandth (compared to tens of thousands of dollars developed by independent chains). This double-edged sword democratization of technology has spawned a frenzy of "everything can be meme", but it has also buried the hidden danger of homogeneous competition.

At the same time, on the market narrative level, data shows that in December 2017, the market capitalization of DOGE first surpassed 1 billion USD, while in 2021, the overall meme coin sector's daily trading volume exceeded 30 billion USD, accounting for 12.3% of the entire cryptocurrency market. It is worth noting that the meme coins born during this stage had a significantly longer lifecycle compared to the previous period.

However, it should be noted that not all meme coins have achieved a higher survival rate and longer lifespan. According to research reports, meme coin projects experienced an average death rate every month in 2020.

Throughout the entire history of cryptocurrency, the most profound change during this period lies in the reconstruction of value perception. When DOGE was included in mainstream exchanges in 2021, and when the SHIB founder was able to leverage a market capitalization of tens of billions anonymously, traditional finance had to reexamine the essence of meme coins — as revealed by academic research: "The value capture mechanism of assets like Dogecoin essentially converts network attention into liquidity premium." This shift in perception has laid a crucial foundation for subsequent social finance experiments in the Web3 era.

Precipitation/Reconstruction (2022-2025) — When the great waves crash, the true gold begins to reveal its nature; in a world of great contention, the pattern ultimately becomes clear.

Starting from 2022, the meme coin market has begun a deep adjustment from fanaticism to rationality. With the Terra crash in May 2022 as a watershed moment and the rise of the BRC-20 standard in 2023 as a turning point, the meme coin ecosystem is undergoing a brutal and necessary revaluation.

According to market statistics, the overall market value of meme coins will shrink by 82% in 2022, but the top projects DOGE and SHIB still maintain the top 20 market capitalization rankings. A new report states that "97% of meme coins are dead". The report also points out that "different blockchain platforms exhibit different meme coin mortality rates. Base leads with a mortality rate of 66.91%, followed by Solana at 54.03% and Ethereum at 36.59%."

That said, it is still not to be taken lightly or speculate whether the meme coin has reached the end of the story. The cryptocurrency market has always been full of uncertainties, and meme coins, as one of the most distinctive categories, are even more difficult to measure with conventional eyes.

As financial analysts have said: "Meme projects that can still obtain financing after 2023 must prove their ability to capture long-term value beyond simple speculation." As researchers pointed out: "This winter is filtering out speculative bubbles, leaving behind truly culturally enduring digital assets." The future landscape may prove that meme coins capable of crossing cycles will ultimately become the key bridge connecting the crypto world to mainstream culture.

Chunking and Breaking Down, Digging into Key Details

Breaking Ground / Foundation Laying (2013-2016)

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

Ephemeral Type

In the rapidly evolving ecosystem of cryptocurrency, driven by innovation, projects lacking sustained viability are destined to be mere fleeting visitors. They may attract market attention during specific periods, but ultimately struggle to escape the fate of being a "flash in the pan." Although they bloom brilliantly, maintaining that heat for long is challenging.

Mooncoin - An Unfinished "Moon Landing" Dream

As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan "To the Moon", its slightly short life failed to carry the ambition of this grand narrative.

Looking back at its trajectory from 2014 to 2018 (its codebase was last committed in 2018, almost marking the eventual demise of the project), Mooncoin's initial performance was impressive: in its first year of launch, it recorded a single-day increase of more than 300%; The number of community discussions exceeded 5,000 posts in a single month; Partnering with gaming platforms; It has even been called "the most serious joke coin".

However, the highlights were followed by a long lull: in 2015, major exchanges were delisted, causing market capitalization to fall by more than 90%; The following year, members of the anonymous development team announced "indefinite hibernation"; It wasn't until 2018 that the project saw a brief comeback – not because of its own breakthrough, but because of two external factors: first, the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market (Bitcoin's short-term rebound led to a general rally in altcoins); Second, space exploration-related incidents have rekindled the popularity of "To the Moon" online, and spoof videos made by community members have unexpectedly brought traffic.

Unfortunately, Mooncoin didn't take advantage of this last opportunity. The development team claimed to build a "Moon Base" metaverse game, but in the end, the white paper failed to land, and even the so-called "metaverse game" was only a simple demonstration video. After that, as Bitcoin crashed in April 2018, the market enthusiasm faded and Mooncoin faded completely.

Fedoracoin (TIPS) - a niche "gentleman" identity

TIPS was born on December 22, 2013, and its core is not aimed at the mass market but precisely targets the subculture group of "keyboard warriors in hats" on social platforms. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly gain popularity in specific communities early on, but it also planted the seeds for future development limitations.

On the technical level, TIPS adopted the relatively common Scrypt algorithm at the time, and its design supporting GPU mining made it quite user-friendly for ordinary users. This simple and practical architecture helped it quickly accumulate a group of loyal supporters in its early stages.

At the same time, just two months after its launch, its subforum set an amazing record of over 2000 posts in a single day, making it one of the most active meme coin communities at one point.

However, the good times were short-lived, and TIPS soon encountered a similar dilemma as Mooncoin. Due to the lack of practical application scenarios, this project based on subcultural memes has never been able to break through the limitations of cultural symbols. Since 2015, as mainstream exchanges have successively delisted TIPS, its liquidity has fallen off a cliff. This can be seen from the product's initial positioning to serve a specific subcultural group, and while this approach is precisely tailored to the target audience, its niche nature also makes it difficult to expand into a wider market.

From 2014 to 2016, TIPS gradually lost market attention. By the end of 2018, the TIPS codebase stopped updating, and the last on-chain transaction record remained in November. In 2019, this once-prominent project was officially listed on the "dead projects list."

Nyancoin - a brief "rainbow" light and shadow

As the second meme coin after DOGE, Nyancoin, which was released on January 6, 2014, gained the unique status of "the first officially licensed cryptocurrency in history" within a month, but lagged far behind the former in terms of market influence.

In terms of the nature of the project, this gap is first and foremost reflected in the differences in cultural genes: the "rainbow cat" meme on which Nyancoin is based is far less widespread and culturally penetrating than DOGE's "Shiba Inu" meme - most people may have never seen a rainbow cat before they were exposed to these two cryptocurrencies, but almost all of them have been swiped by the demonic Shiba Inu.

In addition, in the field of application scenarios and development directions, this cultural awareness gap is directly reflected in the lack of breadth and depth of Nyancoin compared with DOGE. DOGE has built a multi-dimensional application ecosystem covering payment, tipping, charity, etc., while the application scenario of Nyancoin, which is mainly used for transactions, is relatively simple.

In terms of external empowerment, Nyancoin's community activity and external traffic are not ideal. This vicious cycle – where weak community support leads to sluggish project development, and stagnant development further weakens community enthusiasm – ultimately led to Nyancoin's decline.

Nyancoin's community has only 1.5k subscribers, and the last active posts were years ago. This community disconnect led to mainstream data platforms stopping updating Nyancoin's real-time data after 2019, when its 24-hour trading volume had been below $10,000 for a long time, and liquidity drying up made it gradually delisted from exchanges. Nyancoin's case is a testament to a brutal law of the market: in the era of the attention economy, the blessing of top-tier IP is often more decisive than the technical characteristics of the project itself.

Winning General

Dogecoin (DOGE) - An Unexpected "Grassroots Carnival"

Born on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin began as a parody of Bitcoin's cult culture by programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, but unexpectedly evolved into the most enduring meme in cryptocurrency history. Its iconic Shiba Inu image originated from the "Doge" meme that swept the Internet in 2013, and this innate high-popularity Internet IP made it quickly popular on social platforms.

In terms of design concept and original intention, it did not emphasize complex technology, flaunt revolutionary blockchain technology, or promise grand visions like other cryptocurrencies, but used a goofy Shiba Inu meme as a symbol to break into this increasingly fanatical field in the most playful way at the time.

Looking back at the several peaks of DOGE's market capitalization, they were at the beginning of 2021 when the retail investment craze and strong community support drove the market cap to $10 billion; in May of the same year, under the continuous promotion from its number one fan Elon Musk on social media and the effects of the "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) show, DOGE's market cap reached $80 billion.

In the following years, although the popularity and price of DOGE have both declined, the overall market trend has remained relatively stable, retaining a certain influence and popularity in the cryptocurrency space. It wasn't until November 12, 2024, when Trump announced that Musk and Ramaswamy would jointly lead the newly established "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), with the aim of cutting government spending. However, the official abbreviation of this new department, "DOGE," is identical to the code for Dogecoin, which sparked enthusiastic discussions in the crypto community. Although Musk later clarified on social media that there was no connection between the two, given his consistent style of action and long-standing admiration for DOGE, the outside world generally believes that this choice of abbreviation is by no means a coincidence.

There are multiple interpretations of this intriguing naming coincidence: some speculate that it is an ingenious arrangement by Musk trying to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency market and the political arena; Others believe that this may be a foreshadowing to revive the popularity of the DOGE market; Of course, it is also possible that it is just an interesting coincidence, as he himself said. Only time will tell. But there's no denying that the incident once again highlights DOGE's unique place in crypto culture, as well as the delicate relationship between Musk and DOGE.

The development history of DOGE perfectly illustrates the duality of meme coins: on one hand, it has created a financial miracle driven by ordinary internet users; on the other hand, it has exposed the risk of such coins becoming speculative tools.

But 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, and its market capitalization ranking is still in the top 10. And its community activity is still amazingly vigorous, and I believe that this advantage can always be transformed into market momentum at critical moments, and then fed back to form a virtuous circle.

It must be admitted that this digital currency, originally created as a joke, has now become a unique and enduring presence in the world of cryptocurrency.

Hibernation/Explosion (2017-2021)

After entering 2017, meme coins began to shift from simple joke coins to more complex ecological development, and some projects tried to combine new concepts such as DeFi and NFT, but they were still mainly speculative and community-driven. According to the above classification basis, the currencies at this stage can be divided into the following categories:

Meteor Twinkle

Similar to the "flash in the pan", they all have similar development trajectories and historical trends - short-term explosions, rapid falls, and then fleeting like meteors. Such coins often rely on speculative sentiment and short-term spikes in popularity, rather than practical application or community consensus.

Useless Ethereum Token (UET, 2017)

As the most honest scam in crypto history, UET was launched on June 17, 2017, during the craziest period of the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) bubble, by the developer "UselessEthereumToken" (anonymous), which directly stated on its official website: "This is a worthless token, and buying it is a waste of money."

Is this anti-routine marketing or performance art financing? The UET project team openly admits that the token has no features, no team, no roadmap, and even the official website FAQ reads: "Why should I buy this token? - You don't need to."

Its logo also deepens the irony, challenging the norm and breaking the existence of established theorems, truly bringing an interesting fork in the road to the cryptocurrency field.

With such a lack of concealment, UET still raised 310 ETH (about $93,000 at the time) within 48 hours, making it one of the most absurd ICO cases in history.

When it comes to its token mechanism, it is a naked "self-detonation" design. It can be said that 100% honest economics will be implemented, and the total supply of UET will be fixed at 1 billion, with no additional issuance or destruction. All the ETH raised was transferred to the developer's address, and no use was promised. At the same time, its zero-tech packaging and easter eggs on its official website all reinforce the program effect of this absurd drama at all times: it is technically based on the most basic ERC-20 standard, has no smart contract function, and does not even open transfer restrictions.

Although UET's blatant attitude is shocking, the market response has not been entirely negative. UET has found its "kindred spirits" in the market and gained a following. In the early days of its launch, some exchanges listed UET out of curiosity, resulting in a brief price surge of 800%. There was even a netizen who initiated the "UET Challenge" — to see who could convince others to take over with the most absurd reason.

But soon, after a short period of speculation, UET also ushered in its own crises and problems. First, in early 2018, security researchers discovered a fatal vulnerability in the UET smart contract, and since then the vulnerability has been exploited, causing the price of UET to plummet and the market value to evaporate. After the 2018 bear market, UET liquidity dried up and was eventually marked as a "lapsed project".

This absurd success seems to confirm the irrational characteristics of the crypto market—despite UET's clear self-denial, the market will still pay for meaningless narratives. When "worthless" can become a selling point, the frenzy belonging to this field has only just begun.

Hoge Finance (HOGE, 2021) – A Community-Driven Deflationary Experiment

Born on the Ethereum blockchain in 2021, HOGE's core positioning is not to disrupt new technologies, but to build a unique token economy through a deflationary model and community governance. 1% of the tokens are automatically burned for each transaction, while 1% is distributed to the holders, in an attempt to drive value growth with scarcity. This design has also indeed attracted a large number of retail investors, making it one of the most active community tokens in the short term.

Unlike other cryptocurrencies, HOGE emphasizes and implements the concept and approach of "decentralization", allowing community members to vote on the direction of the project. This unique community-driven approach has propelled the community to grow rapidly and allowed HOGE to gain enough traction in the cryptocurrency market. At the same time, just like DOGE has done, HOGE is also passionate about philanthropy and is committed to funding animal welfare projects, which has brought it back to gaining a lot of enthusiasm and support. And this popularity and support are directly reflected in the data, and the discussion of HOGE is active on large cryptocurrency forums and social media platforms.

However, similar to other similar projects, HOGE's bottleneck soon became apparent: despite a good start, the lack of practical application scenarios led to its long-term reliance on speculation, and finally failed to break through the limitations of meme coins, and the price fell and then showed a long-term downturn.

During the 2022 market winter, the price of HOGE fell by more than 90% from its peak, and liquidity gradually shrank. Despite attempts by the community to promote marketing gimmicks such as the "space program" to boost the heat, they have not been able to turn the tide. As of recently, its code updates have stagnated, and the on-chain activity has decreased significantly