The Development of Meme Coins: From Frenzy to Rational Market Evolution

This article systematically outlines the development process of meme coins, analyzing typical cases and revealing their unique value logic: unlike traditional financial assets, the core value of meme coins is expressed as "cultural传播力×community consensus," rather than solely relying on technology or practical value. Based on their evolutionary characteristics, they can be divided into three key development stages:

1. Breaking Ground/Foundation (2013-2016) - Barbaric Growth, The Great Wave Washes Away the Sand

• Ephemeral: Short-term popularity, lacking cultural depth, and quickly fading away. ( like Mooncoin, TIPS, Nyancoin )

• Invincible General Type: Cultural Symbol + Community Driven, Long-term Survival. ( like DOGE)

2. Dormancy/Outbreak ( 2017-2021) - In the era of smart contracts, meme coin welcomes a qualitative change

• Meteor Shining Type: Driven by speculation, the bubble bursts quickly. ( like UET, HOGE)

• Stellar Everbright Type: Ecological Expansion, Breaking Limits. ( like SHIB's ShibaSwap )

• Transformational breakthrough: attempting innovation, but progress is slow due to various limiting factors. ( such as the metaverse blueprint of FLOKI and the public chain binding of SAMO ).

3. Sedimentation/Reconstruction ( 2022-2025 1928374656574839201 - The Rise of New Narratives, the Market Begins to Restructure

• Short-term speculative: relies on hot topics, extremely high risk. ) such as the political narrative trend of TRUMP (

• Ecosystem-driven: relying on public chains, short-term explosion. ) such as WIF, BONK(

• Narrative Innovation: AI + Meme, Concept Hype, Trust Crisis. ) like GOAT(

• Cultural Symbol Type: Internet Celebrity IP, Short-term Popularity. ) like MOODENG(

Meme coins will continue to face the balancing test of "hype and substance", while technological innovations ) such as AI, DeFAI ( and community building will become key factors. Although the market is undergoing adjustments, as a typical product of the attention economy, meme coins will still maintain their unique position and influence in the cryptocurrency field.

Reviewing history, detailing the context:

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

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

In the era dominated by social media, the speed and manner of information dissemination have undergone fundamental changes. A meme that becomes popular on Reddit or X can achieve hundreds of millions of exposures globally within a few hours, and the power of this viral spread has now been directly converted into financial value. Meme coins, as the perfect carrier of this conversion, have written their own stories and legends on the time-based axis.

) Breaking ground/establishing a foundation ### 2013-2016 ( - In the time of flourishing, the pioneers bravely stand at the forefront; in the midst of the great waves, the disheartened quietly exit.

This period witnessed the original innovative journey of meme coins from zero to one, presenting a unique ecology where wild growth coexists with natural selection. Marked by the birth of DOGE in December 2013 and ending with the maturity of Ethereum's smart contract technology in 2016, it constitutes the "Genesis Era" of meme coin development history, the purest and most authentic.

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

In terms of market performance, the average active cycle of meme coins born during this period is only 11.7 months, but survivors like DOGE demonstrate astonishing vitality.

In terms of historical status, the foundational significance of this stage cannot be underestimated. In fact, 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.

) Hibernation/Outbreak ### 2017-2021( - Amid the tides of rise and fall, wise men seize the opportunity; where the winds and clouds change, the strong are defeated and sink in the sand.

In the past five years, the market has witnessed the transformation of meme coins from fringe subculture to mainstream financial assets. Marked by the popularization of the ERC-20 standard in 2017 as a technological turning point, and culminating in SHIB reaching a historic market value in 2021, meme coins have undergone a qualitative change from "internet joke" to "phenomenal investment standard."

From a technical perspective, the maturity of smart contracts has completely restructured the issuance logic of meme coins. According to on-chain data from Ethereum, most meme coins that emerged between 2017 and 2021 chose to adopt the ERC-20 standard or rely on other protocols, reducing the issuance cost to less than one-thousandth of ) compared to the tens of thousands of dollars ( required for independent chain development. This technological democratization, akin to a double-edged sword, has sparked a frenzy of "everything can be a meme," but it has also laid the groundwork for the hidden dangers of homogeneous competition.

At the same time, on the market narrative level, in December 2017, the market capitalization of DOGE first broke 1 billion USD, while in the peak period of 2021, the overall daily trading volume of the meme coin sector 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 have seen a significant improvement in their lifecycle compared to the previous period.

However, it should be noted that not all meme coins have a higher survival rate and longer lifespan. According to data from the Chainplay research report, meme coin projects experienced an average of deaths every month in 2020.

Throughout the history of cryptocurrency, the most profound transformation during this period is the reconstruction of value perception. When DOGE was incorporated into mainstream exchanges in 2021, and when the SHIB founder was able to leverage a market cap of billions anonymously, traditional finance had to rethink the essence of meme coins - as revealed in the report "Meme Assets and the Economics of Attention" published by the MIT Digital Currency Initiative in 2021: "The value capture mechanism of assets like Dogecoin essentially transforms 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 wave collapses, true gold begins to show its true color; in the world of great contention, the pattern ultimately becomes clear.

Starting from 2022, the meme coin market began a deep adjustment from frenzy to rationality. Marked by the collapse of Terra in May 2022, and turning with the rise of the BRC-20 standard in 2023, the meme coin ecosystem is undergoing a brutal yet necessary value reassessment.

According to statistics, the overall market value of meme coins shrank by 82% in 2022, but leading projects DOGE and SHIB still maintained rankings in the top 20 by market value. A new report titled "State of Memecoin 2024" released by Chainplay, the data center of the GameFi market, pointed out that "97% OF MEMECOINS HAVE DIED." The report further indicated: "Different blockchain platforms exhibit varying meme coin death rates. Base leads with a death rate of 66.91%, followed by Solana at 54.03% and Ethereum at 36.59%."

Nevertheless, it should not be underestimated or speculated whether meme coin has reached the conclusion of its story. The cryptocurrency market has always been full of uncertainties, and meme coin, as a distinctive category within it, is even harder to measure with conventional perspectives.

As the head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs said: "Meme projects that can still secure financing after 2023 must prove their ability to capture long-term value beyond simple speculation." Similarly, as noted by an a16z researcher: "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 a key bridge connecting the crypto world with popular culture.

Chunking and Deep Diving into Key Details:

) Breaking ground/Foundational work###2013-2016(

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

)# Ephemeral

In the rapidly evolving ecosystem of cryptocurrency, driven by innovation, projects lacking sustained viability are destined to become fleeting visitors. They may attract market attention during specific periods, but ultimately find it difficult to escape the fate of being a "flash in the pan." Though they may shine brilliantly when in bloom, it is hard to maintain their heat for long.

Mooncoin - An Unfinished "Moon Landing" Dream

As an entertainment-oriented meme coin with the slogan "登月###To the Moon(", its somewhat brief life could not support the ambition of this grand narrative.

Looking back at the development trajectory from 2014 to 2018, the early performance of mooncoin was quite impressive: in its launch year, it set a record with a single-day increase of over 300%; the discussion volume on the Reddit community exceeded 5,000 posts in a single month; it collaborated with gaming platforms; and it was even dubbed the "most serious joke coin."

However, after the highlights comes a long silence: in 2015, the delisting from mainstream exchanges caused the market value to drop by over 90%; the following year, members of the anonymous development team announced an "indefinite hibernation"; it wasn't until 2018 that the project experienced a brief resurgence - but this was not due to its own breakthroughs, rather it benefited from two external factors: first, the overall warming of the cryptocurrency market; second, the launch of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket reignited the "To the Moon" internet meme, and a parody video titled "Mooncoin Countdown to the Moon" created by community members unexpectedly brought in traffic.

Unfortunately, Mooncoin failed to seize this final opportunity. The development team claimed to create a "lunar base" metaverse game, but in the end, the white paper did not materialize, and the so-called "metaverse game" was merely a demo video. After this, with Bitcoin plunging 60% in April 2018, market enthusiasm waned, and Mooncoin completely faded from the stage.

)## Fedoracoin###TIPS( - A niche "gentleman" recognition

FedoraCoin)TIPS( was born on December 22, 2013. Its core is not aimed at the mass market, but precisely targets the "Fedora-wearing neckbeard" subculture on Reddit. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly become popular within a specific community in its early days, but it also sowed the seeds for limited development in the future.

On the technical level, TIPS adopted the relatively common Scrypt algorithm at that 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 followers in the early stages.

At the same time, just two months after its launch, the r/Fedoracoin subreddit on Reddit set an astonishing record for daily discussions, exceeding 2000 posts, making it one of the most active meme coin communities.

However, the good times didn't last long, as TIPS soon encountered a predicament similar to that of Mooncoin. Due to the lack of practical application scenarios, this project, built on subculture memes, has always been unable to break through the limitations of cultural symbols. Starting in 2015, as mainstream exchanges gradually delisted TIPS, its liquidity experienced a sharp decline. The product's initial positioning to serve a specific subcultural group is indicative; while this approach precisely matched the target users, its niche nature also made it difficult to expand into a broader market and subsequent marketing.

Although the cryptocurrency market overall rebounded in 2018, the price of TIPS briefly surged. Unfortunately, similar to mooncoin, TIPS did not manage to capitalize on this opportunity.