The Three-Stage Evolution of Meme Coin: From Parody and Jokes to Value Reconstruction

##The Past and Present of Meme Coins: From Entertainment Jokes to Value Reconstruction

This article systematically sorts out the development history of meme coins, analyzing typical cases and revealing their unique value logic: unlike traditional financial assets, the core value of meme coins is manifested as "cultural dissemination power × community consensus," rather than relying entirely on technology or practical value. Based on their evolutionary characteristics, they can be divided into three key development stages:

###1. Breaking Ground/Foundational Work (2013-2016)——Barbaric Growth, Sifting Through the Sands

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

####1.1 Ephemeral Type

#####Mooncoin(MOON)

As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan "登月(To the Moon)", its somewhat brief life failed to bear the ambition of this grand narrative. In its first year, it set a record for a daily increase of over 300%, but after the highlights came a long silence. In 2015, being delisted from mainstream exchanges led to a market value drop of over 90%.

#####Fedoracoin(TIPS)

FedoraCoin was born on December 22, 2013, and its core is not aimed at the mass market, but rather precisely targets the "Fedora-wearing neckbeard" subculture group on Reddit. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly gain popularity within specific communities in its early days, but it also planted the seeds for limited development in the future. Starting in 2015, as mainstream exchanges gradually delisted TIPS, its liquidity experienced a sharp decline.

#####Nyancoin(NYAN)

As the second meme coin after DOGE, Nyancoin was launched on January 6, 2014, and within a month, it gained the unique identity of "the first officially licensed cryptocurrency in history," yet it lagged far behind the former in market influence. The lack of deep community support and application scenarios eventually led to its gradual withdrawal from the market.

####1.2 General Winning Type

#####Dogecoin(DOGE)

Dogecoin, which was born on December 6, 2013, was initially just a parody of the Bitcoin craze created by programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, but it unexpectedly evolved into one of the most enduring phenomenon meme coins in the history of cryptocurrency. Its iconic Shiba Inu image comes from the "Doge" meme that became popular on the internet in 2013, and this inherently high-profile internet IP allowed it to quickly rise to fame on platforms such as Reddit.

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

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

####2.1 Meteor Shining Type

#####Useless Ethereum Token(UET)

As the most honest scam in cryptocurrency history, UET was launched on June 17, 2017, with its official website stating directly: "This is a worthless token, buying it is a waste of money." Nevertheless, UET raised 310 ETH( within 48 hours, which was approximately $93,000) at that time, becoming one of the most absurd ICO cases in history.

#####Hoge Finance(HOGE)

HOGE, born in 2021 on the Ethereum blockchain, is not primarily aimed at achieving disruptive new technologies, but rather at building a unique token economy through a deflationary model and community governance. Each transaction automatically destroys 1% of the tokens while distributing 1% to holders, attempting to drive value growth through scarcity. This design has indeed attracted a large number of retail investors, making it one of the most active community tokens in a short period.

####2.2 Star Bright Type

#####Shiba Inu(SHIB)

Born in August 2020, Shiba Inu was initially just a meme coin parodying DOGE on the Ethereum chain, with a total supply of up to 1 quadrillion coins, and its near-zero value made it regarded as a "joke coin." However, in May 2021, a tweet from Musk stating "Looking for Shiba Inu" ignited the market, causing SHIB to surge 1200% in a single day. Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin donated over 500 trillion SHIB tokens to the India COVID-Crypto Relief Fund, and then burned 45% of the SHIB coins, dramatically elevating its status.

####2.3 Transformation Breakthrough Type

#####Floki Inu(FLOKI)

Floki Inu burst onto the scene in June 2021, inspired directly by a tweet from Musk—he named his Shiba Inu "Floki". This serendipitous naming gave rise to a dog-themed meme coin that quickly sparked a frenzy on platforms like Reddit and Telegram, garnering numerous fans and supporters. Notably, unlike most flash-in-the-pan meme coins, FLOKI's ambitions go far beyond just being a hot topic; it aims for a more profound brand transformation, seeking to build a vast ecosystem encompassing DeFi, NFTs, the metaverse, and more.

#####Samoyedcoin(SAMO)

Samoyedcoin, born during the explosive period of the Solana ecosystem in 2021, quickly became popular with its adorable Samoyed dog image. Unlike other meme coins with grassroots origins, SAMO has carried the aura of "Solana's official mascot" since its inception, and this special positioning makes it stand out among many canine tokens.

###3. Sedimentation/Reconstruction ( 2022-2025 ) —— The Rise of New Narratives, the Market Begins to Reshuffle

Since 2022, the meme coin market has undergone a deep adjustment from fervor to rationality. Marked by the collapse of Terra in May 2022 and the rise of the BRC-20 standard in 2023, the meme coin ecosystem is experiencing a brutal yet necessary revaluation of value.

####3.1 Short-term speculation

#####Trump(TRUMP)

On January 17, 2025, then-U.S. President Trump announced the launch of his personal meme coin $TRUMP on social media, with the token's design inspired by his iconic image of raising a fist during the attempted assassination in 2024. The slogan is "Join my Trump Community ( Trump Community )." This politically themed token, featuring U.S. President Trump, cleverly combines election fervor with crypto speculation, creating a stunning market performance in a very short time.

####3.2 Ecological-driven

#####Dogwifhat(WIF)

On December 13, 2023, WIF, another dog-themed meme coin on the Solana chain, sparked an absurd frenzy in the Solana ecosystem and the cryptocurrency market, wearing a cute pink knitted hat. After its launch in 2023, WIF's market capitalization soared to 3 billion dollars by March 26 of the following year, taking just 104 days.

#####BONK

On December 25, 2022, as the Solana ecosystem was on the brink of collapse due to the FTX crisis, an anonymous team launched $BONK, featuring a Shiba Inu image, and announced the so-called "airdrop rescue plan": airdropping 50% of the total token supply to active users on the Solana chain. At the same time, BONK has an anti-VC narrative, directly challenging the "institution-led" model of cryptocurrency, and its official website claims "this is a meme coin for retail investors."

####3.3 Narrative Innovation Type

#####Goatseus Maximus(GOAT)

This meme coin, born in October 2024, originated from a bizarre prophecy about the "Goatse Singularity" by an AI chatbot called "Truth Terminal", and within just two weeks, it evolved into a frenzy worth over $700 million on the Solana chain. Its rise perfectly illustrates the crazy logic of "narrative is value" in the crypto market, cleverly combining AI gimmicks, subculture memes, and VC halo, creating a stunning wealth effect, and writing the first biography for the brand new field of AI memes.

####3.4 cultural symbol type

#####MOODENG

Unlike traditional dog and cat meme coins, MOODENG is inspired by a young pygmy hippopotamus named MooDeng(, which means "lively pig") from the Khao Kheow Zoo in Thailand. After the zookeepers posted videos of it on social media, MooDeng quickly became a sensation, turning into a global internet phenomenon. On September 10, 2024, at the peak of the little hippo's popularity, the first meme coin themed on MooDeng, $MOODENG, was born on the Solana chain, quickly accumulating initial liquidity on Pump.fun. Within just 20 days of its launch, MOODENG's market cap surpassed $270 million, successfully entering the Top 10 meme coins on the Solana chain and setting the highest record for Pump.fun projects.

###Future Outlook

Looking to the future, in the face of the upcoming new era, meme coins, which essentially belong to the attention economy, still cannot be abandoned by the times and the market. Technologically, earlier platforms like PumpFun have continuously contributed to low-threshold and low-cost coin issuance and trading; while the latest BlockMiner project launched in 2025 has brought a renaissance to this PvP mode prevalent market.

In terms of innovation, the popularity of "AI+meme" has been continuously rising since the advent of GOAT, promising to incubate an infinite number of new paradigm shifts — the rise of DeFAI has further elevated the value and narrative of AI memes to new heights. The rapidly developing AI Agent technology is also continuously expanding application scenarios, laying a foundation for the large-scale popularization of AI and providing support. Although AI projects still face key challenges such as technology implementation and user trust, their core position in the future crypto ecosystem is undoubtedly established.

From a non-technical perspective, the development of meme coins has always relied on community support and maintaining popularity. In terms of emotional value and traffic effects, the phenomenon of leveraging celebrity influence to create and issue cryptocurrencies has been ongoing since the launch of Coinye West( in 2014, despite it initially having no relation to the person. This trend reached its peak after Trump's coin issuance in 2025. This wave of celebrity coin issuance will continue to boost market enthusiasm and has even influenced the development momentum of AI meme coins to some extent. Although there are many celebrity meme coins of varying quality, the market will ultimately filter out the truly high-quality projects.

As the era and the market bid farewell to the past, early meme coins urgently need to transform, while the meme coins of the new era must address more complex challenges. This market is undergoing a necessary transition from reckless growth to rational development, and what ultimately remains may not be the craziest meme, but rather the survivor that best balances speculation and substance.

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