The Development Journey of Meme Coin: From Joke to Phenomenon

This article systematically sorts out 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 manifested as "cultural dissemination power × community consensus," rather than relying solely on technology or practical value. Based on their evolutionary characteristics, they can be divided into three key development stages:

1. Breaking Ground/Foundation Laying ( 2013-2016 928374656574839201 - Barbaric Growth, Sifting the Sand

• Ephemeral type: short-term popularity, lacking cultural depth, and quickly fading away. ) like Mooncoin, TIPS, Nyancoin (
• The Ever-Victorious General Type: Cultural Symbol + Community Driven, Long-Term Survival. ) like DOGE(

2. Hibernation/Outbreak ) 2017-2021( - In the era of smart contracts, meme coin is ushering in a qualitative change.

• Meteor Shining Type: Driven by speculation, bubbles burst quickly. ) like UET, HOGE(
• Stellar Everbright Type: Ecological Expansion, Breaking Limitations. ) like SHIB's ShibaSwap (
• Transformational breakthrough: Attempting innovation, but progress is slow due to various limiting factors. ) such as FLOKI's metaverse blueprint, SAMO's public chain binding (

3. Precipitation/Reconstruction ) 2022-2025 ( - The Rise of New Narratives, the Market Begins to Shuffle

• Short-term speculation type: relies on hot topics, extremely high risk. ) such as the political narrative boom of TRUMP (
• Eco-driven: relying on public chains, short-term explosion. ) such as WIF, BONK(
• Narrative Innovation: AI + Meme, Concept Speculation, 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 "speculation and substance," while technological innovations like AI, DeFAI), and community building will become key factors. Although the market is undergoing adjustments, meme coins, as a typical product of the attention economy, will still maintain their unique position and influence in the cryptocurrency space.

Review history, enumerate the context

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

From the sarcastic jokes at the beginning to the virtual currencies that now hold 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 perception of "value" itself.

In an era dominated by social media, the speed and methods of information dissemination have undergone fundamental changes. A meme that becomes popular on Reddit or X can gain 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 medium for this conversion, have written their own stories and legends on the time axis.

( Breaking Ground/Fundamental Expansion )2013-2016### - During the flourishing times, the pioneers bravely stand at the forefront; in the midst of the great waves washing away the sand, the disappointed quietly exit.

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

On a technical level, with few exceptions, this stage of meme coins is almost entirely based on code forks of Bitcoin or Litecoin.

In terms of market performance, historical data from CoinMarketCap shows that the average active cycle of meme coins born during this period is only 11.7 months, but survivors like DOGE demonstrate remarkable 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 are not yet 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 of the cryptocurrency world.

( Dormant/Outburst ) 2017-2021### - Amid the ebb and flow of tides, wise individuals rise with the momentum; in the midst of changing winds and clouds, the powerful meet their demise in the sands.

In the past five years, the market has witnessed the transformation of meme coins from a 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 2021 when SHIB set a historical market value, meme coins have undergone a qualitative change from "internet joke" to "phenomenal investment target."

From a technical perspective, the maturity of smart contracts has completely restructured the issuance logic of meme coins. According to data on the Ethereum chain, most meme coins born between 2017 and 2021 chose to adopt the ERC-20 standard or rely on other protocols, with issuance costs reduced to less than one-thousandth of ( compared to the tens of thousands of USD ) required for independent chain development. This technological democratization, akin to a double-edged sword, has spawned a craze of "everything can be a meme," but it has also sown the seeds of homogenous competition.

At the same time, from the market narrative perspective, CoinGecko data shows that in December 2017, the market capitalization of DOGE first broke 1 billion USD, while in the peak period of 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 phase 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 the research report by Chainplay, meme coin projects experienced deaths on average every month in 2020.

Looking at the entire history of cryptocurrency, the most profound change during this period is the reconstruction of value perception. When DOGE was listed on mainstream exchanges like Coinbase in 2021, and when the SHIB founder could leverage a market cap of tens of billions anonymously, traditional finance had to rethink the essence of meme coins - as revealed in the "Meme Assets and Attention Economics" report published by the MIT Digital Currency Initiative in 2021: "The value capture mechanism of assets like Dogecoin essentially transforms network attention into liquidity premiums." This shift in perception laid a critical foundation for subsequent social finance experiments in the Web3 era.

( Sedimentation/Reconstruction ) 2022-2025 ( - When the torrent collapses, true gold begins to show its true color; in a world of great contention, the pattern ultimately becomes clear.

Since 2022, the meme coin market has undergone 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 revaluation of value.

According to CoinMarketCap statistics, the overall market value of meme coins shrank by 82% in 2022, but the leading projects DOGE and SHIB still maintain a ranking in the top 20 by market value. A new report titled "State of Memecoin 2024" released by the GameFi market data center Chainplay studied and analyzed over 30,000 meme coin projects on Ethereum, Solana, and Base. The report pointed out that "97% OF MEMECOINS HAVE DIED". It further stated 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%."

Nevertheless, it is still unwise to underestimate or speculate whether meme coins have reached the end of their story. The cryptocurrency market has always been full of uncertainties, and meme coins, as a particularly distinctive category within it, are even harder to measure with conventional perspectives.

As Mathew McDermott, the head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, said: "Meme projects that can still secure funding after 2023 must demonstrate 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 resilient 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 mainstream culture.

Block Breakdown, Deep Dive into Key Details

) Breaking Ground/Foundation ### 2013-2016(

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

)# Ephemeral

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 certain periods, but ultimately struggle to escape the fate of being "ephemeral." Although they may shine brilliantly when they bloom, it is difficult to maintain that heat for long.

(## Mooncoin - An Unfinished "Moon Landing" Dream

As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan "登月)To the Moon(", its somewhat short life couldn't support the ambition of this grand narrative. As Crypto Briefing stated in 2015: "Mooncoin has no actual use cases related to space or moon landing, apart from its name."

Looking back at its development trajectory from 2014 to 2018, its last GitHub submission was in 2018 v1.8.0), which nearly marked the substantial demise of the project. The early performance of mooncoin was quite remarkable: it set a record for a daily increase of over 300% in its first year; the discussion volume in the Reddit community r/Mooncoin exceeded 5000 posts per month; after cooperating with the gaming platform Moonrocket, the project platform went bankrupt; it was even referred to by Coindesk as "the most serious joke coin."

However, after the spotlight, there was a long silence: in 2015, the delisting from mainstream exchanges led to a market value drop of over 90%; the following year, members of the anonymous development team announced an "indefinite hibernation"; it wasn't until 2018 that the project saw a brief resurgence - but this was not due to its own breakthroughs, but rather benefited from two external factors: first, the overall recovery of the cryptocurrency market, with Bitcoin rebounding from $13,000 to $17,000 in Q1 2018, driving altcoins to rise as well; 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 garnered over 500,000 views on YouTube, unexpectedly bringing traffic.

Unfortunately, Mooncoin failed to seize this last opportunity. The development team claimed to create a "Lunar Base" metaverse game, but in the end, the white paper never materialized, and the so-called "metaverse game" was merely a Unity demo video. After this, with Bitcoin plummeting 60% in April 2018, market enthusiasm waned, and Mooncoin completely faded from the stage. As summarized in Delphi Digital's "Cryptocurrency Cycle Report" ###2019(: "This brief revival confirms the cruel law of Meme coins - projects lacking cultural accumulation find that any technological update is merely a life-saving injection."

)## 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 group on Reddit, the "hat-wearing keyboard warriors"(. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly gain popularity within specific communities in its early days, but also laid the groundwork for limitations in subsequent development.

On a technical level, TIPS adopted the relatively common Scrypt algorithm at the time, and the 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 the early stages.