The Development of Meme Coin: From Joke to Phenomenon

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 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 (2013-2016) - Barbaric Growth, the Elimination of the Weaker

• Ephemeral type: short-term popularity, lack of cultural accumulation, rapid extinction. ( such as Mooncoin, TIPS, Nyancoin )
• Invincible General Type: Cultural Symbol + Community Driven, Long-term Survival. ( like DOGE)

2. Hibernation / 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 limitations. ( such as 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. Sediment / Restructure ( 2022-2025 ) - The Rise of New Narratives, the Market Begins to Reshape

• Short-term speculation: relies on hot topics, extremely high risk. ( like the political narrative craze of TRUMP )
• Ecological-driven: relying on public chains, short-term explosion. ( like WIF, BONK)
• Narrative Innovation Type: AI + Meme, Concept Speculation, Trust Crisis. ( as GOAT)
• Cultural Symbol Type: Internet Celebrity IP, Short-term Popularity. ( like MOODENG)

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

Review history, count the context

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

From a sarcastic joke at the beginning to a digital 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 methods of information dissemination have undergone fundamental changes. A meme that becomes popular on Reddit or Twitter can achieve hundreds of millions of exposures worldwide within a few hours, and the power of this viral spread is now directly translated into financial value. Meme coins, as the perfect carrier of this transformation, have written their own stories and legends on the time-axis.

Breaking ground / Foundation (2013-2016) - In the time of rising trends, the pioneers bravely stand at the forefront; in the place where the big waves wash 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 of both wild growth and 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 purest and most authentic "Genesis Era" in the history of meme coin development.

On a technical level, with a 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 from CoinMarketCap shows that the average active cycle of meme coins born during this period is only 11.7 months, but survivors like DOGE have demonstrated remarkable vitality.

From the perspective of historical status, the foundational significance of this stage cannot be underestimated. In fact, history tells us that true innovation often arises when rules have not yet been established. 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.

Lurking / Erupting ( 2017-2021) - Amid the ebb and flow of tides, the wise rise to seize the moment; in the midst of changing winds and clouds, the powerful fall in defeat.

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

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 dollars ) for independent chain development. This democratization of technology, akin to a double-edged sword, has given rise to the frenzy of "everything can be a meme," but it has also buried the hidden danger of homogeneous competition.

At the same time, on the market narrative level, CoinGecko data shows that in December 2017, the market capitalization of DOGE first broke $1 billion, while in 2021, the overall daily trading volume of the meme coin sector exceeded $30 billion, 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 increase 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 entire history of cryptocurrency, the most profound transformation during this period lies in the reconstruction of value perception. When DOGE was listed on mainstream exchanges like Coinbase in 2021, and when the SHIB founder could leverage a hundred billion market cap anonymously, traditional finance had to reassess the essence of meme coins - just 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 converts network attention into liquidity premiums." This shift in perception laid a critical foundation for subsequent social finance experiments in the Web3 era.

(沉淀 / 重构)2022-2025### - When the great waves have fallen, true gold begins to show its true color; in an era of great contention, the pattern finally becomes clear.

Starting from 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 experiencing a brutal yet necessary revaluation of its value.

According to CoinMarketCap statistics, the overall market value of meme coins shrank by 82% in 2022, but leading projects DOGE and SHIB still maintained their positions in the top 20 by market value. A new report "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 also stated: "Different blockchain platforms exhibit different 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, one should not underestimate or speculate whether meme coins have already reached the conclusion 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 evaluate with conventional perspectives.

As Mathew McDermott, head of digital assets at Goldman Sachs, stated: "Meme projects that can still secure funding after 2023 must demonstrate their ability to capture long-term value beyond mere hype." Similarly, as pointed out by an a16z researcher: "This winter is filtering out speculative bubbles, leaving behind digital assets that truly possess cultural endurance." The future landscape may prove that meme coins capable of spanning cycles will ultimately become a key bridge connecting the crypto world and popular culture.

Block Breakdown, Deep Dive into Key Details

( Breaking Ground / Foundation )2013-2016(

The currencies in this stage can be roughly divided into the following categories based on their lifecycle/community activity/market value 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 capture market attention for a specific period, but ultimately find it difficult to escape the fate of being "a flash in the pan." While they bloom spectacularly, they struggle to maintain their heat for long.

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

As an entertainment meme coin with the slogan "登月)To the Moon###", its relatively short life has failed to bear the ambition of this grand narrative. As Crypto Briefing stated in 2015: "Mooncoin has no actual use cases related to space or moon landing, aside from its name."

Looking back at its development trajectory from 2014 to 2018, ( its last GitHub commit was in 2018 ) v1.8.0###, which almost marked the practical demise of the project ###. The early performance of mooncoin was quite stunning: it set a record for a single-day increase of over 300% in its first year; the discussion volume in the Reddit community r/Mooncoin exceeded 5000 posts in a month; after collaborating with the gaming platform Moonrocket, ( the project platform shut down ); it was even referred to by Coindesk as "the most serious joke coin."

However, after the spotlight, there was a long silence: In 2015, delisting from mainstream exchanges led to a drop of over 90% in market value; 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, rather it 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; 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 in traffic.

Unfortunately, Mooncoin missed its 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 that, 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" (: "This flashback confirms the cruel law of Meme coins - projects lacking cultural accumulation, any technological update is just a life support injection."

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

FedoraCoin(TIPS)was born on December 22, 2013, and its core is not aimed at the mass market, but rather precisely targets the "Fedora-wearing neckbeard"(and "keyboard warriors")subculture group on Reddit. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly rise to fame within specific communities in its early days, but it also sowed the seeds for limitations in its subsequent development.

On a 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 followers in its early stage.

At the same time, just two months after its launch, the r/Fedoracoin subreddit on Reddit set an astonishing record of over 2000 discussions in a single day, making it one of the most active meme coin communities.

However, the good times didn't last long, and TIPS quickly encountered a dilemma similar to that of Mooncoin. Due to the lack of practical application scenarios, this project, which is built on subculture meme images, has always been unable to break through the limitations of cultural symbols. Since 2015, with the emergence of...