The Madness and Truth of Meme Coins: Behind the 6 Million Token Issuance, Who Is Making Crazy and Who Is Swimming Naked?

From Jokes to Financial Weapons, Meme Coins Are Playing Big

When it comes to Meme coins, many people’s first reaction still sticks to the impression of “community antics.” But the reality is—this thing is no longer a fringe product.

In 2024, the total market capitalization of the entire Meme coin sector surged by over 500%. By early 2025, speculative funds withdrew from the main markets like a tide, flooding into various shanzhai Meme coins. Now? The US SEC directly classifies a large number of Meme coins as “collectibles” rather than securities, with virtually no regulatory protection.

Sounds exciting, right? But behind the thrill lies the brutal reality that 98% of tokens go to zero within 24 hours.

$TRUMP Becomes an Overnight Legend, 700 Clones Flood the Market

On January 17, 2025, $TRUMP suddenly appeared.

Within less than a day, its market cap skyrocketed to $27 billion. What does this number mean? It’s equivalent to the GDP of some small countries. In the following weeks, over 700 Trump-themed clones appeared in the market—including 192 that directly used the names of Trump family members, and 67 that dared to call themselves “official.”

Interestingly, 80% of the total supply of $TRUMP is controlled by Trump or his affiliates. This move directly generated $350 million in token sales revenue and platform fees.

But the hype was quick to rise and fall. After reaching its peak, $TRUMP quickly retreated. Massive trades left many chasing high with their wallets emptied. Political branding plus crypto speculation—this combo pack hits hard.

SOL Ecosystem: 60% of Economic Activity Driven by Meme Coins

SOL (a well-known high-performance public chain) now exhibits a surreal phenomenon—over 60% of economic activity is related to Meme coins.

How does this dependency manifest? Look at the data:

• Telegram bots account for 26% of application revenue, mainly used for automated trading and Meme coin issuance
• Issuance platforms account for 23%, with a surge in new coin launches
• Wallet services contribute 18%, with on-chain transaction activity at its peak
• Trading applications account for 14%, with daily active users relying entirely on Meme coin hype
• Decentralized exchanges (DEXs) only account for 4%—this figure exposes a problem: many traders don’t even use traditional DEXs, opting instead for bots and issuance platforms for trading.

This highly reliant ecosystem structure, dubbed “Meme-driven,” could be called “putting all eggs in one basket.”

Market Overview: $63.6 Billion Total Market Cap, Top 10 Take 90%

As of 2025, the total market cap of Meme coins is about $63.6 billion, accounting for 5-7% of the global crypto market. The 24-hour trading volume? $7.61 billion.

But the market is extremely top-heavy. The top 10 Meme coins (including DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, BONK, FLOKI, etc.) account for 90% of the entire sector’s market value.

The current situation of the leaders:

• #Dogecoin (DOGE): Market cap $31.59 billion, still the king of Meme coins
• #Shiba Inu (SHIB): Market cap $6.29 billion, firmly second
• PEPE: Market cap $3.2 billion, frog-themed representative
• BONK: Surged over 15% in a single day in July 2025, reaching $1.6 billion market cap, ranked fifth
• Floki: Fluctuating around $705 million market cap, ranking changes instantly with social media buzz

The remaining smaller tokens? Basically secondary players. Most new coins don’t last 24 hours, with negligible liquidity.

Issuance Frenzy: 1.7 Million New Coins in January 2025

In early 2025, over 800,000 Meme coins were issued per month on average. In January alone, 1.7 million new tokens were born.

Sound exaggerated? The more shocking part is:

• Only less than 1% of these new tokens can upgrade from issuance platforms to mainstream DEX trading
• 60% of new coins don’t survive 24 hours
• 95% of projects collapse or vanish shortly after issuance

A well-known issuance platform Pump.fun is now facing federal lawsuits, accused of charging nearly $500 million, issuing over 11 million tokens, with 98% going to zero within 24 hours.

How low is the issuance barrier? Basically, if you have some technical background and spend a few dozen dollars on gas, you can deploy a coin. But this also means rampant rug pulls and scam projects.

Price Predictions: A Seven-Year Journey from $0.0226 to $0.0811

Some institutions have made average price forecasts for Meme coins (note: these are averages, not for any individual token):

• 2025: Average price $0.0226, high point $0.0245, market stabilizes
• 2026: Average rises to $0.0278, up 23% from 2025
• 2027: Continues upward to $0.0379, close to a high of $0.0409
• 2028-2029: Stabilizes around $0.0501
• 2030: Average reaches $0.0572, peak possibly touching $0.0613
• 2031: Long-term outlook shows significant growth, average around $0.0811, max $0.0836, over 250% increase from 2025

But this is an ideal scenario. In reality, most Meme coins end up going to zero.

Volatility: Daily Average 11.7%, Peak Flare Up to 53%

How terrifying is Meme coin volatility?

The US SEC in a regulatory alert in February 2025 explicitly stated: Meme coins’ price fluctuations are far higher than most other crypto assets.

Specific data:

• Average daily volatility exceeds 11.7%
• BONK is among the most volatile mainstream Meme coins
• Tokens like POPCAT once exhibited single-day 53% price swings
• After social-driven surges, prices often jump 2-4 times in a breakout
• Whales or bots can amplify hourly volatility by 6 times

In the first half of 2025, Meme coins achieved an average +1,313% return YTD, making it the only profitable crypto sector. But by Q3, average gains dropped to +33.08%—a few top projects pulled the data, most coins cooled off.

Trading Volume: From 25% Share Down to 5%, Who’s Buying?

In Q1 2025, Meme coins accounted for 25% of total crypto trading volume.

But the good times didn’t last:

• Jan-April: Meme sector market cap shrank by 58%, trading volume fell by 63%
• By mid-2025, DOGE and PEPE maintained over $500 million and $760 million in 24h trading volume respectively
• Early October: Top Meme coins’ 24-hour volume rebounded to over $9 billion

Pump.fun’s daily trading volume fluctuated between $96 million and $320 million. By Q4 2025, total historical trading volume exceeded $73 billion.

But the reality is: less than 5% of Meme coins can sustain high trading volume after the first 72 hours. The rest rely entirely on social media virality, celebrity endorsements, and influence, often growing 2-5 times within hours before cooling off rapidly.

Theme Distribution: Animals, Frogs, Political Satire—Who’s Hottest?

Animal themes (DOGE, SHIB, BONK, WIF)

In 2025, their total market cap exceeds $30 billion, dominating Meme branding. Notably, BONK plans to burn 1 trillion tokens this year.

Frog and amphibian themes (PEPE)

In July 2025, PEPE’s daily trading volume surged over $1.7 billion, with social engagement up 27% month-over-month.

Political satire (TRUMP, MAGA, BODEN)

During major US political events, Meme coin trading volume on SOL soared to $26 billion. $TRUMP reached a $14.9 billion market cap peak, with volatility wiping out $5 billion of market value within minutes after the peak.

Pop culture-themed projects

During trending tags on X platform, daily price peaks can reach 300-600%.

Blockchain Distribution: SOL, BNB, Base Account for 95% of Issuance

Meme coin issuance increasingly migrates to low-cost chains (average transaction fee below $0.01).

Currently, SOL, Base, and BNB together account for 95% of new Meme token issuance. Ethereum’s market share in Meme coins has fallen below 5%.

Data on SOL:

• Since January 2024, over 6 million Meme coins have been issued on Pump.fun
• By mid-2025, Pump.fun supports an average of 65,000 SOL Meme token issuances daily
• In January 2025, SOL Meme DEX trading volume peaked at $206 billion, accounting for 79% of SOL’s total trading activity that month
• But less than 2.1% of SOL Meme tokens can upgrade from issuance platforms to mainstream DEXs

Multi-chain Meme tokens:

• Among top 100 Meme coins, 21% implement cross-chain minting/burning
• Over 13 million unique wallet addresses have bridged with multi-chain Meme tokens
• DOGE and SHIB support over four major chains each (BNB, Base, Arbitrum, Polygon, Ethereum)
• Ethereum and SOL combined account for 78% of all cross-chain settlement value of Meme coins

But cross-chain also has risks: as of September 2025, security incidents related to multi-chain bridges have resulted in losses exceeding $190 million.

Social Media: Viral Spread, Price Fluctuations of 20% in Hours

Mentions of #Meme币# and related tags increased by about 53% from January 2024 to 2025.

X, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok are the main drivers of sentiment. Viral memes, influencer posts, and coordinated campaigns can trigger over 20% price swings within hours.

But there’s a problem: comment bots and fake accounts inflate engagement metrics, masking true interest.

Many Meme coin communities’ Discord or Telegram groups have more than 50,000–100,000 members. Some projects hold “Meme contests,” AMAs, or NFT giveaways to stimulate viral growth.

Investor Profile: 31% of US Crypto Investors First Encountered Meme Coins

A survey shows that among US crypto investors, about 31% said their first exposure to crypto was through Meme coins.

Key features:

• Younger investors are more active
• Many holders have small positions, often less than <1% of their total portfolio
• Some “whales” may control 20-50% of certain tokens’ circulating supply
• Numerous retail investors enter mid-cycle after short-term gains, risking price reversals

Institutional investors are also paying attention, mainly through structured thematic funds or small allocations in alternative assets. In emerging markets, Meme coins often overlap with local forex/crypto speculative trading.

Risks and Scams: 95% of Projects Are Frauds or Low-Probability Wins

Since 2025, the crypto service sector (not limited to Meme coins) has lost over $2.17 billion.

Analysts estimate that up to 95% of newly issued tokens may involve scams or are low-probability projects, most collapsing quickly.

Data specifics:

• 60% of new issuance tokens have a lifespan under 24 hours
• Less than 15% of Meme coins issued in 2025 have undergone any form of smart contract audit
• Over 25% of audited SOL Meme coin smart contracts are flagged for centralization risks in token distribution
• Over 91% of new Meme coins on Base are found to have at least one security vulnerability

Main attack vectors:

• Flaws in minting and burning logic
• Owner’s rug-pull vulnerabilities
• Delegatecall misuses
• Sandwich attacks and front-running exploits, leading to over 35% of low-liquidity pools** being manipulated

Sniping Bots: 80% of Early Trading Volume, Single-Trade Returns Up to 2227x

On platforms like Pump.fun, up to 80% of early trades are driven by sniping bots.

How fast are these bots?

• Can execute trades in less than a second after new Meme coin liquidity events
• In some launches, bots account for over 70% of unique wallet interactions within the first 10 blocks
• The largest sniping bot accumulated over $6.8 million profit from Meme coin trades in a month, with single-trade returns reaching 2227x

How do these bots operate?

• Monitor DEX memory pools for new contract deployments, expecting thousands of launches monthly
• Use wallet rotation and interval randomization to mimic organic order flow and avoid detection
• Provide liquidity for over 100 new tokens daily
• The biggest bot-driven trades can generate 100-500% price peaks within minutes, then reverse quickly

During the peak activity in 2024, sniping bots realized unrealized profits exceeding 15,000 SOL across thousands of trades.

Historical Performance: From 85% Bear Market Drop to 1313% Bull Market Return

The 2023-2024 bear cycle:

• Meme coin prices fell by as much as 85%
• Over 60% of Meme coins failed to survive six months

Early 2024:

• The top five Meme coins accounted for more than 40% of all crypto speculative trading volume

Q1 and Q2 2024:

• Meme coin market cap grew over 550%, surpassing most other sectors

May 2024:

• The number of independent wallet holders of Meme coins surpassed 18 million

By the end of 2024:

• Over 30% of leading Meme coins added community governance features
• Trading volume soared over $35 billion throughout the year
• Dogecoin maintained a market cap above $10 billion
• Tokens like PEPE and FLOKI recorded over 100x returns from issuance to peak

Final Words: A Game of Speculation or a Financial Experiment?

Meme coins are no longer just fringe entertainment. They occupy an important position in the crypto market, influencing liquidity flows, social media sentiment, and even political branding.

But gains and risks are always two sides of the same coin.

95% of projects will go to zero, 60% of new coins won’t survive 24 hours, and 98% of issuances will collapse on the first day.

If you want to play this game, rigorous due diligence, on-chain analysis, and community signals are not optional—they are essentials for survival.

As for those dreaming of “hundredfold coins,” remember this:

In the world of Meme coins, you’re either a sniping bot or a bag-holder being sniped.