What is Meme Coin?
A meme is a cryptocurrency associated with some themes, usually as a meme (joke) rather than a serious symbol. For example, Dogecoin was the first meme coin because it was named after a popular dog on the internet. Meme is the literal name of another cryptocurrency, and cryptocurrencies with “meme” nicknames such as imemecrypto, pepemefrogree, and jakememe70 also exist. ELON, the cryptocurrency for Dogelon Mars, named after Elon Musk in April 2021, increased its value forty-fold before its sale. At this point, it should be known that 1 coin is 1/100 of 1 cent, so it will be seen that a 40-fold increase is not a very large amount. Meme coins have come to the fore as they are inspired by internet memes and current events and supported by influencers.
Since Dogecoin was the pioneer of meme coins, each subsequent meme coin imitated Dogecoin in some way. A meme is conceptually known as a trend, belief, fashion or idiom that is transmitted from generation to generation through imitation and behavioral repetition. Memes and memetics, introduced in the book "The Selfish Gene" written by Richard Dawkins in 1976, are accepted as the cultural equivalent of the biological examination of genes and genetics. Using the analogy of evolution in his book, Dawkins observed that human cultures evolve over time through “contagious” communications, similar to the gene pool of populations. Memes are also widely used as an image, video, story, or joke that is voluntarily transmitted from one internet user to another via email, blogs, and social networking sites. Internet memes have been considered an art form, and these memes are created to promote individuals, groups, movies, art, music, and products, as well as to create a hoax or simply be funny. While internet memes become products that can last for years, they can also disappear briefly. For example, GameStop, a publicly traded stock that gained popularity in 2021 after a post on social media went viral, jumped from $20 per share to nearly $350 in two weeks. This is because hedge funds shorted the stock and then a post shared on the Reddit platform encouraged people to buy more shares to get revenge. For this reason, the shares fell to 40 dollars in a short time and then started to rise again.
MEME is accepted as the native token of the private digital art NFT platform DontBuyMEME. DontBuyMeme hosts digital artists from around the world and offers its community the chance to mint NFTs by purchasing MEME tokens. In exchange for staking, users earn compensation credits known as “pineapples” that are used to mint the NFT of their choice. MEME can also be used to bid on art auctions through the platform.
About DontBuyMEME Platform :
DontBuyMEME started as a grassroots, community-led project that quickly gained popularity at the end of DeFi summer 2020. MEME has been the catalyst for a renaissance in digital art, largely due to the enthusiastic community that has formed around it and educated participants in the crypto space about NFTs. The project continues to thrive today, curating world-famous artists and cultivating rising stars on the platform every week.
How Did Meme Tokens Become Popular?
With the launch of Dogecoin in 2013, creating a cryptocurrency has become much easier, and meme tokens are tokens that can be quickly launched in the background or become popular due to their interactions with influencers. For example, in May 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a picture of his pet goats as “My goats: Max and Bitcoin.” After Zuckerberg's post, a meme token called Aqua Goat increased its value by approximately 300%. Another such example was when Elon Musk tweeted that if there was a scandal about him, it should be called “Elongate”, and an ELONGATE token was also launched within an hour.
How to Buy Meme Coins and Tokens?
Buying meme coins is done the same way as buying any other cryptocurrency. The first thing to do to buy Meme coins is to register on an exchange platform and buy coins with fiat money or trade with other cryptocurrencies. Meme coins are available on most major exchange platforms. Dogecoin, the leading meme coin, is available for trading on many cryptocurrency exchanges. Nipple tokens tend to be available in a more limited range of exchanges. For example, Shiba Inu (SHIB) can be traded on decentralized exchanges (DEXs). Safemoon (SAFEMOON), which is traded on the Binance Smart Chain network, can be traded on BSC-based DEXs. Meme coins or tokens are usually distributed to people when they are first released. Many small-cap meme tokens can only be found on DEXs and can only be purchased with other cryptocurrencies.
Difference of Meme Coins and Tokens from Other Cryptocurrencies :
Generally speaking, the value determinants of all cryptocurrencies have been strong community or influencer support, but meme tokens have gained popularity especially due to their association with influencers such as Elon Musk. For example, simply tweeting about a topic such as Baby Shark, a popular children's song, by the Tesla president to raise the price of the relevant meme tokens is enough to increase meme token values. It should also be known that meme token developers use advertising and promotional stunts to increase the price. The team behind the Shibu Inu (SHIB) project has decided to give half of all SHIB tokens to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, but Buterin stated, “I do not want to be a center of power,” giving the proceeds to charity and requesting that projects not give him coins without his consent. . As of mid-June 2021, meme tokens accounted for approximately 2.8% of the crypto market cap, and the cryptocurrency industry is worth over $38 billion. Typically meme cryptocurrencies have a large circulating supply in the quadrillions. Meme coins are a type of cryptocurrency, but there is a big difference between cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) and currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and it has to do with how well they work. Major cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum were developed to solve real-world problems. The aim is to gain widespread acceptance by traders, create a new decentralized currency, and revolutionize various industries. As stated, meme coins do not currently serve any purpose in real life, and many of the meme coins were created as a way to make quick money.
Some of these coins have gained fame because they have been promoted by big influencer celebrities, and retail investors have increased their prices by promoting them heavily online. This is why meme coins tend to grow despite their shaky fundamentals. When the prices of meme coins rise, many investors soon sell the coins to make a quick profit. Since meme coins currently have no real utility, they are unlikely to continue to exist in the future. Investors switching to a new stock or cryptocurrency will likely bring a decline in the price of meme coins.
Should You Invest in Meme Coins?
Although it is possible to make money by investing in meme coins, such investments can also carry a great deal of risk and are more like gambling than a real investment. Meme coins can provide returns if bought and sold at the right time. Instead, you may want to focus on investments that are likely to perform well over the long term. The cryptocurrency market in general is still highly speculative. Therefore, no one knows how they will perform over time, but if investing in crypto, make sure to choose currencies that have strong fundamentals and are more likely to stand the test of time.
Most Popular Meme Coins and Tokens:
Dogecoin (DOGE), Shibu Inu (SHIB) and Safemoon (SAFEMOON) are known as the three most popular coins and tokens. There are more than 90 meme tokens available in the current market. These projects are briefly mentioned below.
Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin (DOGE) was created by developers Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus. This project, which started as a meme, showed a significant increase in value in 2019 with the support of Elon Musk. The dog-themed crypto has seen its value rise in recent months, reaching a market cap of $9 billion in January 2021. Elon Musk is currently working with Doge developers to develop the Dogecoin platform, optimizing it as a means of payment for goods and services and reducing its carbon footprint. It is based on a meme of a Japanese dog called Shiba Inu. It is considered the most successful meme coin ever.
Shibu Inu (SHIB)
Shibu Inu (SHIB) was launched in April 2021 as a “decentralized spontaneous community creation experiment” and rapidly increased its level in early May, gaining over 2,000,000% in value. SHIB has benefited from the attention Dogecoin has received, especially when it appeared on Elon Musk's Saturday Night Live talk show. The total supply of Shiba Inu (SHIB) is one quadrillion and is designed to allow users to hold billions or even trillions of tokens. Cryptocurrency analysts have warned, however, that it would need to climb nearly 12 million percent to reach the $1 target.
SafeMoon (SAFEMOON)
SafeMoon (SAFEMOON) has attempted to improve Dogecoin's tokenomic model. Safemoon (SAFEMOON) is limited to a supply of 21 million tokens. Safemoon (SAFEMOON) was launched in March 2021. Safemoon is completely community driven. The most unique thing about Safemoon coins is that Safemoon has added a feature to its protocol that discounts the sale of its native tokens. Unlike Bitcoin, Safemoon has a potentially infinite supply of Dogecoin, making Safemoon an inflationary tokenomic model. To correct for the inflationary model case, SafeMoon uses a deflationary tokenomic model. This means that every time a Safemoon transaction occurs, 5% is burned or burned and 5% is redistributed to the remaining token holders. The total token supply is therefore designed to continually decrease, ensuring “safe” returns and less inevitability in terms of bubbles. In the spring of 2021, the token rose over 1,500% and fell only 73%. The market value of Safemoon (SAFEMOON) in June 2021 was 2 billion dollars.
MonaCoin (MONA)
MonaCoin (MONA) is based on a meme of a cat-looking figure created by an anonymous developer. The MONA token has a maximum supply of 105 million and is approved by Japan's Financial Service Agency.
HogeFinance (HOGE)
HogeFinance (HOGE), verim çiftçiliğini meme’lerin teması ile birleştirmiştir ve Ethereum’un DeFi altyapısını kullanmayı ummaktadır.
Burada bahsi geçmeyen başka birçok kripto para meme tokenı bulunmaktadır. Bunlara Pepe Cash, Loser Coin, Memecoin, Forge Finance ve daha fazlası dahildir.
Disadvantages of Meme Coins and Tokens:
Meme tokens like Dogecoin can have fun and unpleasant aspects as well. As with every coin project, meme tokens have some disadvantages, including:
Many meme coins have no real purpose.
Unlike finite cryptos like Bitcoin, some meme coins have an unlimited supply.
This will have a significant impact on their long-term value.
Since many of these tokens are “joke-based,” they tend to be highly volatile.
These coins are released quickly, which means they have a tendency to lose money in the long run.
It would be an advantage to consider these negativities before deciding to invest in these cryptocurrencies. As a separate example, a regulator in Thailand ordered the removal of meme tokens from exchanges, as well as NFT and fan tokens, in June 2021. Another disadvantage is that they run the risk of a “rug pull”, which occurs when developers keep a lot of coins, get people to buy coins, and then throw away their coins. This causes the market to decline as developers run away with their spoils. Experienced investor Mark Cuban has fallen victim to this. One way to reduce the risk of a “rug pull” is to only purchase coins and tokens that have been vetted, audited, or have some form of trusted third-party oversight.
The Future of Meme Coins and Tokens
Relying on cryptocurrency influencers to boost the value of the next meme coins should be seen as a poor attempt. But the ultimate success of individual meme coins and tokens depends on the strength of their communities, and influencers can also contribute to this. Additionally, platforms like Meme.com are a new marketplace where users can compare meme cryptocurrencies and mint their own “memetic tokens,” whose value is based on the value of the trends or memes they represent.
Popularity of Meme Coins and Tokens in 2021
The rise of meme coins in the crypto space is seen as a unique one. Especially in 2021, meme coins have become a matter of curiosity due to their increased popularity. In 2021, the cryptocurrency market is flooded with meme coins.
