Inspired by internet memes, current events, politics, pop culture, and more, meme coins have rapidly risen to popularity over the past few years. Leveraging this hype and the ever-growing use of memes, meme.com is one of the first meme-crypto startups that aims to give everyone the opportunity to create, purchase, and sell meme tokens based on their perceived value and the popularity of related internet trends. Using the platform’s native memecoin tokens ($MEM), the value derived from the market will be shared with the meme creators and supporters of the best memes.
Introducing Meme Tokens and How They Started
Meme coins fall under the category of altcoins, i.e., cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Although meme coins may share several characteristics with bitcoin, they can also use different consensus protocols and smart contracts. Since the original meme coin – dogecoin – was launched in 2013, dozens of meme coins have been created, each attributable to a trending internet meme or a joke.
Following the success of dogecoin, thousands of new meme coins have flooded the market, enabling traders to invest in them via decentralized exchanges and a limited number of classic exchanges.
Investors Have Flocked to Help Raise Funds for Meme.com Launch
Combining the power of memes with crypto-economics, meme.com had raised upwards of $6 million earlier this year from some of the most prominent investors within the crypto space. The platform, offering coin-market-cap-like features for memes, is currently being developed, and a beta stage will soon be rolled out with seven meme tokens (also called genesis tokens). The genesis tokens include some of the highest trending memes, including the distracted boyfriend, Wojak, Pepe the Frog, hide the pain Harold, Kek, and Doge.
The value of each of these tokens will be determined by the community, based on the popularity of the meme. All tokens will also include the meme club feature, enabling community members to mix and match different memes to create new ones. In addition to the meme market, meme.com’s beta release will also introduce ‘meme quests,’ allowing community members to compete and earn ‘meme incentives,’ such as rare NFTs.
Mattias Tyrberg, Sir Stonks at meme.com, commented, “We want to create a place where people who are into a specific meme could get together and help each other to develop and help spread that meme further. Around each meme token there is a club where people help each other to empower the meme.”
The Growing Meme Coin Market
While cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum have garnered most of the attention, several new coins, like meme coins, have created quite a ripple in the crypto space in the last couple of years. Although the concept of meme coins started off as a joke, the market capitalization of these tokens have reached around $38 billion this month.
Meme coins have exploded in popularity, primarily when prominent figures like Elon Musk and Mark Cuban voiced their approval and support for dogecoin. Other popular meme coins include Shiba Inu, Safemoon, Elon Musk’s latest Dogelon mars, Pepecash, Monacoin, and more.
While some consider meme coins as mere digital assets that have no use, the growing market cap tells a different story, especially when meme tokens contribute to more than 2.8% of the total crypto market cap.
As of now, meme coins serve no utility in the real-world. Yet, several meme coins have skyrocketed to popularity because they’re promoted by influential celebrities. Besides, retail investors keep pumping the prices up by promoting meme coins, which is another reason why these coins have grown exponentially despite a lack of practical use.
As opposed to classic cryptocurrencies, not all meme coins are listed on every exchange. For instance, dogecoin is usually listed across all major exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase, and Binance. Shiba Inu, on the other hand, is listed on KuCoin, Binance, and Crypto.com. Users can also trade Shiba Inu through decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Pancakeswap and Uniswap.
While the value of meme tokens has increased, the prices fluctuate significantly, making them comparatively more riskier than other cryptocurrencies. For instance, Elon Musk’s tweets about memes and trends are enough to influence the price of all related meme tokens. Hence, most meme coin investors are aware of the unusual price swings.
That said, the meme market seems promising, as the internet and influencer culture isn’t going away anytime soon. Besides, meme.com’s platform will further accelerate the growth of this new-age economy, enabling global users to compare memes, mint their own meme tokens, and monetize them based on the perceived value and popularity of internet trends.
Disclosure: Reuben Jackson held no position in any of the stocks mentioned in this article at the time of publication.
Disclaimer: The information contained herein is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this article should be taken as a solicitation to purchase or sell securities.
