Review and Outlook of meme coin Development

Memes as one of the most unique existences in the cryptocurrency field, possessing both cultural attributes and financial characteristics. Reviewing the history of memes is also a review of the collision between internet culture and financial speculation.

From the initially ironic joke to the virtual currency that now occupies a place in the market, memes are telling us with their experiences - in today's era, perhaps cultural resonance and community belief drive value creation more than technical whitepapers. While the traditional financial world is still trying to create new value, memes have already reshaped people's understanding of "value" itself.

In an era dominated by social media, the speed and methods of information dissemination have fundamentally changed. A meme that goes viral on Reddit or Twitter can achieve hundreds of millions of exposures globally within just a few hours, and the power of this viral spread has now been directly translated into financial value. Memes, as the perfect vehicle for this transformation, have written their own stories and legends on a time-based axis.

Breaking Ground/Foundation (2013-2016)

This period witnessed the original innovation process of memes 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 constituted the purest and most authentic "Genesis Era" in the development history of memes.

On a technical level, with a few exceptions, the meme coins of this stage are almost all 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.

In terms of historical status, the foundational significance of this stage cannot be underestimated. In fact, history tells us that true innovation often arises when rules are not yet established, and the experimental field from 2013 to 2016, which had not yet formed a system, precisely preserved the most precious rebellious genes and innovative spirit for the world of cryptocurrency.

ephemeral type

Mooncoin - An Unfinished "Moon Landing" Dream

As an entertainment-type meme coin with the slogan "登月(To the Moon)", its somewhat brief life has failed to carry the ambition of this grand narrative. Looking back at its development trajectory from 2014 to 2018, mooncoin's early performance can be described as stunning: it set a record for a single-day increase of over 300% in its first year; the discussion volume on the Reddit community r/Mooncoin exceeded 5,000 posts in a month; it collaborated with the gaming platform Moonrocket; and it was even referred to by Coindesk as "the most serious joke coin".

However, after the highlights comes a long silence: In 2015, the delisting from mainstream exchanges led to a market cap drop of over 90%; the following year, members of the anonymous development team announced "indefinite hibernation"; it wasn't until 2018 that the project experienced 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; 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 unexpectedly brought 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 also failed to materialize, 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.

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"( and the "keyboard warrior")subculture on Reddit. This highly vertical positioning allowed it to quickly become popular within specific communities in its early days, but also laid the groundwork for limitations in its subsequent development.

On the 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 loyal following in its early stages. Meanwhile, just two months after its launch, the r/Fedoracoin subreddit on Reddit set an astonishing record of over 2000 posts in a single day, making it one of the most active memes communities for a time.

However, the good times did not last long, as TIPS soon faced a predicament similar to that of Mooncoin. Due to a lack of practical application scenarios, this project, built on subcultural memes, has always struggled to break through the limitations of cultural symbols. Starting in 2015, as mainstream exchanges like Cryptsy and Bittrex gradually delisted TIPS, its liquidity experienced a dramatic decline. The initial positioning of this product to serve specific subcultural groups reveals much; while this approach accurately matched the target users, its niche nature also made it difficult to expand into a broader market and subsequent marketing.

Although the cryptocurrency market as a whole warmed up in 2018, the price of TIPS briefly rebounded. Unfortunately, like mooncoin, TIPS did not seize this opportunity to turn around. During the period from 2014 to 2016, FedoraCoin gradually lost market attention. By the end of 2018, TIPS's GitHub repository stopped at version v1.8.0, with the last on-chain transaction recorded in November. In 2019, this once-prominent project was officially listed on the "dead list" by Deadcoins.

What it leaves to the crypto world is not only a vivid case of a subcultural experiment but also a clear mirror reflecting the essence of memes.

Nyancoin - A brief "rainbow" light shadow

As the second meme after DOGE, Nyancoin was released on January 6, 2014, and within a month, it had acquired the unique identity of "the first officially authorized cryptocurrency in history," but it lagged far behind the former in market influence.

In terms of the essence of the project, this gap is first reflected in the differences in cultural genes: the "rainbow cat" meme that Nyancoin is based on, ( Nyan Cat ), has far less spread and cultural penetration compared to DOGE's "Shiba Inu" Doge meme - before being exposed to these two cryptocurrencies, most people may have never seen the rainbow cat, but almost everyone has been bombarded by that captivating Shiba Inu.

In addition, in the field of application scenarios and development directions, the direct manifestation of this cultural awareness gap is that Nyancoin lacks some breadth and depth compared to DOGE. DOGE has built a multidimensional application ecosystem that covers payments, tips, charity, and more, while the application scenarios for Nyancoin, which are mainly used for trading, are relatively singular.

In terms of external empowerment, the community activity and external traffic of Nyancoin are not ideal. This vicious cycle - weak community support leads to sluggish project development, and stagnation in development further weakens community enthusiasm - ultimately leads Nyancoin step by step toward decline.

The Nyancoin community r/nyancoins has only 1.5k subscribers, and the last active post dates back two years. This community gap directly led major data platforms to stop updating Nyancoin's real-time data after 2019 - at that time, its 24-hour trading volume had long been below $10,000, and the depletion of liquidity gradually caused it to be delisted from exchanges. The case of Nyancoin is enough to illustrate a brutal market rule: in the era of attention economy, the support of top IPs often plays a more decisive role than the technological characteristics of the project itself.

General of Constant Victory

Dogecoin(DOGE) - An unexpected "grassroots carnival"

Launched on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin was initially just a parody of the Bitcoin craze created by programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, but it unexpectedly evolved into one of the most enduring phenomena in the history of cryptocurrencies as a memes. Its iconic Shiba Inu image comes from the "Doge" meme that went viral on the internet in 2013, and this inherent high-profile internet IP helped it quickly gain popularity on platforms like Reddit.

In terms of design philosophy and founding intention, it does not emphasize complex technology like other cryptocurrencies, nor does it promote revolutionary blockchain technology or promise grand visions. Instead, it uses a cute Shiba Inu meme as its logo, entering this increasingly fervent field in the most playful way.

Looking back at the several peaks in DOGE's market capitalization, it surged to 10 billion USD in early 2021 due to a retail investment frenzy and strong community support; in May of the same year, under the continuous promotions by its number one fan Elon Musk on social media platforms and the effects of the "Saturday Night Live" (SNL) show, DOGE's market capitalization reached 80 billion USD.

In the following years, although the popularity and price of DOGE have both declined, even entering a downward trend, the overall market trend remains relatively stable, and it still maintains a certain level of influence and popularity in the cryptocurrency field. Until November 12, 2024, when Trump announced that Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy would jointly lead the newly established "Department of Government Efficiency" (DOGE), with the aim of cutting government spending. However, the official abbreviation of this new department, "DOGE," is exactly the same as the code for Dogecoin, and this coincidence sparked heated discussions in the crypto community. Although Musk later clarified on the X platform that there is no connection between the two, given his consistent style of action and long-standing admiration for DOGE, the outside world generally believes that this choice of abbreviation is by no means accidental.

Regarding this intriguing naming coincidence, there are various interpretations in the market: some speculate that this is Musk's clever arrangement to bridge the gap between the cryptocurrency market and the political stage; others believe it may be a precursor to reviving the heat of the DOGE market; of course, it could also be, as he himself said, merely an interesting coincidence. What real intentions are hidden behind this dramatic naming event may only be revealed by time. But it is undeniable that this event once again highlights DOGE's unique position in cryptocurrency culture, as well as the intricate relationship between Musk and DOGE.

The development of DOGE perfectly showcases the dual nature of memes: on one hand, it created a financial miracle driven by ordinary internet users; on the other hand, it also exposed the risk of such coins becoming speculative tools.

However, what is admirable is that even when the entire meme coin market is sluggish in 2025, DOGE still maintains a trading volume of over 1 billion dollars every day, and its market capitalization remains firmly in the top ten. Furthermore, its community's activity still exhibits amazing vitality, and it is believed that this advantage can always be transformed into market momentum at critical moments, which in turn feeds back and ultimately forms a virtuous cycle.

It must be admitted that this digital currency, which was originally created as a joke, has now become a unique and enduring presence in the world of cryptocurrencies.

Although the meme coins during this period have shown two completely different lifecycles and survival statuses, it is undeniable that they all have their own glorious years. Although the market performance of the former may not be grand and its popularity is far less than that of the latter, in retrospect of the long river of meme coin development, these projects still left a distinctive mark of the times, becoming an important milestone witnessing the evolution of meme coin culture. Their rise and fall not only reflect the market's ongoing exploration of the meme coin model but also provide valuable lessons for future entrants, leaving their unique imprint on the development map of cryptocurrencies.

Hibernation/Outburst(2017-2021)

After entering 2017, memes began to shift from being purely joke coins to more complex ecological development. Some projects attempted to combine new concepts such as DeFi and NFTs, but