Meme tokens are here to stay and will keep increasing their share of the crypto market. At the end of 2024, meme assets are valued between $50B and $60B, still getting the biggest boost from Dogecoin (DOGE).
Meme tokens may continue to grow their influence in the crypto market, growing their share of total market capitalization. Research by ArcStream Capital suggests the meme token market is not done growing and may reach a 3.54% share of the crypto market in 2025.
ArcStream divides the meme market into three major periods – a prolonged latent period from 2013 to 2019, followed by sporadic meme launches from 2020 to 2022. The most intriguing period started in 2023-2024, where memes separated into a new asset category. While earlier tokens like ShibaInu (SHIB) and Floki (FLOKI) tried to seek utility through DeFi and gaming, newer memes were pure image, building communities on nothing but hype.
Two years ago, the share of memes was only 0.83%, and most of the attention was on serious utility projects. Now, memes have their own categories, with each closely watched for the formation of cults or for low-quality rug pull tokens.
Meme tokens split into animal memes, PolitiFi, and lately, AI-derived assets. An additional category rose with the introduction of SPX6900, aiming to build a cult through content and irrational holding.
Meme tokens support higher trading activity
ArcStream noticed the daily turnover of meme tokens was 11%, surpassing several other categories. DeFi tokens saw a turnover of 5%, 7% for L2 tokens, and only 4% for L1.
On a regular day, there are three high-volume memes among the top 20 most actively traded tokens. Those include Dogecoin (DOGE), SHIB, DogWifHat (WIF), as well as Pepe (PEPE).
The biggest attraction of meme tokens was their ability to accrue market value quickly. Unlike long-term utility projects, memes launched quickly and achieved valuations of up to $500M within days. However, those meme tokens faced a limit of breaking above $1B market capitalization.
After the latest correction, only seven meme tokens were valued above $1B. On the positive side, active, immediate DEX trading means even relatively new tokens can rise to visibility. Memes often take a few days or weeks to show if they can make it or break it. This has given preference to betting on those tokens, instead of waiting for years for a project to make a break. Some tokens also show signs of being a cult, with the potential to hold for the long term. Cult tokens follow the model of holding GameStop shares, which caused a record short squeeze back in 2021.
New memes offer risky growth, 2% success rate
The past two months contained some of the biggest rallies for the selection of new memes, and tokens that launched in 2023 and 2024. Those assets were often created within days of the appearance of a new meme. New memes include Moodeng (MOODENG), P’Nut (PNUT), SPX and others.
Only 0.23% of newly launched tokens succeeded in building a market cap above $1M. The success rate is even lower when counting tokens on Pump.fun that never graduate to the Raydium DEX. Yet even that process has created even bigger demand, as traders competed to buy a potential rising star while still unknown.
The new memes do not even go into the calculation of market dominance, as they are still too small. New memes lag in adoption and listings, but outperform older meme generations in the short term.
Meme influencer Murad Mahmudov has presented his list of old and new memes, further expanding their adoption and influence. The newest batch of memes, all in the green for 2024, include WIF, POPCAT, SPX, GIGA, MOG, and others.
Various meme families outperformed the narratives of L1 and L2 chains, RWA, AI tokens, DeFi, and other selections expected to outperform this year. Within the crypto space, 15 of the top 20 performing assets as of November are meme tokens.
Even when new meme tokens are not listed, the overall hype boosts older, more liquid assets. Binance shows spikes of activity for DOGE, NEIRO, SHIB, WIF, and PEPE. Centralized exchanges have limited listings, mostly from older meme periods, but may include the new batch of tokens in the coming years, if those assets survive long enough.