The Rise and Fall of Meme Coins: From Dogecoin to the 2025 Crash

• The meme coins market peaked at $137 billion in 2024 but crashed to $49 billion by 2025—a drop of nearly 62%—due to short-term hype cycles, scams, and rug pulls.
• Political and influencer-backed meme coins like LIBRA, TRUMP, and HAWK crashed after early hype, causing billions in losses and legal troubles.

The cryptocurrency market has seen significant changes over the years. Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) have evolved from speculative assets to mainstream investments with institutions such as BlackRock and Fidelity launching Bitcoin ETFs. Meanwhile, Solana and other blockchain networks have enabled a new wave of crypto adoption by focusing on speed, lower fees and scalability. Mainly due to Solana’s Pump.fun meme coin launchpad.

Meme coins, initially a playful offshoot of crypto culture have grown into a major market sector. These assets, which began with Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), are now seen as both high-risk speculative investments and social media driven financial experiments.

Meme coins have come a long way since Dogecoin (DOGE) was created as a joke in 2013. Inspired by the famous Shiba Inu meme, Dogecoin unexpectedly became a major player in the crypto market, reaching a market cap of billions after endorsements from Elon Musk.

Following DOGE success Shiba Inu (SHIB) created in 2020 and positioned itself as the “Doge killer” and built an ecosystem with staking, NFTs and a decentralized exchange. Also, SHIB leverages strong community marketing and strategic token burns to create scarcity and increase its perceived value. The “SHIB Army” played a crucial role in sustaining the hype.

Yet, memecoins in 2024-2025 are different. Instead of long-term communities, most new meme coins now follow a short-term hype cycle with many fading within weeks or months.

How Meme Coins Create and Lose Hype

The lifecycle of a meme coin typically follows these stages:

Launch Community Hype

• Meme coins usually come out with viral marketing on social media platforms like X (Twitter), Reddit and Discord. A single viral post or meme can send their prices to the next level.
• Developers push narratives that attract early buyers, some even promise utility while others lean purely into humor.

Celebrity Endorsements Social Media Boosts

• Influencers and celebrities’ involvement always fuel massive price spikes in meme coins.

• Elon Musk’s past Dogecoin tweets are the most famous example. Recently, politicians have entered the scene.
• For example, the U.S. President Donald Trump has directly or indirectly influenced meme coin trends. The Trump Coin was one example of a politically themed meme coin that gained traction but later lost steam.Similarly, Argentine President Javier Milei linked the Libra token, which sent to the peak and crashed in a single X post of Milei shook the mark.

Exchange Listings: A listing on major platforms like Binance, Robinhood or Coinbase brings legitimacy and increases demand. Recently, these exchanges listed TRUMP, MELANIA and Libra Coin. Even Robinhood listed POPCAT, PENGU, and PNUT, causing an instant price surge​.

Short-Term Price Surge

• As FOMO (fear of missing out) kicks in, prices surge.
• AI-driven trading and automated market-making often amplify the growth phase.

Peak Hype Early Investors Sell

• Once a coin reaches a peak price, whales (large holders) and early investors often sell to take profits.
• Developers may also cash out that leading to suspicions of rug pulls (fraudulent exits).

Sharp Decline Community Collapse

• As demand slows and liquidity dries up, prices fall.
• Retail investors, who bought in late, suffer the biggest losses.

This cycle has repeated for most meme coins launched in 2024-2025.

The 2024-2025 Meme Coin Market Boom Crash

Since mid-2024, the meme coin landscape has exploded with dozens of new entrants. Also, coins like PEPE, FLOKI, and BONK attracted traders hoping to replicate DOGE’s success. In September 2024, the meme coins market cap reached $137 billion for the first time in history. However, many of these coins followed the typical hype cycle—massive surges followed by sharp declines. Currently, the market cap stands at $47 billion, crashing nearly 66%.

Beyond just jokes to meme coins, political memecoins are another hit. Several high-profile memecoins, including TRUMP (memecoin of President Trump), CAR (memecoin from the President of the Central African Republic), and LIBRA (memecoin from the President of Argentina) have suffered massive crashes in early 2025, leading to billions in losses and political controversy.

Political Meme Coins: A New Trend with Heavy Losses

Libra Coin Collapse ($4.5B Lost)

The Libra Coin , linked with Argentine President Javier Milei, which he promoted on his X account , collapsed by 95% over a weekend and wiping out around $4.5 billion in value. Initially it was promoted as a financial tool for Argentina’s informal economy. Later the token raised suspicions due to its ties to anonymous wallets and non-KYC exchanges. Later Milei distanced himself from the project but the fallout led to legal battles, political resignations and even impeachment threats against him​.

Trump Coin Crash (85% Drop)

The Trump memecoin, launched three days before Donald Trump took office as President of the United States, has lost over 86% of its value. The coin initially surged $75.35 due to political speculation but later plummeted as insiders dumped their holdings. Currently, Trump Coin is priced at $8.46 with a market cap of $1.69 billion. Earlier, the Trump Coin market cap hit over $20 billion and even flipped Shiba Inu to claim the 2nd spot in the meme coin ranking, just falling below 40th rank just in a week.

The combined losses from Trump Coin and Libra Coin alone are estimated at $3.94 billion with 75% of Libra Coin investors sitting on unrealized losses. The collapse of these political memecoins highlights their high volatility and the risks involved​.

Similarly, Melania Trump, the First Lady of the U.S. and wife of Donald Trump launched a memecoin that initially gained attention but crashed in one day, dropping over 96% from its all-time high. Then, the CAR token connected with the Central African Republic’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra followed the same pattern, displaying a sudden drop after the initial hype.

Influencer Meme Coins: The Hawk Tuah Controversy

Haliey Welch popularly known as the “Hawk Tuah” girl, launched the HAWK meme coin in December 2024 on the Solana blockchain. Then the coin quickly gained traction, reaching a market cap of $490 million but collapsed by 93% within minutes sparking backlash and accusations of a rug pull. Following the crash Welch deactivated her social media and faced criticism for allegedly misleading investors.

A federal lawsuit was filed against the creators and promoters of $HAWK, though Welch was not named as a defendant. The SEC also launched an investigation but later dropped the probe without any charges or fines against her. Welch has since distanced herself from crypto stating that she had little knowledge of how the market worked and regrets her involvement.

Not only HAWK but several other influencer promoted meme coin projects have followed a similar pattern that includes DADDY backed by internet personality Andrew Tate and MILADY, linked to the controversial NFT community. In early 2025, SPEED a meme coin linked to Logan Paul saw a meteoric rise before plummeting by 89% in just 48 hours that leading to accusations of market manipulation.

Similarly, LIV—a meme coin promoted by a viral TikTok star—was marketed as the “next big thing,” only to lose over 95% of its value within a week. The trend of influencers capitalizing on short lived meme coin hype has intensified with many of these projects following a pump and dump routine that leads normal investors at a loss.

Solana-Based Meme Coins: A Rise and Fall

The Solana ecosystem known for fast and cheap transactions has turned to be a hotspot for meme coins. These Solana-based meme coins, which had been experiencing a surge earlier this year, are now facing significant declines. 

GOAT: leveraged AI-driven marketing and trading algorithms to gain momentum, reaching a $1.3 billion valuation before declining.

AI16Z Coin: This AI-themed Solana memecoin lost 92% of its value due to insider selling, mirroring past rug pulls​.

Fartcoin (FARTCOIN): A meme token that briefly touched a $2 billion market cap before falling by 82% in March 2025. Market manipulation and insider profit-taking were blamed​.

Similarly, Dogwifhat (WIF) is down by 92%, while Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) have fallen by 91% from their peaks respectively. Other Solana-based meme coins also saw losses after a brief rebound. However, some of these tokens have still attracted speculative interest, leading to temporary price spikes.

General Scam Losses: A Merkle Science report revealed that $500 million was lost to memecoin scams in 2024 alone, with 75% of these frauds happening on X (formerly Twitter)  and 19% on YouTube.

Are Meme Coins Still Worth It?

While meme coins remain risky, some strategies can help investors navigate this volatile market.

1. Strong community backing: The best meme coins grow on active communities. Check for real engagement on X, Reddit and Discord.
2. Utility beyond speculation: Coins integrating with gaming, DeFi or real world applications have better survival chances.
   
3. Solana’s growing role: Solana’s fast transactions and low fees make it a popular choice for meme coins with Pump.fun meme coin launchpad but they also attract scams.
   
4. Regulatory impact: Countries are continuing to crack down on speculative assets, so making compliance a factor for long term meme coin success.

Biggest Risks

• Extreme volatility: Meme coins can drop even more than 90% in a day.
• No intrinsic value: Most meme coins offer no real use case beyond speculation.
• Rug pulls scams: Many projects are launched with the sole intent of exiting with investor money.

Conclusion: Meme Coins – A Bubble or a New Market Force?

Meme coins started as internet jokes but have now become a big part of crypto trading. While Dogecoin and Shiba Inu proved that strong communities can keep a coin alive, most new meme coins rely on short-term hype and automated trading.

As 2025 turns out to be a big year, meme coins will either grow with real use cases or stay a risky bet for traders. For investors the key to success lies in understanding market trends and be part of strong communities and avoid making decisions based on FOMO.

As history has shown the meme coin craze can make millions but for every success story, there are countless losses. The question is: will meme coins become more than just internet jokes, or will they remain a fleeting speculative trend?

Meme coins may come loot and go but they still have a big impact on the crypto market. Even though most of the coins fade away quickly, they influence trading trends, investors sentiment and even major cryptocurrencies. Whether they become a stable part of the market or just stay a short term craze will depend on new ideas, regulations and how investors react in the future.