The vast majority of these coins Never take off the groundOthers attract attention from the start, but then sink behind the creator. sells his possessions Without warning. minority of coins maintain their value for a longer period.
Meme coins have no strict purpose other than to serve as a vehicle for financial speculation. Therefore, their price fluctuations are almost entirely a reflection of the attention they attract: a collective belief, whatever the reason, that the price will rise or fall.
The forces behind the rise of meme coins are similar to those that drove the meme stock craze in 2021, says Albert Choi, a law professor at the University of Michigan who has published research on meme stocks. Back then, amateur investors on Reddit began shorting the stocks of GameStop and other disgraced companies; while in 2024, the circulation of viral posts in cryptocurrency circles on social media causes meme coins to surge in value. “As[people]recognize that there is momentum building on social media, the strategy is to try to ride the wave before the surge actually happens,” says Choi.
Potential gains and losses are amplified in cryptocurrencies, Choi says, because meme coins float free of any fundamental value. Unlike stocks, whose value is theoretically tied to the performance and prospects of an underlying company, meme coins have no anchor to prevent a free fall in price. “The problem with cryptocurrencies is that if we don’t know what the fundamental value is, what is that countervailing, corrective force going to be?” he says.
Previously, complexity and development cost were the limiting factors that prevented people from flooding the market with meme coins on the off chance of striking it rich. But Pump.Fun has turned that equation on its head. “With platforms that allow individuals to launch meme coins without programming knowledge, the barrier to creating supply is basically zero,” says Kahlil Philander, an adjunct professor at Washington State University who specializes in gambling. “Now, the ability to create awareness is what has become more expensive.”
The need for small meme coin creators to strut their stuff to get attention became even more acute when celebrities joined in. In May and June, Caitlyn Jenner, Andrew Tateand Jason Derulo All coins tossed are your own.
Around that time, rapper Iggy Azalea launched a coin via Pump.Fun: MOTHER, which reached a valuation of $200 million in two weeks. Azalea has relentlessly promoted the coin to her 7.7 million followers on X, through a wave of provocative images and meme posts.
“I just say what I want to say and I think it’s funny,” Azalea said in an interview with WIRED in June. “Part of my strategy is to stay in the conversation. I like to provoke, to troll, to say things that are a little provocative. I like to say things and move in ways that I know can be memeable.”
In a market filled with hundreds of thousands of coins, including those belonging to Azalea and her fellow celebrities, meme coin creators are forced to go to increasingly crazy lengths to try to get people to choose their coin. “The behavior of the meme coins and the use of celebrity accounts is almost exactly the same,” Philander says. “It’s a source of attention.”
Even celebrities are struggling to keep the attention of meme coin investors, eager for the next spectacle. MOTHER is now trading at a quarter of its peak priceDespite Azalea’s attempt to create utility for the currency, which is now accepted as payment by a telecommunications startup in which he has a stake.
Meanwhile, Ayala is quietly planning his returnThe $DARE coin has long since lost the gains it had made immediately after the crash, so it needs a way to revive interest in the project. Its supporters are counting on it.
“Mikol, what are your plans for the future?” a member of the Telegram channel for the coin asked in August. “Take us to the moon.”
