Meme Coins Phenomenon. Why are they so popular?

Over the years, memes have turned from "just funny pictures" into a powerful marketing tool that helps to establish close contact with the audience and popularize the brand on social networks.

The crypto market hasn't passed this meme industry. It is important to know that a significant part of the crypto capitalization today is made up of meme coins.

What are Meme Coins?

Meme coins are cryptocurrencies whose creation is inspired by popular jokes and memes on social media. You have exactly heard of Dogecoin (DOGE), the first meme coin that was created in 2013 as an inspiration for the popular Doge meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog.
The main feature that makes meme coins interesting for investors is their high volatility (compared to cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ether). This is likely because meme coins are mainly community-driven tokens and can gain popularity overnight due to online community endorsements and FOMO. Their prices are usually influenced by social media and online community sentiments.
Another feature of meme coins is that they often have a huge or unlimited supply. For example, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has a total supply of 1 quadrillion tokens, while DOGE has no maximum supply. As meme tokens generally do not have a coin-burning mechanism, the huge supply explains their relatively low prices. With just $1, you can buy millions of meme tokens.

Why are Meme Coins So Popular?

The new wave of hype with meme coins started after “meme stocks” such as After GameStop (GME) and AMC Entertainment (AMC) in 2020, when the prices pumped up by as much as 100 times in a few months due to a Reddit community called WallStreetBets. In January 2021, a Reddit group joked about pumping up the price of DOGE to create a crypto equivalent of GME. The trend caught on, accompanying the influence of Tesla CEO Elon Musk's tweets, and the price of DOGE rallied. In five days, Dogecoin had increased by 2,000%, reaching a new all-time high of $0.73.
Elon Musk seems to dictate the movement of Dogecoin price. In May 2021, he joked about DOGE publicly on TV with the words that Dogecoin was a “hustle”. After this statement there was a 40% drop in the price of DOGE. Several traders then turned to other meme coins on the market, such as the “Dogecoin killer” SHIB.

The Most Popular Meme Coins

Image Source: CoinMarketCap

Dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) is the first and the most popular meme coin. It was created in 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke cryptocurrency to attract mainstream attention. It has gained constant admiration from Elon Musk who tips its economy and technology over that of bitcoin and any other cryptocurrency.

Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) was created as the “Dogecoin killer” by an anonymous developer named Ryoshi in August 2020. What makes SHIB different from DOGE - is that Shiba Inu has a limited supply of 1 quadrillion tokens, 50% of which were burnt and donated to charity. SHIB's ecosystem also includes a decentralized exchange, an NFT art incubator, NFTs, and an NFT Game.

Dogelon Mars
Dogelon Mars (ELON) closely follows the doggy duo in terms of popularity. As the name suggests, ELON is named after Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his passion for his company SpaceX. ELON is a fork of Dogecoin and has a circulating supply of 557 trillion tokens. As of November 2021, ELON has surged over 3,780% since its launch in April 2021.

Baby Doge Coin
Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) flaunts a deflationary token system which operates on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) and rewards holders from the 5% tax charged for every sale of transfer transaction involving BABYDOGE token. Baby doge coin is also transitioning into the NFT space with the BabyDoge NFT. Through the community's charity program, BabyDoge has donated to animal life improvement programs.

How to buy DogeCoin or any other meme coin?

• Buy DOGE via a Reputable Exchange
  Various crypto exchanges such as Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, and OKX are offering to buy DOGE with a bank card.

It should be mentioned that the largest exchanges are often centralized and may restrict trading activities and lock your funds anytime. So exchanges definitely are not a go-to for your long-term holdings.

• Buy DogeCoin right from your Wallet
  Many digital wallets today offer great functionality and have an in-built purchase option.

Image Source: Arctic Wallet App

It allows you to avoid fees for transferring funds into your wallet from exchanges and any additional friction in the buy-store journey.

Also in many wallets you can find such features:

• Buy and sell option
• Asset statistics in Portfolio
• Full transaction history tabs
• Customizable commissions for sending coins

Conclusion

Although, there are a lot of advantages in meme coins investment (such as high volatility and law prices) you need to assess sensibly all the risks before buying any cryptocurrency.

Become Meme coins Investor in three steps:

1. Choose the service and the payment method
2. Place an order
3. Make sure the purchased asset is stored safely

On a final note, Meme coins in general are a highly volatile asset class. Always research and understand the asset that you're investing in and the risks that you're taking.