2021 was the year of new and emerging cryptocurrencies. While the top tokens witnessed their all-time highs and significant adoption from investors, it was meme coins that stole the limelight. Two meme cryptos, Shiba Inu & Dogecoin, broke the top 10 crypto coins by market cap in 2021 and now rest comfortably in the top 15.
Aside from the currencies with dog symbols, several other meme coins are popular among crypto enthusiasts. This blog will talk about meme coins and which are the top 10 meme coins you should know about.
What Are Meme Coins?
Meme coins are cryptocurrencies created over the internet by taking inspiration from social media memes or jokes. Dogecoin was the very first meme coin to be developed (DOGE). It was created as a spoof in 2013 and was prompted by the popular doge meme.
While meme coins are popular, they are considered low-quality investments as they offer no real value to the user. Therefore, they are incredibly volatile and are primarily community-driven. Meme coins often gain popularity due to an active online community and celebrity involvement and are quite popular among Gen-Z and millennials. As we write this, there are over 250 meme coins on the market, and by the time you will read this, there might be even more.
Top 10 Meme Coins That Became Succesful
1. Shiba Inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an Ethereum-based altcoin developed by an unknown individual or group known as Ryoshi in August 2020. Its symbol is a Shiba Inu, a Japanese hunting dog breed. While the coin is commonly regarded as a Dogecoin alternative, it is also referred to as “the Dogecoin killer.”
In October 2021, the value of Shiba Inu grew by more than tenfold, making its market valuation higher than that of its main competitor Dogecoin. In addition, the Shiba Inu Token environment supports projects like an NFT art incubator and the creation of Shibaswap, a decentralized exchange.
2. Dogecoin
Software engineers Markus and Palmer created Dogecoin as a “meme currency” on December 6, 2013. They were also among the first individuals to adopt Bitcoin. Dogecoin has grown in popularity and has a large fan base, even though it began as a joke.
It has received a lot of support from prominent personalities like Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg. “Doge barking at the moon,” Musk said in April, expressing his involvement in Dogecoin. After Elon Musk’s tweet, many people bought big amounts of Dogecoin (DOGE), leading the price to surge 20% from its 24-hour low of 0.062 dollars to 0.078 dollars.
3. Pepe Coin
The Pepe Crypto Coin (MEME) project aims to capitalize on the fame of the “Pepe” frog. The company also intends to develop a Pepe-focused marketplace as the NFT market grows. Pepe has become one of the most recognizable memes on the web in recent years, and it has been around for half a decade.
As a result, Pepe meme fans worldwide have started creating their collections. In addition, token holders can now receive BNB by trading other BSC tokens, thanks to the opening of the Pepe Swap Exchange.
4. Samoyed Coin
SAMO is a funny and community-focused meme coin based on Solana. It was inspired by Dogecoin and created by Anatoly Yakovenko (co-founder of Solana) and Sam Bankman-Fried (CEO of Alameda Research).
SAMO’s community is already powerful, even though it is just a few months old. They offer all the benefits of Solana’s blockchain (high scalability, high speed, and minimal fees) while also being a fun coin to trade smoothly.
5. Dogelon Mars
Dogelon Mars (ELON) is a small-scale cryptocurrency based on the Ethereum network. It’s a cryptocurrency that aspires to be the first-ever interplanetary coin. ELON is the Dogelon platform’s native coin, released on April 23, 2021.
Dogelon Mars will be joining the DeFi (Decentralized finance) and NFT environment in the upcoming days. They intend to introduce the xELON token, which will signal the start of its journey across the DeFi universe. Within the Dogelon Mars ecosystem, xELON will function as interplanetary money, making the ELON a valuable token in various ways.
6. Tamadoge
Tamadoge (TAMA) is the native crypto token of the Tamaverse. Tamaverse offers Tamadoge pets, dog-like avatars, that users can breed and trade. Each pet is minted as an NFT through smart contracts.
TAMA tries to separate itself from DOGE and SHIB by being a multi-utility token that gamers can use in play-to-earn games. The P2E game allows the players to use Tamadoge pets to compete against other pets and receive rewards in the form of TAMA.
Also, TAMA is a deflationary token with a maximum supply of 2 billion tokens. The creators offered 50% of the 2 billion token supply during the presale, and the developer team reserved 20% supply for future listing. The remaining 30% is planned to be released over the next ten years.
7. MonaCoin
MonaCoin (MONA) is an open-source, decentralized project launched in late 2013. It is one of the oldest meme crypto on the market. It was created by forking Litecoin, which is itself a Bitcoin fork.
MonaCoin is well-known for its quick processing speed and solid community base, especially in Japan. The meme crypto started trending in Japan after a TV commercial promoted it.
8. Akita Inu
Akita Inu (AKITA) is an Ethereum-based decentralized community project. Like Shiba Inu, the project is a social experiment developed by a band of meme crypto aficionados rather than a purely technical team.
Akita Inu claims it has forwarded half of the total AKITA tokens to the Ethereum co-founder, Vitalik Buterin, and the remaining supply is locked in a liquidity pool within UniSwap. The project has also plugged into the Avalanche blockchain to enjoy cross-chain interoperability.
9. DogeDash
DogeDash (DOGEDASH) is another project trying to capture the growing trend of blockchain gaming.
It is a play-to-earn (P2E) game based on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) network. It is heavily inspired by well-known 90s games like Super Mario and Sonic. The project focuses on bringing back fun and nostalgia to the early generation of gamers.
10. Dogs of Elon
The Dogs of Elon (DOE) is a unique project in the meme coin space. This project offers 10,000 unique Ethereum-based NFTs similar to the CryptoPunks.
Moreover, Dogs of Elon offers 100 special NFT collections comprising 70 Zombie DOGEs and 30 Elons. The project is moving into the gaming space and is working on building a P2E gaming platform.
Conclusion
As the trend continues, we expect to see more meme coins develop and garner attention. Because the emphasis on real-world use is stronger than ever, investing in the popular meme coins mentioned above might be a good idea for the short term. The best part is that the circulating quantity of these coins can go to billions and trillions, making them more feasible for daily payments. In contrast, other popular crypto coins, such as BTC, only have a capped supply of 21 million coins.
If you are looking for long-term market-linked returns, then instead of investing in single tokens, you can invest in idea-based crypto baskets. With Coin Sets, you get expert-curated and managed baskets that are built for long-term returns.
