Not too long ago, meme coins were popular, but it appears that this trend is over for the time being.
The majority of last year’s increases in digital assets were driven by bitcoin and meme currencies. While Elon Musk’s dogecoin (DOGEUSD) increased 252.8% in 2024, bitcoin (BTCUSD) increased 119.6%. During the same time frame, bonk coin (BONKUSD) increased 132.1%, while shiba inu (SHIBUSD), another meme currency with a dog motif, increased 104.5%. Inspired by the “Pepe the Frog” meme, Pepe currency (PEPEUSD) saw a 1,444.7% increase in value last year.
Last year, ether (ETHUSD), the token underlying the Ethereum blockchain, which housed the most decentralized apps of any blockchain, outpaced numerous tokens that were purported to have greater use cases, despite the fact that the majority of these meme coins have no economic value. In 2024, ether increased 53%.
But as of now in 2025, the majority of meme coins, if not all of them, have plummeted, and the entire cryptocurrency market is being burdened by scandals and disputes surrounding specific coins. As of Wednesday, the market value of meme coins had dropped 59% to about $56.2 billion from its peak of $137 billion on December 8.
I spoke with Alice Liu, CoinMarketCap’s research head, regarding the most recent developments with meme coins.
To express your opinions on meme coins, locate Frances Yue on X.
The correction of meme-coin
According to Liu, “people are getting tired because they think the game is rigged,” which is why meme coins have fallen.
“Everyone has an opportunity and can participate, which was the original concept behind the meme coins’ fair debut. “Even if you don’t [have] any crypto resources or insider knowledge, you can still get that 10x, possibly 100x opportunity,” Liu stated. “That is often not the case any more.”
Investors have been wondering if insiders have benefited from the trade as the meme coin libra, which was originally endorsed by Argentina President Javier Milei, rapidly increased and decreased earlier this month.
Shortly after the token’s introduction earlier that day, Milei posted an endorsement of the obscure cryptocurrency on X on February 14, which caused a small spike in value. However, Milei removed the message a few hours later, and Libra quickly lost more than 90% of its value.
Blockchain-intelligence company TRM Labs’ analysis revealed that after Libra’s launch, one million tokens were sent to cryptocurrency wallets linked to its developers. These wallets then placed the tokens in a liquidity pool, allowing them to exchange the asset for other tokens. According to the TRM researchers, these wallets later removed more than $90 million worth of USD coin (USDCUSD) and solana (SOLUSD) from the pool, which caused the price of libra to drop.
While a judge in Argentina was chosen to look into claims of fraud against the president, who has denied the accusations, Milei has been the target of calls for impeachment.
According to Liu, several traders who were new to cryptocurrency yet made investments in meme coins associated with politicians have lost money, which has discouraged them from making additional cryptocurrency investments.
Only a few days before his inauguration as U.S. president, Donald Trump introduced his own namesake meme currency on January 17. Melania Trump, the first lady and Trump’s wife, introduced her own token, MELANIAUSD, two days later.
After launching at about $6.20, the Trump meme coin (TRUMPUSD) quickly increased 1,108%, reaching a high of $75.35 on January 19. But since then, it has plummeted, trading at about $12.70 Wednesday afternoon, 83% lower than its peak.
About half of the holders of Trump and/or Melania tokens, excluding stablecoins and Solana, had never purchased a token on the Solana blockchain previously, according to Chainalysis. According to the Chainalysis experts, over half of the customers set up their cryptocurrency wallets on the day they bought the tokens.
According to Liu, losses for the Trump tokens might have dampened the excitement of the new cryptocurrency participants and discouraged them from investigating other areas of the Solana ecosystem.
Crypto quickly
At the last check on Wednesday, Bitcoin (BTCUSD) was trading at about $84,644, down 14% over the previous seven days. Over the last seven days, Ether (ETHUSD) fell 12.8% to about $2,362, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
