The madness and truth of meme coins: When speculative trading accounts for 60% of the ecosystem, you need to know these data

From community jokes evolving into real-money battlegrounds — Meme coins are taking a wilder path than anyone else. In 2024, capital surged by 500%, and by early 2025, speculative funds flooded from mainstream coins into various animal, frog, and politician-themed tokens.

What you might not expect is that in 2025, the US SEC officially labeled many Meme coins as “collectibles” rather than “securities.” What does this mean? Less regulatory protection, and a greater reliance on players to bear the risks.

How a token can surge to 27 billion USD in 24 hours

On January 17, 2025, $TRUMP suddenly appeared. In less than a day, its market cap skyrocketed to 27 billion USD — a figure that made many established projects look pale in comparison. What followed? Over 700 Trump-themed clones emerged within weeks, including 192 that directly used the names of Trump family members, and 67 that dared to claim “official” status.

In simple terms, 80% of $TRUMP tokens are held by Trump or related entities. This operation alone generated $350 million in revenue from token sales and platform fees.

Interestingly, by mid-2025, the distribution of trading volume shifted dramatically: a major public chain (originally BNB Chain) accounted for 45% of Meme coin DEX trading volume, surpassing SOL’s 25%, with Ethereum dropping to third place at 20%.

SOL ecosystem: 60% of economic activity relies on Meme coins

If you follow SOL, this data might make you reconsider the chain’s positioning: over 60% of on-chain economic activity is highly dependent on Meme coin-related businesses.

Breaking it down, Telegram trading bots lead with 26% of application revenue, driven by the convenience of automated trading and token issuance. Issuance platforms account for 23%, wallets contribute 18%, and trading apps make up 14%. In comparison, traditional DEXs only account for 4% — exposing a risk: many Meme coin traders avoid mainstream decentralized exchanges, preferring bots and issuance platforms.

Pump.fun, a platform facing significant issues, shows that less than 1% of new tokens on it can upgrade to mainstream DEX trading. Even more alarming, the platform is currently facing federal lawsuits, accused of charging nearly 500 million USD in fees, issuing over 11 million tokens, with 98% collapsing within 24 hours.

Since its creation in January 2024, Pump.fun has issued over 6 million Meme coins. By February 2025, as the market cooled, daily issuance dropped from a peak of 70,000 to 25,000; but by mid-year, it rebounded to an average of 65,000 per day.

Market reality: 800,000 new coins per month, but less than 5% survive

In early 2025, the Meme coin sector saw an average of over 800,000 new tokens issued per month. January alone saw 1.7 million new tokens created. But the harsh reality is: less than 5% of all issued Meme coins maintain high trading volume after the first 72 hours.

Currently, the total market cap of Meme coins is about 63.6 billion USD, with a 24-hour trading volume around 7.61 billion USD. This market accounts for about 5-7% of the total global cryptocurrency market cap. The top 10 Meme coins dominate roughly 90% of the total capital — Dogecoin with a market cap over 31.59 billion USD remains the leader, Shiba Inu at 6.29 billion USD second, and PEPE at 3.2 billion USD third.

What about the survival rate of new tokens? Less than 8% survive beyond 60 days, with most losing over 97% of their peak value during rapid crashes. Analysts estimate that up to 95% of newly issued tokens are involved in scams or are low-probability success projects.

Volatility: 11.7% daily fluctuation is just the average

Meme coins typically exhibit daily volatility exceeding 11.7%, far higher than Bitcoin or most altcoins. Tokens like POPCAT have demonstrated daily price swings of up to 53%. In the first half of 2025, Meme coins achieved an average return of +1,313% year-to-date, making it the only profitable segment in crypto — but before Q3, the average profit shrank to +33.08%.

BONK is the most volatile major Meme coin, with JEETS, PEPE, and BOME showing high correlation in daily price changes of 0.72-0.83. Social-driven surges often follow 2-4x breakout moves, while whale or bot-driven price crashes can amplify hourly volatility by six times.

In Q1 2025, Meme coins accounted for up to 25% of total crypto trading volume. But from January to April, the sector lost about 58% of its value, with trading volume dropping roughly 63%.

Thematic distribution: animals, frogs, politicians, and pop culture

Animal themes remain dominant. Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, BONK, and WIF together had a market cap exceeding 30 billion USD in 2025. BONK is approaching the milestone of burning 1 trillion tokens.

Frog and amphibian themes, led by PEPE, saw daily trading volume surge over 1.7 billion USD in July 2025, with social engagement increasing by 27% month-over-month.

Political satire themes like TRUMP, MAGA, BODEN, surged during major US political events, pushing SOL Meme coin trading volume to 26 billion USD.

Pop culture-related tokens can see 300-600% daily price peaks during social media trend surges. Interestingly, about 21% of the best-performing new issues this year are hyper-deflationary Meme coins with burn mechanisms; while tokens lacking utility but promising “10x returns” account for about 17% of daily trending issues, often experiencing rapid rise and fall within weeks.

As of April 2025, less than 10% of the top 100 Meme coins by market cap still reflect their original themes from Q1.

Blockchain distribution: who is capturing the Meme coin issuance market

Meme coin issuance is increasingly migrating to blockchains with average transaction fees below $0.01. SOL, Base, and other major public chains together account for 95% of new Meme token issuance, while Ethereum’s market share fell below 5% in Q2 2025.

Multi-chain deployment is also growing. In 2025, 21% of the top 100 Meme coins implemented cross-chain minting/burning mechanisms; over 13 million individual wallets interacted via cross-chain bridges. During Q2, during celebrity token launches and major NFT airdrops, total cross-chain bridge volume for Meme coins increased by 420%.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu support over four major chains each. ETH and SOL combined account for 78% of all cross-chain Meme coin settlements, with Base increasing its share to 16% in summer 2025. But cross-chain risks are emerging — by September, security incidents related to bridges caused holders to lose over 190 million USD.

Social media-driven: viral spread can trigger 20% price swings in hours

Mentions of #Meme币# and related tags increased by about 53% from January 2024 to 2025. Viral Meme, influencer posts, and coordinated campaigns can cause over 20% price swings within hours.

X, Reddit, Discord, and TikTok are the main drivers of sentiment. Many Meme communities have active Discord or Telegram groups with 50,000-100,000 members. Some projects host “Meme contests,” AMAs, or NFT giveaways to stimulate viral spread.

But beware: comment bots and fake accounts inflate engagement metrics, masking genuine interest.

A survey shows that about 31% of US crypto investors first encountered crypto through Meme coins. Younger investors are more active, but many hold small positions, often less than 1% of their total portfolio. Conversely, some “whales” may control 20-50% of certain tokens’ circulating supply.

Bot sniping: 80% of early trading volume driven by automation

On platforms like Pump.fun, up to 80% of early trading volume is driven by sniping bots, especially within the first few blocks. Bots can execute trades in less than a second after new Meme coin liquidity events, far faster than human traders.

The largest bot-driven trades can generate 100-500% price peaks within minutes, then reverse quickly as retail traders follow. A single sniping bot can earn over 6.8 million USD in profit in a month on Pump.fun alone, with individual trades returning up to 2227x. During peak activity in 2024, sniping bots realized over 15,000 SOL in profits across thousands of trades.

These sophisticated bots monitor DEX memory pools, analyzing new contract deployments, and can anticipate thousands of issuances monthly. They use wallet rotation and randomized order placement to simulate organic order flow, providing fake liquidity for over 100 new tokens daily.

Risks and scams: over 2.17 billion USD lost in 2025

Since 2025, losses in the crypto services sector (not limited to Meme coins) have exceeded 2.17 billion USD. Analysts estimate that up to 95% of newly issued tokens are involved in scams.

Less than 15% of Meme coins issued in 2025 have undergone any form of smart contract audit. Over 25% of audited SOL Meme contracts are flagged for centralization risks in token distribution; over 91% of new Meme coins on Base have at least one security vulnerability.

Main attack vectors include: flaws in mint/burn logic, owner withdrawal vulnerabilities, delegatecall misuses. Automated bot-driven sandwich attacks and front-running exploits have led to market manipulation in over 35% of low-liquidity pools.

Price forecasts: long-term outlook from $0.0226 to $0.0811

Based on market prediction models:

• 2025: Average Meme coin price around $0.0226, with a potential high of $0.0245
• 2026: Expected to rise to an average of $0.0278 (+23%)
• 2027: Continuing upward to an average of $0.0379, with peaks near $0.0409
• 2028-2029: Stabilizing around $0.0501
• 2030: Possibly reaching an average of $0.0572, with peaks up to $0.0613
• 2031: Long-term forecast average around $0.0811, with a maximum of $0.0836, over 250% increase from 2025 levels

Investor profile: 31% of US crypto investors entered via Meme coins

Many Meme coin holders have small positions, often less than 1% of their total portfolio. However, some “whales” or large holders may control 20-50% of certain tokens’ circulating supply.

Many retail investors enter after observing short-term gains, exposing themselves to price reversals. Institutional interest is emerging but mainly through structured thematic funds or small allocations within alternative assets.

In emerging markets, Meme coins often overlap with local forex or crypto speculative trading.

Historical overview: from 85% bear market decline to 550% surge

• 2023-2024 bear market: Meme coin prices fell by up to 85%, with over 60% failing to survive six months
• Early 2024: The top five Meme coins accounted for over 40% of all crypto speculative trading volume
• Q1 and Q2 2024: Market cap grew over 550%, surpassing most other sectors
• May 2024: Unique wallet holders exceeded 18 million
• End of 2024: Over 30% of leading Meme coins added community governance features
• Throughout 2024: Trading volume surged to over 35 billion USD

Dogecoin maintained a market cap above 10 billion USD throughout 2024. Tokens like PEPE and FLOKI delivered over 100x returns from launch to peak.

Final thoughts

Meme coins have shifted from fringe players to core drivers of speculation in the crypto market. Huge profit opportunities come with disproportionate risks — scams, hacking, relentless volatility.

If you venture into this space, on-chain analysis, community signals, and rigorous due diligence are not optional but essential for survival. Remember this number: 95% of new tokens may be scams or doomed projects.

In this environment where 60% of the ecosystem depends on Meme coins, and 80% of early trades are driven by bots, staying sober is more important than chasing 10x returns.