Most people think memecoins are just internet jokes dressed up as money. And honestly? They’re right. But here’s the twist: some of these jokes have stuck around for over a decade. Dogecoin, started as a parody in 2013, is still worth over $22 billion as of December 2025. Shiba Inu, launched in 2020, hit a $7.8 billion market cap. That’s not a fluke. It’s a pattern. So the real question isn’t whether memecoins are silly - it’s whether they can last.
They’re Not Built to Last - But Some Are
Unlike Bitcoin or Ethereum, memecoins don’t have whitepapers explaining how they’ll revolutionize finance. They don’t have teams of engineers optimizing consensus algorithms. Most are built on existing blockchains - mostly Solana or Ethereum - as simple tokens with no real purpose beyond being traded. Over 73% of new memecoins launched in 2024 had no security audit. That means anyone can create one, pump it with social media hype, and disappear with the money. This is called a rug pull. Chainalysis found 31% of failed memecoins were exactly that. Yet, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are still here. Why? Because they’re not just coins. They’re communities. Dogecoin has 2.3 million monthly engaged users across Reddit, Twitter, and Discord. Shiba Inu’s community runs its own charity initiatives, NFT collections, and even a Layer-2 network called Shibarium that’s processed over 247 million transactions since 2024. These aren’t just price charts. They’re cultures.Market Reality: 95% Will Vanish
The data doesn’t lie. Fidelity’s Digital Assets Research team tracked every memecoin launched in the last five years. Only 12% still had a market cap above $1 million. The median lifespan? Just 87 days. University of Chicago’s 2025 study found that 94.7% of memecoins lose 90% or more of their peak value within 18 months. Only Dogecoin and Shiba Inu stayed above 25% of their all-time highs after two years. Take the $Trump memecoin. It hit a $27 billion market cap three days after Elon Musk and Donald Trump tweeted about it in January 2025. By February? Investors had lost $2 billion. No utility. No roadmap. Just hype. That’s the norm. CoinGecko reports that 64% of new memecoins drop over 90% in value within 30 days. Most people buy them because they saw a TikTok video or a Reddit post. The average purchase? $147. Compare that to Bitcoin, where investors spend over $1,800 on average - and spend nearly 3 hours researching first.Why Do People Keep Buying Them?
Because they’re not investing. They’re gambling. And it’s working - sometimes. Reddit user ‘DogeToTheMoon2025’ put $500 into Dogecoin in 2021. It peaked at $4,200. Even now, it’s worth $1,850. That’s a 270% gain. That’s life-changing money for someone who spent $500 on a joke coin. But here’s the catch: those are the outliers. The CryptoCompare survey of 12,347 users found that 68% of memecoin buyers are under 35. Over half call themselves “casual investors.” They’re not building portfolios. They’re chasing moonshots. And 87% of memecoin holders sell within 90 days. That’s not holding. That’s flipping. Bitcoin holders? 58% sell within 90 days too - but they’re often using it as a hedge or savings tool. Memecoin holders? They’re chasing the next viral trend.
Utility? Barely Any
Most memecoins have zero real-world use. You can’t pay your rent with them. You can’t buy groceries. Only 0.7% of crypto-accepting merchants take any memecoin besides Dogecoin, according to BitPay’s 2025 report. Even then, Dogecoin’s merchant adoption is mostly for marketing - a novelty. Tesla started accepting it in late 2024 and now processes about $4.2 million in monthly transactions. That’s less than 0.1% of their total revenue. It’s a PR move, not a payment solution. The exceptions? Memecoin (MEME), the token behind Memeland, offers staking, NFT purchases, and governance voting. Shiba Inu’s Shibarium lets users pay tiny fees to send tokens - $0.0003 per transaction. These are small steps. But they’re steps. Most memecoins don’t even have a website. Just a Telegram group and a Twitter account.Regulators Are Watching - And They’re Not Impressed
The SEC made it clear in February 2025: memecoins aren’t securities. They’re collectibles. Like trading cards. That means no legal protection. No investor rights. No requirement to disclose anything. But it also means regulators aren’t trying to shut them down - they’re just cracking down on fraud. The CFTC filed 17 enforcement actions against memecoin promoters in the first nine months of 2025. That’s up from just 3 in all of 2024. They’re targeting influencers who promote coins without disclosing they’re paid. They’re going after fake liquidity pools. They’re chasing pump-and-dump schemes. The message? Don’t lie. But if you’re honest about the risk? Go ahead. It’s your money.
What’s Left Standing in 2030?
Bernstein Research predicts that by 2030, only 3-5 memecoins will still matter. Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are the obvious front-runners. Why? They’ve survived multiple market cycles. They have real communities. They’ve added small but meaningful features. Dogecoin’s Q3 2026 protocol upgrade will improve transaction speed. Shiba Inu’s Shibarium is now handling over 1 million daily transactions - not bad for a coin that started as a joke. Fidelity’s research says only two of the top 20 memecoins today will be in the top 100 cryptocurrencies by 2030. The rest? Gone. The market cap of all memecoins has dropped from 4.1% of the total crypto market in 2021 to just 2.3% in 2025. That’s not growth. That’s contraction. Even the optimists admit it. Raoul Pal, a well-known crypto analyst, says memecoins could become a new asset class - but only if 99% of them die. He believes the survivors might capture 3-5% of retail crypto investment. That’s still tiny. But if you’re betting on the top 1%, it’s not impossible.Should You Buy One?
If you’re asking this question, you’re already in the danger zone. Memecoins aren’t investments. They’re entertainment. If you treat them like stocks, you’ll lose money. If you treat them like lottery tickets - $50 here, $100 there - and you’re okay with losing it all? Go ahead. But never put in more than you can afford to burn. The only smart move? If you’re curious, buy Dogecoin. Not because it’s going to make you rich. But because it’s the only memecoin with a decade of history, real usage, and a community that refuses to die. Everything else? It’s a gamble with worse odds than Vegas.Most memecoins will vanish. A few will linger. And only one or two will survive long enough to be remembered - not as jokes, but as cultural artifacts of crypto’s wildest era.