The Ultimate Meme Coin Investing Guide

Meme coins, whether you love or hate them, have been one of the standout stories of this crypto cycle so far, and if the market turns as bullish as a lot of people are expecting for the end of this year and into 2025, they might continue to offer big returns. 

But outsized returns almost always come with outsized risks too, so it pays to be well prepared, and that’s exactly what this guide is for: to get you up to scratch with a brief history of meme coin mania, how you should trade memes, the exchanges and tools you can use, and also–most importantly–how to make sure you take profits before the market grabs them back. 

WHAT ARE MEME COINS? 

Right now, meme coins–taking account of all tokens in that category–have a combined market cap of over $42 billion, and there are thousands of new tokens launched every day, but if we go back to the start of the story, the very first meme coin was Dogecoin, which launched in 2013 as a crypto joke, featured a dog (now sadly deceased) by the name of Kabosu, is a proof-of-work blockchain, and soared to a market cap all-time high of over $82 billion in 2021. 

Back around 2014, there were also some other unusual meme coins launched, although they have now faded into the mists of blockchain history, but included Coinye (an unofficial Kanye West coin that ran into legal difficulties), and MaxCoin (dedicated to Max Keiser). 

Following on much later from DOGE, 2020 saw the launch of the famous Shiba Inu coin on Ethereum, seen as an alternative to DOGE, then came Floki in 2021, and actually a whole bunch of other dog coins too, but it’s DOGE and SHIB, and FLOKI to a lesser extent, that have stuck around as iconic coins. Also, it’s these tokens that set a template for future meme coins, with very high token supplies (or unlimited in Dogecoin’s case), and featuring cute animals as their central themes. 

2020/21 was also the era of meme stocks–most memorably GameStop–and 2021 was when NFTs exploded into the public consciousness, and so there’s a lot of cultural overlap between meme coins, meme stocks, and NFTs.

The 2023/24 Meme Explosion 

This all brings us to the current crypto cycle, when there has been an explosion in meme token launches and trading. And while DOGE is on a self-contained Layer-1 blockchain, other coins circulate as tokens on existing blockchains–using standards like ERC-20 on Ethereum, while there are also tokens on Base, Bitcoin, Avalanche and elsewhere too, but perhaps most notably on Solana, which has this cycle become synonymous with meme coin trading.

An upshot of this is that every ecosystem now needs a flagship meme coin (and there will be several vying for this position), while at the same time, memes have evolved past their initial focus on dogs, and now provide us with cat coins, frog coins, political and celebrity coins, and many other weird characters and themes. 

Why Have Meme Coins Blown Up This Cycle? 

Witnessing the frenzy of trading action around meme tokens this year, you might end up wondering why exactly this rise in popularity has occurred. Addressing that question, there’s a cynical view, and a more lighthearted one. The darker take is that we’re in a period of financial nihilism meaning some traders–especially among Gen Z–have no confidence in traditional finance, regular assets, or real estate, and are instead focused 100% on alternative assets–like crypto–to get rich quick, but without actually believing in any of the tech. Taken to its extreme, that way of thinking leads way past the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum, and into the formerly fringe realm of meme coins, which are intentionally designed to have ZERO utility, and instead trade purely on in-jokes, attention and virality

That’s all a bit pessimistic though, and the alternative take is simply that meme coins are fun, sometimes actually funny, and are also kind of exciting to trade. According to this way of thinking, flipping meme coins is like playing roulette in a casino but with the possibility of acquiring an edge rather than relying purely on chance. And from that perspective, meme coins start to look more comprehensible: after all, casinos offer a good time with the possibility of profits, and you don’t have to be a degenerate financial nihilist to enjoy spinning the wheel from time to time. 

KEY BLOCKCHAINS 

You can quick-flip new coins, or HODL (but not for too long) a bag of the major memes, but which chains are the best for meme coins? As already mentioned, DOGE is an individual Layer-1 blockchain, but let’s focus on some important ecosystems. 

Solana 

Solana has this cycle become the meme coin hub for several reasons. Perhaps most importantly, it’s fast and cheap, and this perfectly suits meme coin trading. Basically, in the meme casino you need the capacity to throw small amounts of money at a range of new tokens, and you sometimes want to flip quickly in and out of positions, but none of that is straightforward if you’re constantly worrying about Ethereum-sized gas fees. 

So accordingly, Solana has become the place-to-go for memes, which then means that more and more new meme projects are pulled into its orbit, and the whole ecosystem explodes. There are new tokens being turned out all the time, but some famous (in the meme coin world) tickers include WIF, BONK, POPCAT and BOME. 

Plus, as we’re in an election year there’s an ongoing political meme meta, leading to tokens such as TRUMP and BODEN, although with Joe Biden no longer in the presidential running, BODEN currently looks down and out. 

Ethereum 

Back in 2021, Ethereum was the central hub for NFTs, and there is a noticeable crossover between NFTs and meme coins (both revolve around niche subcultures and general online weirdness), so it makes sense that there are plenty of meme coins native to Ethereum too, including some of the most famous after DOGE. Top meme tokens of note on Ethereum include SHIB, FLOKI, PEPE and MOG.

Base 

This rapidly expanding Ethereum Layer-2 is, like Solana, ideal for memes due to its low fees and fast speeds. 

Also, if you think Base is likely to keep growing (and being founded by Coinbase and having a focus on consumer crypto, that looks like a good bet), then it may be worth gaining exposure through some Base memes, especially as there’s no actual Base token that you can buy. In that case then, the top Base meme coin at the moment is BRETT, and TOSHI is another contender.

HOW TO BUY MEME COINS 

If you’re buying bigger memes, you can use centralized exchanges, just as you would for trading any other kind of crypto. This is a great option if you don’t have time to spend in the meme coin trenches and you just want a little meme exposure in a wider portfolio, and furthermore, it limits you to larger and less risky meme coins (although these are still actually quite risky). 

However, if you want a shot at the craziest kinds of crypto gains–the 1,000X or more rocket-powered moonshots–then you’ll need to be looking at newer, very low market cap coins, and that means playing on-chain, so let’s take a look at how to do that on Solana and Base, as these are both low cost networks where memes are driving a lot of volume.

Trading Meme Coins on Solana 

As explained, Solana is the top chain for meme coin trading, and to start there it’s a good idea to get set up with Phantom Wallet. For a detailed walk through on Phantom, please take a look at this earlier video guide–it’s called How to Use Phantom Wallet, and it takes you through everything you need to know–but in a nutshell, you’ll need to download Phantom for your desktop browser or mobile, take care to note down your Secret Recovery Phrase and keep that super secure, and then transfer some SOL across to your new address. You can do that from any centralized exchange, and for a full guide on buying SOL check out this other video: How to Buy Solana Quickly on Bitget.

From there, to actually buy and sell meme coins there are several Solana DEXes you can use, and a leading, easy-to-use platform is Jupiter. Again, we have a great video that takes you through using Jupiter in more detail–it’s called How to Buy Solana Altcoins on Jupiter – but essentially, you can get started by hooking up your new wallet, and you can then select pairs to trade. 

Alternatively though, you might want to use platforms that specialize in meme coins, such as DEXTools and DEX Screener, which–among other very useful features we’ll look at below–have integrated swap aggregators so you can trade directly from within the app. 

Trading Meme Coins on Base 

To get into all the details about Base, check out this video – How to Buy Meme Coins on Base – but the basics are straightforward. You can use MetaMask, but you need to be on the Base network, which you can access by opening your wallet, clicking on the Ethereum symbol at its top left, clicking Add Network from the dropdown, searching for Base Mainnet, and then clicking Add, after which Base will be available for you to switch across to.

You’ll need to bridge some ETH over to Base, which you can do on the official bridges, and with that all complete you’re ready to trade. You can do that over on UniSwap, or as with Solana coins you can use dedicated meme coin DEXes, along with some other resources.

KEY MEME COIN TOOLS

For DEXes that specialize in meme coins the two big ones are, as mentioned, DEX Screener and DEXTools, but additionally, another useful tool is Bubblemaps. This lets you get a view of the top holder wallets for any token, along with how they’re all connected, so you can check that token distribution is not overly concentrated in just a few wallets–a situation that could potentially indicate an incoming rug pull.

And for another easy-to-use resource there’s RugCheck, where you can enter a token’s contract address (you should be able to get this from either the coin’s own website or socials, or you’ll be able to find it on DEXTools or DEX Screener), and it then gives you data related to how legit the coin appears to be, along with an overall risk analysis rating.

HOW TO FIND GOOD COINS

Firstly, you need to keep in the loop. This is true for all of crypto, but especially with meme coins because they’re so fast-moving and are all about virality. That in mind, it’s good to follow what’s happening on Crypto Twitter, jump into some Discord servers and Telegram channels, and find out what people are talking about.

Then, when you’re actually looking at new tokens, you should check a few critical points, and this is where those meme-focused DEXes come into their own. Some details to look for include:

• Locked liquidity. On both DEXTools and DEX Screener you can click on the Liquidity panel on any coin’s page to get information about whether liquidity is locked.

• Contract renouncement. You can check this on DEXTools in the side bar for any token’s page, and it tells you–if the contract is renounced–that founders can no longer alter the token contract in any way.

• Social presence. A useful tool here is TweetScout. Enter a project’s Twitter handle and get social analytics with an overall score, and you’re looking for a rating of at least 500.

Setting Up DEX Filters

Some ideas on where to focus are:

• Minimum liquidity: You can use this metric to remove tokens that lack sufficient liquidity.
• Minimum and maximum FDV or Market Cap. This defines how large a project you’re looking for. For very early plays enter a low range, and for relatively more established coins go higher.
• Pair age: If you’re looking for very new coins, then you can set this to a low value.

You can also simply click where it says TXNS or VOLUME to see what’s currently getting the most trade activity, you can click on Gainers to see what’s flying at the moment, and there’s a New Pairs page for the latest launches, where you can also set age, liquidity and volume parameters

Also, on any coin’s page you’ll find an Alerts button, and if you click that and enable browser notifications you can receive updates about price changes, which is especially useful if you’re waiting for a dip where you can enter.

And if you’re interested in copy trading, you can click on Top Traders for any particular coin, and then click on the EXP column to pull up wallet addresses in a block explorer.

From there, copy the address and paste it into the wallet analyzer on an app called DexCheck, or for Solana only there’s Solsniffer, and these will tell you a wallet’s PNL and hit rates. If you find any addresses this way that you want to keep tabs on or copy, you can track specific addresses using Telegram bots such as RayBot for Solana, and Smart Money for Base and Ethereum.

MANAGING RISK

Crypto is volatile and requires careful risk management, but meme coins take that to another level: if crypto is at the far end of the risk curve, then meme coins are, in turn, at the far end of crypto, so proceed with caution.
As for the hazards, first of all, there are rug pulls and straight-up cash grabs. It’s very easy to launch a new token, and you can find plenty of examples of dodgy devs and insider wallets cashing in by dumping all the token supply they’ve kept for themselves, irrecoverably crashing the price and resulting in another sadly deceased coin.

Then there is lack of liquidity. A token might look good in terms of price action and social presence, but if it has no liquidity then it won’t take much selling to tank the price.

And even if a token is legit and has liquidity, meme coins are by their nature insanely volatile anyway, as they have not even a pretense of utility. Instead, they’re all about attention and a shared belief that prices will go up, but here’s the thing: attention shift quickly, and that shared belief in your favorite coin’s hilarious moon-worthiness can evaporate in an instant. What’s more, meme coins exist in a brutal PvP arena where everyone is looking for quick returns.

Overall then, that means you should:

• Take extra care to ensure (as far as is possible) that a project is legit (or as legit as any meme coin ever can be) and doesn’t have hidden risks, by using the tools and checks mentioned above.
• Create a plan and don’t get attached to any tokens. Figure out which ones have a chance at making gains, why, and in what time frame, and be ready to quickly take profits or cut losses.
• Only invest what you can REALLY afford to lose. Meme coins should be the part of your portfolio that you know for sure can actually go to zero, which means position sizing is critical. Unless you have decided to go full degen and gamble it all (and you almost definitely shouldn’t do that), then don’t go overboard on your meme coin allocation.
• One easy way to manage risk on memes is to consider your total allocation percentage. Just 1% exposure can produce outsized gains if you find a good one while introducing low enough risk if you pick one that goes to zero. For the casual investor, no more than 5% of your portfolio into memes is probably a good rule of thumb.