When I first started exploring cryptocurrency and blockchain, I knew one corner of the space I wanted to avoid: meme coins.
Meme coins are the slot machines of crypto. They’re cheap thrills, often funny, occasionally lucrative, and sometimes rude. One thing that is a constant about them? Chaos.
For the uninitiated, meme coins are tokens inspired by Internet jokes, cultural references, news events, or just plain randomness. They’re not backed by assets, they don’t have inherent use cases, and in a space that thrives on hype, that’s literally all they really are.
The people who chase meme coins are called degens — short for degenerates — for a reason. They chase these things day and night, sometimes making life-changing money, sometimes losing it all. I’d love to see a reality show on this phenomenon.
You may have heard of some of the more popular meme coins. The top one is Dogecoin (DOGE), which was born in 2013 as a parody of Bitcoin. It was created by two engineers and based on a meme of a Shiba Inu dog. Elon Musk got involved, tweeting relentlessly and later even calling himself the “Dogefather” on the TV show Saturday Night Live. Prices soared, millionaires were minted, and 12 years later, Doge has become a multi-billion dollar project. (Earlier this year, in a twist no one could have seen coming, for a few months Musk headed the actual DOGE — also known as the US Department of Government Efficiency). Doge is also an example of a meme coin that with momentum has utility; not only has it moved into payments but also there is a Doge ETF pending approval with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
The number two meme coin? Hilariously, it’s Shiba Inu (SHIB), which launched in 2020 as ‘the Dogecoin killer’.
There are thousands of others; CoinMarketCap listed 4,742 when I last checked, and I don’t know how anyone could keep up with any of them.
My own dabbling in meme coins has been brief and humbling. The first time I bought was last year, a token called Monopoly. A person I follow sent out an email saying he was buying it, and for some reason, I decided that was the day I would gamble on a meme coin.
I converted $1,000 (Dh3,672) worth of perfectly good Ethereum to it. At first it rose. Then, for the next two days, I watched as the money drained away. I sold at an 80 per cent loss, embarrassed and vowing ‘never again’.
Then at the start of this year, along came $Patriot. After US President Donald Trump’s election, someone in my crypto group dropped it in the chat one Friday night, saying something like, “This one’s going to rip.” I don’t know why, but it seemed like a good bet and I temporarily lifted my no-meme rule. I bought in, again, converting $1,000 from another — much more stable — coin.
That weekend was one wild ride! I watched as my investment shot up tenfold. By Saturday night, $9,000 (Dh33,052) richer on paper, I decided to cash out while I was ahead. Only the sale wouldn’t go through. The Solana network was jammed, probably by people scrambling to get in on the action with $Patriot.
I finally decided to go to bed, figuring I could just sell in the morning. But crypto never sleeps, and when I woke up, my 10x had become a 2.5x. I sold and called it a win.
I was tempted again this week, as my crypto group went wild for a coin that some members created on the back of a news event. And all of a sudden, the group descended into a frenzy, with people watching the market cap climb, predicting where it could go and some members reporting that the news had spread to other influencers and KOLs, which are crypto ‘key opinion leaders’.
It was like a game of whispers that I watched start on the chat that then spread to real life. All of a sudden it was on social media. It was real.
One of the reasons I like this group so much, meme antics aside, is that the leader consistently reminds us that this kind of behaviour is basically insane, and the most likely scenario is, the enthusiastic buyer will lose everything. And then he will say something like, “I’m buying more.” Well, I did not buy any. This time, sanity has prevailed. I’ll never know where my money could have gone; only that I still have it.
I know someone might read this and think that I’m silly for keeping my blood pressure in the 120/80 range, meme coin-wise. Or for even having toyed with them at all.
Watching this unfold a few times now, I see how close this world is to a pyramid scheme. Meme coins only rise if more people buy in. The same could be said for crypto projects, but at least there is a project and
a purpose. It’s up to each investor to decide if it’s a good one.
I also feel like something deeper is at play. Meme coins are a perfect mirror of the way our culture can be — shiny distractions get all the attention and substance takes a backseat. Even in the volatile world of crypto, what I really want is to invest in real things, working towards wealth built on a foundation that will last.