Memes are the language of the internet. We send each other our favorite memes to express emotions. They make up our inside jokes and allow us to relate to one another more easily. They unite people.
Memes also allow us to develop our creativity in small ways. Changing the text on a popular meme to make it our own lets us participate in the wider social conversation. Memes are a language all their own, and being fluent in memes is a way for the younger generations to keep the older folks at arm’s length.
Anything can be turned into a meme. Awkward photographs, cute animals and comics are all popular base materials for memes. Others are taken from whatever television show, movie or video game is going viral at the moment. The Elden Ring memes have been particularly good lately.
Basically, these are a lot of ways to say that memes are more than just funny pictures, memes matter. Memes matter so much that they have become a way for creators to make sure their new crypto coin stands out from the pack.
We’ve been hearing a lot about meme coins in the last few months, particularly since Elon Musk became involved in promoting Dogecoin. Dogecoin is the original meme coin, but its continued success is something of an anomaly.
This article will briefly explain what meme coins are. Then it will try to provide some reasons for why they are so popular despite the short life that many meme coins have.
I can haz meme coin?
The more serious cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, attract investors and miners because of their reputations, their commitment to anonymity and security for their investors and their usability. These cryptocurrencies have demonstrated their ability to ride out dips in the market. They have a higher market capitalization than most other coins and it is a capitalization based on reality rather than potential.
Meme coins use the same blockchain technology as regular cryptocurrencies. In fact, most of the behind-the-scenes code elements of meme coins and regular coins are the same. What makes them different is that meme coins take their names and their branding from popular memes.
The first, and most famous, meme coin is Dogecoin. Dogecoin was initially created as a joke inspired by the popular doge meme. In case you haven’t been on the internet in the last decade, the doge meme is a picture of a shiba inu captioned with different multicolored phrases that have been composed in a deliberately incorrect ‘dogespeak’.
Meme coins have been appearing more and more frequently in recent years. The hottest coins currently are almost all references to dogs of some sort. Current popular meme coins include Shiba Inu, Akita Inu, Samoyed Coin, Dogelon Mars, Dogedash, SafeMoon Inu and Baby Doge.
So, the real question is why are people investing in meme coins and making them so popular?
They’re fun
Unless we’re talking about the horrifically predatory, cocaine-fueled trading days of the 1980s, investing has a reputation for being quite boring. Investing has also always seemed like a closed-off world, reserved for the privileged classes.
Meme coins let people invest while poking a bit of fun at the stuffy world of high finance. They’re silly and that’s something we all need right now.
Social media influencers
Meme coins are also popular because they are pushed heavily by social media influencers. Investing in a meme coin that their favorite influencer has been advertising can help people to feel included. It’s the same reason that influencer marketing has overtaken some of the more traditional forms of marketing in terms of effectiveness.
They’re less expensive
Another reason that meme coins are so popular is that they are considerably less expensive than the major coins. This makes it possible for people who might not have a bunch of extra money to invest to still participate in the hype.
A scan through the crypto exchange OKX Cryptocurrency prices makes this very clear. Even after a bit of pullback in the market, a single Bitcoin will set you back just over $21,000 and one Ethereum is valued at over $1,100.
A Dogecoin, meanwhile, can be bought for $0.07. The other coins in the doge family — Baby Doge, Shiba Inu and Dogelon Mars — are all valued at $0.01.
Of course, you don’t have to purchase a single coin, the majority of Bitcoin transactions are done with tiny fractions of a coin. There is something very satisfying about purchasing and holding whole coins however, and the lower price of meme coins facilitates that.
