The meme coin market surged to US$150.6 billion by December 2024, topping the 2021 peak of US$88.0 billion, before giving way to a steep decline. However, within a year the landscape had collapsed by about 70%, underscoring the sector’s extreme volatility and speculative nature. In January 2025, new token-issuing platforms such as Pump.fun helped drive a flood of supply, with roughly 73,000 tokens launched daily. Despite the United States accounting for about 30% of meme-coin activity, overall global interest fell by more than 80% from January levels.
Rug pulls and wash-trading via bundling schemes also climbed, increasing investment risk. Dogecoin (DOGE) remained the dominant meme coin, accounting for about 47% of the total market value, as other networks like Solana (SOL), Bitcoin (BTC) and Base gained traction. Coins such as Bonk (BONK) and Floki (FLOKI) have supported DeFi tools and gaming platforms, while Degen (DEGEN) is evolving into the key currency for its Layer-3 network. Analysts expect exchanges like Coinbase and Binance to expand on-chain token trading in-app, blurring the line between centralized platforms and DeFi and attracting more participants.
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