Memecoins Became the Main Trend of 2024
A wave of memecoins swept over the cryptocurrency sector in 2024, turning them into one of the industry’s most vibrant trends. New tokens inspired by pygmy hippos, political candidates, and artificial intelligence flooded the market due to the emergence of accessible launch platforms, such as Pump.fun.
The Solana blockchain, which climbed to third place in terms of market capitalization, became the main platform for these new tokens. In May alone, 455,000 new tokens were launched on Solana — more than on any other blockchain. By October, Solana accounted for 87% of all new tokens on decentralized exchanges. The second place was taken by the Base blockchain with 32,410 tokens as of December 9.
Platforms, Politics, and AI
The Pump.fun platform played a key role in the success of memecoins in 2024. Initially, users could launch a new token for a small fee — the process was so simple that even a child could do it. Later, the platform changed its model, introducing a reward system for creators of successful tokens at 0.5 SOL upon reaching certain metrics.
The popularity of the platform peaked on November 19, when the volume of issued tokens reached $2.58 billion, according to The Block Data.
Volume of tokens issued on Pump.fun. Source: The Block Data
The 2024 presidential elections led to the emergence of many political memecoins associated with Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump, as well as the current president Joe Biden.
The Rise of Classic Memecoins
Dogecoin rose to seventh place among cryptocurrencies with a market capitalization of $56.9 billion, showing an increase of 405.5% for the year. Starting at $0.091 on January 1, 2024, the token reached a high of $0.46 in early December. Elon Musk, a long-time supporter of Dogecoin, contributed to the token's growing popularity.
1-day chart of DOGE/USDT. Source: Cryptovizor
Shiba Inu (SHIBA), which ranked 15th by market capitalization ($15.2 billion), showed an impressive growth of about 210% from the beginning of the year to mid-December.
The GMCI MEME index from The Block, which tracks the dynamics of leading memecoins, rose by 398.63% for the year, confirming the sustained trend in this market segment.
1-week chart of the memecoin price index. Source: The Block
The founder of Solana called memecoins a "blessing" for the development of the network, and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin emphasized the importance of quality projects emerging in that area. When Buterin himself received MOODENG tokens worth about $182,000, he converted them to ETH and directed them to charity.