Why can an emoji meme coin sell for billions of dollars? The truth about Meme coins is right here.

From Meme Packages to Billions in Market Cap

In 2013, two programmers (Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer) were bored and wanted to mock the then-popular cryptocurrency hype. They casually created Dogecoin. They used a popular Shiba Inu meme as the logo and set the total supply to infinity — which was a kind of “sarcastic” statement to the entire crypto community at the time.

But no one expected that this “joke project” would actually survive. And not just survive, but thrive.

Reddit users started tipping interesting posts with Dogecoin, community members spontaneously organized charity events, and even crowdfunded sponsorships for NASCAR drivers and the Jamaican bobsled team. There was no fancy white paper or technical breakthroughs; it was purely driven by community enthusiasm. By May 2021, Dogecoin’s price surged to $0.74, with a market cap exceeding $85 billion.

What does this mean? A coin initially considered a joke, suddenly broke into the top ten by market cap in the crypto world.

Elon Musk’s tweets certainly boosted the hype, but what truly kept Dogecoin alive for ten years and through countless bear markets were the community members who kept creating memes, organizing online activities, and encouraging each other. This cultural stickiness is somewhat like a “moat” in spiritual terms.

The Secret to Monetizing Cultural Symbols

If Dogecoin was an unexpected surprise, then Shiba Inu (SHIB) is a deliberate cultural experiment.

When SHIB first appeared, it claimed to be the “Dogecoin killer,” but it used the same script — adorable Shiba Inu images, and slogans like “SHIB Army” that brainwashed everyone into feeling part of a big movement. As a result, in 2021, SHIB skyrocketed by 120,000 times, reaching a peak market cap of $36 billion.

Then there’s PEPE coin in 2023, based on the “Sad Frog” meme. This coin started from zero, with no backing, entirely spread by netizens’ organic sharing. In less than two weeks, its market cap broke through $7 billion. How crazy is that?

These cases all tell the same story: the price of Meme coins is not driven by technical code but by the spread of cultural symbols. How does Disney make money from Mickey Mouse? Meme coins turn memes into tradable cultural assets. The more people recognize, use, and share a symbol, the more valuable it becomes — and this logic is quite brutally honest.

Common Pitfalls for Beginners

Many newcomers to the crypto world, after buying a Meme coin, what do they do? They keep urging project teams in communities to “pump” the coin.