The market capitalization of meme coins evaporated by 60% in 2025, approximately $39 billion. Foreign media review this year’s market, which was filled with political scandals, celebrity scams, and insider manipulation, with the only institutional breakthrough being the listing of Dogecoin ETF.
2025 Meme Coin Market Review: These 10 Coins Represent Madness and Shame
2025 is coming to an end. Looking back at this year’s meme coin market, from the early-year Trump coin ($TRUMP), to jokes about AI chatbots, and finally to the market confirmed to be manipulated by the end of the year, this year’s meme coin market revealed a chaotic scene of speculation and coordinated sell-offs.
CoinMarketCap data shows that the overall market cap of meme coins in 2025 evaporated by about 60%, currently around $39 billion, while the foreign media CryptoSlate commented that the 10 popular and controversial meme coin projects of 2025 accurately depict the crazy trajectory of this year’s market.
Image source: CoinMarketCap CoinMarketCap data shows that the total market cap of meme coins in 2025 evaporated by about 60%
Trump coin reignites presidential coin frenzy, LIBRA sparks scandal
In January this year, three days before Trump’s inauguration, Trump coin ($TRUMP) was issued on the Solana chain, followed by his wife Melania launching $MELANIA tokens.
The launch of these two meme coins officially established that political figures can participate in the meme coin market and directly monetize their political brands. Although this raised concerns among US lawmakers about conflicts of interest, no substantial legal sanctions were imposed.
By the end of 2025, both tokens had plummeted over 99% from their highs.
Image source: CoinMarketCap Trump coin ($TRUMP) has fallen sharply from its all-time high
Meanwhile, Argentine President Murey publicly promoted an unofficial meme coin $LIBRA in February, causing its market value to spike to $4.6 billion, only to crash later due to massive insider sell-offs.
This incident was dubbed “Crypto Gate” by the media, proving that when political and financial interests involve national-level endorsement, it can trigger disastrous sovereignty scandals and political storms.
Further reading:
Trump coin and LIBRA coin plummet spark hot debates! This meme hype storm has already destroyed the bull market?
FARTCOIN drives AI meme revival, PUMP becomes casino chips
In April this year, the appearance of the meme coin $FARTCOIN proved that AI narratives could revive market enthusiasm. This token, originating from a joke about AI chatbots, achieved astonishing gains purely through attention arbitrage.
Additionally, the meme coin platform Pump.fun launched the $PUMP token, which financializes infrastructure. Investors holding $PUMP are essentially betting on the platform’s continued issuance and fee extraction capabilities.
Although Pump.fun faces legal lawsuits, $PUMP remains a betting chip for investors in the casino. However, the token’s performance has been poor, with a total decline of over 70%.
Image source: CoinMarketCap Trump coin ($TRUMP) has fallen sharply from its all-time high
Celebrity Coins: YZY and Kanye, MOTHER and Iggy
Famous singer Kanye West’s launch of the $YZY token became a symbol of this year’s celebrity coin disaster.
Without lock-up mechanisms and utility, the $YZY token was quickly dumped by internal wallets, causing fans who chased the high to suffer huge losses, even affecting big brother Huang Licheng, further deepening market resentment towards celebrity tokens.
Image source: CoinMarketCap Without lock-up mechanisms and utility, the $YZY token was quickly dumped by internal wallets, causing fans who chased the high to suffer huge losses
On the other hand, Iggy Azalea’s $MOTHER token, although also causing investors to lose money, successfully turned this experience into a personal career asset, transforming into the creative director of a new issuance platform.
This proves that even if celebrities issue tokens that cause fans to lose money, they can still use it to continue topics and careers.
Further reading:
It’s not just hype! Australian rapper Iggy also supports crypto payments: the era of popularization has arrived
Binance’s Life: BNB Chain Chinese Meme Season
In early October, Binance founder Zhao Changpeng’s long-standing “4” hand gesture joke was transformed into the BNB chain meme coin “4,” which then sparked a Chinese meme coin craze, spreading to Taiwan’s “Yida Fang” and others, but unsurprisingly all ended in crashes, with the latter causing investor outrage due to influencer promotion.
This shows that the meme coin craze is no longer limited to Solana chain; various blockchains are developing their own issuance platforms and narrative cycles, vying for market attention and transaction fee income.
Image source: CoinMarketCap BNB Chain Chinese meme coin “Binance Life” was born, sparking a Chinese meme coin craze
PIPPIN: The Biggest Insider Manipulation at Year’s End
The meme coin $PIPPIN suddenly surged at the end of this year, seemingly a natural community-driven return, but on-chain data analysis revealed the truth.
Wallet addresses holding large amounts of $PIPPIN coordinated to buy low and push up the price, creating false market enthusiasm to attract new buyers.
PIPPIN becomes the best annotation of the year: the most successful meme coin of 2025 is not the funniest meme, but the one with the most sophisticated insider manipulation behind it.
Image source: CoinMarketCap The sudden surge of $PIPPIN meme coin at the end of this year appears to be a natural community-driven return, but on-chain data analysis reveals the truth.
Dogecoin: The Ancestor of Meme Coins Enters ETF Era
Although this year’s meme coin market experienced many chaotic moments, a more positive development also occurred: Dogecoin ($DOGE), the pioneer of meme coins, officially entered the ETF era.
With Dogecoin ETF listed on major US exchanges, institutional investors can now enter through compliant channels. This not only created structural buying support for $DOGE but also blurred the line between serious crypto assets and meme coins.
Further reading:
Dogecoin ETF officially launched, DOGE opened above expectations, with over $6 million in trading volume on the first day!
Unsolved Problems of Meme Coins in 2025
The ten meme coins above outline the evolution of meme coins from political controversy, AI frenzy, celebrity scams to institutional crossover and market manipulation.
Meme coins will not disappear. Their huge trading volume, fees, and attention make platforms unwilling to give up easily, and they have already crossed into regulated products, national-level politics, and hundreds of billions of dollars in market cap.
However, 2025 also leaves unresolved questions. Can meme coins survive without structural exploitation? Can celebrity and political tokens avoid becoming scams? And will the reputation damage caused by this field ultimately trigger comprehensive regulatory crackdowns? These remain challenges the market must face.
