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Meme coins have been one of the crypto markets' real success stories in recent years. Valued at almost zero in 2020, they have exploded into the public consciousness to grow to an overall market cap of around $15 billion today. Indeed, CoinMarketCap has more than 570 meme coins listed on its site.
With such a rich diversity of meme coins flooding the market, ranging from the exciting and high quality to the low-value and essentially useless, it can be difficult for investors to separate the good from the bad and the ugly.
To shed some light, this list of five meme coins that could go viral this year helps to find the gems among the plethora of coins. With market potential, community engagement, and virality in mind — all critical aspects of finding the best meme coin investments. Let's take a closer look at the meme coins you should consider adding to your digital portfolio this year.
Memeinator (MMTR): A meme coin rebel with a cause
Shiba Memu (SHMU): The AI-enabled marketing marvel
Shiba Inu (SHIB): Meme coin giant diversifying its sprawling ecosystem
Dogecoin (DOGE): The original meme coin with staying power
Milady Meme Coin (LADYS): Meme coins meet NFTs
Meme coins were launched in 2013 with the release of Dogecoin, a fun and light-hearted response to the super-serious nature of leading crypto projects such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. However, it wasn't until 2021 that they became big news. A tweet from Elon Musk sent Dogecoin into the stratosphere, and since then, meme coins haven't looked back.
To select the best meme coins for 2023 used in this article, coins with a well-established online presence and ongoing viral hype surrounding them, or brand-new coins with a unique use case, made the cut. The better-established, high-value projects might be considered safer bets than newer, less well-known coins, but those lower-value projects have enormous potential to take off and deliver incredible returns into the pockets of their backers.
Let's dive into the five best meme coins to invest in this year.
The meme coin market is red-hot right now, and predictions are that meme coin popularity will continue to grow beyond 2023. While some investors scratch their heads as they try to understand the appeal of meme coins, a brand-new face enters the fray, packing plenty of punch. Memeinator is a growing grassroots movement of disgruntled meme coin fans frustrated with the number of dreadful meme coins flooding the landscape.
By fusing the spirit of The Terminator film franchise with crystal-clear AI technology and a laser-like focus on eradicating the meme coin market of weak meme tokens, Memeinator is on a mission to improve the quality of meme culture for the current generation and those that follow.
As well as being a leading light in improving the quality of meme coins, Memeinator intends to build a growing community of investors, supporters, and enthusiasts joining together as it marches relentlessly towards a $1 billion market cap. So, forget the usual meme coins built on nothing but thin air; Memeinator is all style and plenty of substance.
Investors in this new meme coin are given the chance to play the Meme Warfare online game, where players embody Memeinator to seek and destroy weak meme coins littering the market. An AI-powered tool, the Memescanner, dynamically feeds into the game by selecting real-world meme coins for destruction and bringing them into the game for players to eradicate in their chosen method.
Memeinator announced its crypto presale on 29th August, or Judgment Day in The Terminator film franchise, to pay tribute to the influence behind the coin's force. This kicked off a 29-day countdown to the 29-stage MMTR token presale launch, which opened on 27th September. The coin ICO launched at $0.01 and will increase to $0.49 by the end, driving home an incredible 390% return for investors involved at the earliest opportunity.
As if presale returns of that magnitude weren't enough incentive for investors to get involved, 7.5% of the ICO token supply has been allocated to a competition pool. The first prize is the trip of a lifetime into space with Virgin Galactic!
Memeinator made it to the top of the new meme coins list for a reason. With its cult-classic fan base and focus on having fun while improving the quality of the meme coin market, MMTR could be one of the meme coins to explode when it hits exchanges like BitMart. Investors who invest early in Memeinator's presale will have the best chance to see significant gains in the value of their tokens.
Sticking with the theme of AI + meme crypto coins, Shiba Memu is a groundbreaking new meme coin project that is already positioning itself as one of the best meme coins with a twist. With most meme coins reliant on marketing hype driven by humans, Shiba Memu uses artificial intelligence technology to market itself online autonomously.
Cutting-edge AI technology, such as natural language processing (NLP), sentiment analysis, and predictive analytics, is at the heart of Shiba Memu's operations. As NLP scans social media platforms, internet forums, and online conversations to sniff out and identify conversations about itself, sentiment analysis gauges the tone of the discussions. This data is fed into the predictive analytics engines, which look at past trends to predict future market movements.
For instance, if a potential investor mentions Shiba Memu on a Reddit thread with a negative tone of voice, Shiba Memu uses its AI technology to help sway their sentiment more positively with a perfectly crafted response. Not only that, Shiba Memu looks to self-improve by continuously evaluating its interactions and making adjustments as required. This gives itself the best chance of becoming one of the top meme coins on the market.
Shiba Memu is three-quarters of the way through its presale period, having already generated an eye-watering $3.7m since its launch in July. Much of this has been driven by the unique way the SHMU token presale has been structured, with daily price increases of $0.000225 added to the coin since its release at $0.011125.
After launching for 60 days, the SHMU token presale was extended for a further 60 days until 31st October, meaning investors still have time to make some serious gains by getting involved with the presale today. As day-one investors look forward to gaining 240% returns on their initial investment, new investors won't match that profit level. However, with 14.24% still available, there's money to be made before SHMU is released on the BitMart exchange.
With a cutting-edge application of AI technology, enormous presale momentum continuing to build, and Shiba Memu's intention to redefine the meme coin landscape for future iterations, Shiba Memu is one of the best meme coins for 2023. With a much-anticipated listing on BitMart imminent, this is definitely one to watch during the final quarter of this year and into 2024.
Shiba Inu burst onto the crypto market in 2020, created by Ryoshi, an anonymous developer or team of developers. Inspired by Dogecoin, Shiba Inu quickly gained momentum, led in part by tweets about the coin by Elon Musk and growing a substantial grassroots army of loyalists known as the ShibArmy. To illustrate the level of support this top meme coin has, the SHIBarmy subreddit has 482k subscribers, most of whom see Shiba Inu as the pinnacle of meme coins.
After launching at $0.00000000008165 in September 2020, it had risen to its all-time high of $0.00008845 just over a year later, growing day-one investors' holdings by a whopping 108,328,000%. This made instant millionaires for those members of the ShibArmy who showed faith in Shiba Inu with colossal returns in its first year.
Built on Ethereum, the power of the blockchain has allowed Shiba Inu to create some level of value that catapults it beyond the meme coin leader, Dogecoin, in terms of utility. For instance, Shiba Inu has launched other coins into its ecosystem, such as LEASH and BONE. LEASH tokens give long-time Shiba Inu users exclusive perks, and access, and BONE tokens give community members governance rights in Shiba Inu's Doggy DOA.
Meanwhile, the platform hosts ShibaSwap, the project's custom decentralized exchange that allows users to stake and earn LEASH and BONE tokens while increasing demand for SHIB.
In addition, there's an NFT collection, a play-to-earn (P2E) mobile game, a metaverse in development, and the recently launched layer-2 scaling solution Shibarium.
Released in August 2023, Shibarium aims to reduce transaction waiting times and lower transaction fees. While it experienced early technical bugs, its growth has been explosive, with more than 1.2 million wallets created and 2.7 million transactions conducted within its first few months of operation.
While Shiba Inu is undoubtedly one of the top meme coins currently on the market, thanks to its diverse landscape and use cases, it doesn't come without risk. It's been subject to previously volatile price action, and despite its wide array of crypto services, it doesn't offer anything unique. Instead, it's expanded into markets already well-served by other options that users may prefer. What appears to be a compelling strength at first glance could be Shiba Memu's ultimate downfall and suppression of the value of SHIB throughout this year and into 2024.
Launched in 2014 by engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, Dogecoin saw a flurry of activity on its launch, with crypto fans elated by the thought of something new growing from a zero valuation to hitting millions within days.
While it sustained a good fanbase for several years, it wasn't until 2021 that Dogecoin went viral and hit the heights that made it a top ten cryptocurrency by market cap. Public endorsements from influential figures in tech, such as Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, saw DOGE explode by 23,000%, making overnight millionaires for existing coin holders.
Since then, hundreds of meme coins have joined the market, looking to replicate this kind of appeal and price action. While some new meme coins, like Meminator and Shiba Memu, are packed with utility and value that do have the potential to drive home seismic returns, Dogecoin is the one meme coin that retains its staying power and makes an enduring addition to any investor's digital portfolio.
While maintaining itself as an online currency with near-zero transaction fees and instantaneous transaction completion times, this casual approach, allied with its recognizable Shiba Inu mascot, has sustained a hugely loyal community. For instance, the community crowd-funded to recover millions lost in the Dogewallet hack and has driven several internet campaigns that have gone viral. The Dogecoin community is unlike any other in the crypto space and is the crucial reason why Dogecoin maintains its place in the top 10 most valuable cryptos.
Of course, there is risk attached to Dogecoin. As with any celebrity-endorsed product, there comes the risk of volatility, particularly if one of its big backers suddenly pulls the plug. In addition, compared to other top 10 cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin lacks any enduring or intrinsic utility. Most of its profitability and gains have already been priced, meaning other meme coins are more likely to produce viral returns than DOGE.
However, DOGE has withstood the choppy waters of 2022's crypto winter to sustain itself as a top 10 cryptocurrency, meaning that Dogecoin could fit the bill for investors seeking a relatively stable meme coin investment.
Another new meme coin that hit the market as recently as May 2023, Milady Meme Coin, represents a popular NFT collection called Miladys. A collection that has become a widely recognized brand on social media, its community-focused ethos centers around the large online following of its most well-known members.
The LADYs token was created with the same branding as Milady NFTs, with the token created as a fungible alternative to the NFT artwork that had become so popular. The project describes its aim as adopting the tokenization model to maximize the impact of meme capital in the era of meme coins. LADYS drove home a $120 million valuation within a week of launching, likely caused by its already crypto-friendly community.
Each Milady NFT is unique and given limited edition status. The ecosystem has since grown to encompass many applications and events in the real world for the community to enjoy. These include physical in-person meets and a dedicated Minecraft server built to allow the Milady community to collaborate in virtual reality and create a virtual world.
Not only that, several big names have added fashion items into the Milady ecosystem, such as a Prada bucket hat. Also, a secondary NFT collection recently linked called Remilios, which represents Milady's younger brother.
LADYs is one of the best meme coins to buy in 2023 as it looks likely to go seismic during the next bull market thanks to its excellent and instantly recognizable branding, big-name backers, and strong community support. Already showing more stable price action than other meme coins launched at a similar time, such as Pepe Coin, investors look to have more faith in LADYs to stay the course and drive home significant returns in the future.
Meme coins are only as good as the availability of tokens on the open market. They must be available for investors to buy, which helps them gain traction and virality. As a meme crypto coin develops momentum, investors need quick access to buy instantly and benefit from the quickly rising prices of the asset.
All of the best meme coins are easily accessible on centralized exchanges (CEXs), while many can also be easily swapped on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) such as Uniswap.
All of the meme coins on this list are at different stages in their development. From those in their ICO phase to the well-established giants of the sector like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. A mix of low and high-value projects can be good for a well-balanced digital portfolio, especially if you want to invest in the best meme coins.
Meme crypto coins are famous for their inherent lack of utility. Yet, each of the five listed in this article bucks the trend from Dogecoin, used as an internet currency, to LADYS, which has a high volume of NFTs in its ecosystem. Memeinator will bring AI and blockchain gaming together, while Shiba Memu will use AI to drive its marketing campaigns across the internet.
Your budget is arguably the most crucial consideration when investing in meme coins. Meme coins are notoriously volatile, so you must make a budget and stick to it. Never be tempted to chase returns that may not be there, and never invest more than you can afford to lose.
Crypto investments are naturally volatile because they are in experimental fields and an industry still in its infancy. Many investors have seen their funds disappear due to unscrupulous project teams or poor security that have seen hacks lead to price tanking.
Understanding the risks attached to crypto investments is essential before committing funds to projects. Of course, some projects can skyrocket and make serious money for investors. If you invest in crypto, you will need to take risks and understand how to mitigate against the potential of serious losses.
There is no one-size-fits-all set of regulatory guidelines established for the blockchain industry. At the moment, regulations differ from country to country. Be aware of the legal implications of crypto investments in your jurisdiction, and research how any potential regulation changes may impact your existing crypto investments.
Memeinator is probably the number one pick as the top meme coin to invest in this year. With a project that benefits its community and the wider meme coin space, its recently launched ICO represents the best opportunity to enjoy virality this year and into 2024, thanks to its high-potential value proposition.
In summary, the best meme coins to buy in 2023 are:
