How to Spot a Trending Meme Coin

Meme coins bring lightheartedness and humor to the often serious and complex Web3 space, making it less intimidating and more fun. Therefore, it’s unsurprising that they have become so popular, with some meme coins now worth billions of dollars in market capitalization.

In this guide, you’ll discover how you can spot a trending meme coin and use Trust Wallet to hold, send, receive, and swap top meme coins like PEPE, MONG, BOB, TURBO, and MEMEME. Keep reading for more information.

Note: This guide should by no means act as a basis for making any decisions, financial or otherwise. It is written for informational purposes only. Also, it doesn’t endorse any of the coins it has mentioned. Readers are encouraged to do their own research before investing in any token.

What Are Meme Coins?

Meme coins are digital currencies inspired by popular Internet memes. They attract an enthusiastic online community supporting them for their entertainment value. Meme coins are typically designed to be lighthearted and fun with little to no utility.

In spite of their playful nature, some meme coins like Dogecoin have drawn a lot of investor speculation and celebrity endorsement, allowing them to hit market caps above $1 billion.

For instance, Dogecoin has a market cap of $9.9 billion as of this writing, ranking it among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization. The meme coin is inspired by an internet meme of a female Japanese Shiba Inu dog called Kabosu. The doge meme went viral in 2013. It consisted of an image of Kabosu and captions of its thoughts in grammatically incorrect English, making it quite humorous. In fact, doge is a misspelling of the word “dog.”

History

Dogecoin was the first meme coin in the crypto space, created by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer in 2013 to mock investor speculation surrounding cryptocurrencies at the time, which they regarded as irrational.

Subsequently, other meme coins emerged. Between 2013 and 2021, meme coins were mainly social tokens typically supported by online communities on social media.

However, meme coins transformed into speculative crypto assets during the 2021 crypto bull run after Elon Musk endorsed Dogecoin. His support sent the price of DOGE on an upward trend, where it increased by 23,000% that year. Musk’s support of DOGE kickstarted the 2021 meme coin frenzy, driving many investors to speculate on Dogecoin and other meme tokens that were quickly flooding the market.

DOGE has also been supported by Snoop Dogg and Mark Cuban.

Other Meme Coins

Shiba Inu is another notable meme coin in the market. It is presently the second-largest meme coin by market cap after DOGE. Shiba Inu is inspired by the same Shiba Inu dog that inspired Dogecoin. It was launched in 2020 by a person using the pseudonym Ryoshi. The meme coin claims to be the “Dogecoin killer.”

SHIB made headlines in 2022 when the community donated 50% of the token’s total supply to Vitalik Buterin’s Ph.D. Fellowship Fund. The Fund aimed to support postdoctoral research on AI existential safety. Buterin burned 90% of the coins and gave the rest to a Covid Crypto Relief Fund in India. Musk has also contributed to the popularity of SHIB through his tweets.

The third-largest meme coin by market cap, PEPE, was launched during the 2023 meme coin craze. The Ethereum-based token was launched in mid-April 2023 and rose to popularity incredibly fast, surpassing the $1 billion market cap mark less than three weeks later. The graph below illustrates PEPE's sharp market cap rise shortly after launch.

Source: CoinMarketCap

According to the PEPE website, the time of dog-inspired meme coins is over. “Dogs have had their day, it’s time for Pepe to take reign,” the project states. PEPE is inspired by a popular early-2000s internet meme called Pepe the Frog.

Yet again, Elon Musk has influenced the price of another meme coin, gaining him the title of “Meme Lord.” On May 13, Musk shared a meme depicting Pepe the Frog on Twitter, which sent the price of PEPE up by 54%.

Other popular meme coins are Floki Inu, Baby Doge Coin, Bone ShibaSwap, Dogelon Mars, MonaCoin, MONG Coin, BOB, Turo, MEMEME, and Pepecoin (MEME).

Risks & Rewards

A few meme coins have recorded tremendous growth and made early adopters who managed to sell at the right time a lot of money. This growth is mainly driven by speculation and celebrity endorsement. Once this momentum dies down, however, meme coins tend to suddenly drop in value, causing investors to lose a lot of money. That makes meme coins highly risky as investment options and unpredictable since it’s difficult to tell when they’ll rise in value or suddenly get on a downward trend.

The difficulty in accurately timing the market makes meme coins more risky than rewarding. For instance, less than two months after launch, PEPE is already down 71.55% from its all-time high (ATH), according to CoinMarketCap data. The ATH price of $0.000004354 was recorded on May 5, 2023.

Meme coins are highly volatile, even more than regular cryptocurrencies, because their supply is unlimited or extremely large. For example, SHIB has a total supply of 589.6 trillion tokens.

Generally, experts caution investors against investing in meme coins because most fail to take off or abruptly drop in value after a brief rally.

Characteristics of a Trending Meme Coin

High Social Media Attention

Trending meme coins are typically talked about on Crypto Twitter, Discord, Telegram, and Reddit where people share funny memes from which the coins draw inspiration. Some posts also shill the coins, predicting they will go to the moon.

Using PEPE as an example, there’s currently a lot of post activity about this token on Twitter under hashtags like PEPEislove and PEPEarmy. You’re also likely to see green frogs here and there as you scroll through your Twitter feed.

Moreover, there are several Pepe Telegram groups and channels, some with tens or hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Here, members share Pepe the Frog-inspired memes or pump the coin.

Social media trends are then picked up by mainstream and crypto media, increasing the popularity of making meme coins.

Rapid Increase in Trading Volume

When a meme coin’s trading volume starts to climb, it means many people are buying and selling it. Potential investors can watch out for this trend on platforms like CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko, which provide up-to-date trading volumes.

Sudden Price Appreciation

Looking at the price graph of any trending meme coin, you’ll notice a sharp uptrend, indicating that the token is experiencing strong momentum propelled by speculation and, in some cases, celebrity endorsement.

Unfortunately, these sharp increases are short-lived. For instance, PEPE hit its ATH on May 5. On May 6, the price shed half its value. The graph below shows PEPE’s all-time price trend.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Celebrity or Influencer Endorsement

As mentioned earlier, celebrities can sway the price of meme coins. Their posts act as a green light to speculators who assume that since a reputable person is talking about a particular coin, then it must be worth buying. As a result, these social media posts increase the momentum of the coin, driving its price higher. Nonetheless, the effects of celebrity endorsements on the price are usually brief.

The biggest influencer of meme coin prices is Elon Musk. This has earned him the well-deserved title of “Meme Lord.” He has impacted the price of PEPE, DOGE, and SHIB. Musk is also known for swaying Bitcoin prices with his tweets.

Strong Community Support

The success of meme coins mainly depends on strong community support. Therefore, a big and active community indicates the possibility that a meme coin could be around for a long time.

For example, one of the factors that has helped Dogecoin maintain its high ranking throughout the years is its large community, consisting of 3.8 million followers on Twitter and 2.4 million subscribers on Reddit.

Research Tools for Spotting a Trending Meme Coin

Buying a meme coin at the right time and cashing out before it crashes is probably the only way to get a return on investment. However, accurately timing the market isn’t easy. Price peaks are typically short-lived, meaning there’s a very small window to cash out and make a profit. Additionally, buying into a coin in its early days is extremely risky since there’s no guarantee it will succeed. So, in other words, finding the opportune time to get in and get out is a gamble dependent on luck.

Nevertheless, you could do a few things with the help of several tools to boost your luck if you’re willing to put in the time. These actions include:

Tracking the Price

This entails regularly monitoring the prices of your target meme coins on crypto exchanges, price tracking websites like CoinMarketCap and CoinGecko, and wallets such as Trust Wallet. If possible, create price alerts so that you never miss an entry or exit position.

Monitoring Market Sentiment

Join social media platforms like Twitter, Reddit, Discord, and Telegram to monitor market sentiment regarding your target coins. You could also use these social media platforms to discover new coins.

If a lot of people are talking about a coin, then it might be trending, informing you that it could be worth your consideration.

Following the News

Consider subscribing to news websites and newsletters to find out which meme coins are trending or which tokens will be the next big thing. Staying up to date will increase your chances of accurately timing the market.

While these actions and tools are useful, they’ll only assist you to a certain degree. They do not guarantee you’ll make a profit because, ultimately, investing in meme coins is a gamble. Therefore, don’t invest what you cannot afford to lose.

How to Buy Meme Coins Using Trust Wallet

Now, let’s take a look at how you can use Trust Wallet to hold, send, receive, and swap them. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to buy meme coins on Trust Wallet.

• Get Trust Wallet on your phone or computer. We’ll illustrate these steps using the Chrome extension.

• Import an existing wallet. Alternatively, create a new wallet if you prefer. If you choose the second option, back up the seed phrase to avoid losing it.

• Set a password.

• Back up your wallet by noting down and then re-entering the secret recovery phrase.

• Type in your secret recovery phrase.

• Enter your secret phrase in the correct order and proceed.

• Next, select your data privacy preference.

• Now, you’re all done, and you can start using your Trust Wallet.

• Open your wallet.

• If you want to buy DOGE, you can acquire it through the buy feature on Trust Wallet. Simply select any of the supported fiat currencies.

• Next, choose a third-party provider and complete the purchase process.

• If you want to get PEPE, load your wallet with ETH. You can send ETH from an exchange wallet to your Trust Wallet, or you can buy ETH directly on Trust Wallet using the “Buy” icon.

• Once ETH has hit your wallet, enable PEPE by clicking the dollar sign at the top. Type the meme coin in the search bar and then enable it.

• Click “Add custom token.”

• Select the blockchain network (Ethereum), and then copy the contract address on CoinMarketCap and paste it into the wallet.

• Click “Add token.’

• Next, swap your ETH for PEPE by connecting Trust Wallet to Uniswap.

• Wait for PEPE to reflect in your wallet.

Meme coins you can’t buy through the buy feature on Trust Wallet are accessible by swapping one token for another on a DEX like Uniswap.

Conclusion

Meme coins are fun tokens that make the complex and intimidating Web3 space entertaining and lighthearted. However, they are very risky as investment options thanks to their high volatility, inflationary nature, and their general lack of utility value. Therefore, investors should conduct thorough research before investing in meme coins and only spend money they can afford to lose.

That said, Trust Wallet is a safe and non-custodial wallet for holding, sending, receiving, and swapping several meme coins like PEPE, MONG, BOB, TURBO, and MEMEME.

Download Trust Wallet today to start buying and securely storing meme coins!

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