Solana-Based Memecoins: A Beginner’s Guide

The Solana blockchain is home to over 200 digital tokens, including various meme coins. The last quarter of 2023 saw a resurgence of new and old meme tokens on the Solana blockchain. Cheaper gas fees on Solana largely influenced this, making the blockchain more attractive to meme coin speculators.

In this beginner’s guide to Solana meme coins, we’ll explore the Solana meme coin space and show you how to manage these tokens using the leading crypto wallet, Trust Wallet.

The Rise of Memecoins and Tokens

Meme coins or meme tokens are cryptocurrencies that draw their inspiration from internet memes created to entice meme-loving crypto speculators and traders. Meme-based cryptocurrencies are typically characterized by comical or animated memes and have a devoted community of traders and followers.

Dogecoin (DOGE) was the first meme coin created back in 2013. However, meme coins didn’t become mainstream until 2021, when the meme coin market experienced massive growth. This resulted from Dogecoin’s increased price action, credited to Elon Musk and Mark Cuban, who promoted DOGE on their social platforms.

Dogecoin’s growth and popularity also paved the way for the creation of newer meme tokens like Shiba Inu (SHIB), Floki (FLOKI), and Pepe (PEPE). Besides the growing popularity of meme coins, the emergence of Web3 has also been attributed to the continued growth of meme coin culture.

Today, a diverse array of meme coins, such as Bonk, dogwifhat, Myro, etc., are available on various chains, including Solana.

Despite being around for over a decade, meme coins, just like most cryptocurrencies, are highly speculative and volatile. Meme tokens are largely community-driven since they don’t have many ‘meaningful’ use cases.

Since meme coin prices are heavily swayed by social media and online sentiments, they are much more volatile and carry with them a higher financial risk in comparison to popular cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.

In general, meme coins constitute a niche within the crypto market that is mainly community-driven and relies heavily on internet culture and memes to flourish. Therefore, it’s important to do your own research (DYOR) before investing in any meme coin.

Exploring Solana's Memecoin Landscape

Solana has made it easy for creators to create their own Solana meme tokens through the Solana Program Library (SPL).

SPL is a standard used to create and manage tokens in the Solana ecosystem. SPL tokens, therefore, are tokens created on the Solana blockchain using the standards provided in the Solana Program Library.

Solana’s SPL offers a series of on-chain program libraries for ordinary functionalities, including the creation of tokens, their transfers, and much more. The SPL Token Program is the most popular SPL token standard on Solana, which has helped define the standard interface for creating and interacting with meme tokens on the Solana blockchain.

While not all meme coins on Solana use the SPL standard, the more prominent ones were created using the SPL Token Program.

Below are some popular Solana meme coins:

• Bonk (BONK) - Bonk was the first dog-themed Solana-based SPL meme coin and is dubbed ‘the true community coin of Solana.’ Since its inception, the coin has been incorporated into Solana’s DeFi ecosystem and is used as a tool for user onboarding and community activation.

• dogwifhat (WIF) - dogwifhat draws inspiration from the DOGE meme coin and is characterized by a Shiba Inu dog wearing a hat. It’s a lighthearted meme coin created for entertainment purposes.

• Myro (MYRO) - Myro is a meme coin named after Raj Gokal’s dog, Myro. Gokal is Solana’s Co-Founder. The meme coin seeks to redefine the meme coin narrative in the Solana ecosystem by making digital currencies enjoyable and accessible to everyone.

• Samoyedcoin (SAMO) - SAMO is another dog-themed Solana meme coin that helps to onboard and educate users in the Solana community.

• Popcat (POPCAT) - Popcat, as its name suggests, is a cat-themed meme coin that aims to be a decentralized project with a high purpose beyond just a meme coin. It aims to bring cryptocurrency use within its community via decentralized exchanges.

In addition to being scalable at the base layer, the Solana blockchain is also known for its high speed and low gas fees. This makes it an ideal platform for meme coins, which witness high trade volumes when their demand peaks.

Besides the SPL standard, Solana also launched Token-2022, an upgrade to the SPL standard. Solana’s Token-2022 introduced a new concept of ‘extensions,’ allowing Solana’s meme coins to have unique features. Some of these unique features include:

• Transfer Fees: tokens can only be traded and transferred if a certain amount of transfer fee is paid

• Interest Accrual: the longer you hold a token, the more valuable it becomes

• Privacy: use of ZK Proofs to encrypt token balances and transfer amounts

• Soulbinding: tokens can’t be transferred or moved from your wallet

Essential Tools for Exploring Solana Memecoins

If you want to invest in Solana-based meme coins, you must use tools that can make exploring Solana meme coins faster and easier. Below are some tools to consider.

Birdeye

Birdeye is a platform that provides traders with notable trading insights like historical data analysis and real-time price updates for new and established tokens and coins on Solana and other blockchains. As an investor, you can use the Birdeye platform to monitor market trends and make a more informed decision regarding your trades.

RugCheck

RugCheck is a tool used to check the legitimacy of Solana-based meme coins and tokens. While exploring Solana meme coins, ensuring your funds are safe should always be a top priority for any investor.

Today’s crypto market is awash with newly-launched meme coins, which can make it hard to differentiate between legit tokens and scam coins. Investors can use RugCheck to confirm the legitimacy of a meme coin they are interested in buying before purchasing.

SolanaFM

SolanaFM is a block explorer that offers in-depth token data analysis. It allows investors to evaluate their favorite Solana meme tokens and coins by keeping track of all the public data found on the Solana network, such as smart contracts, transaction data, wallet addresses, etc., and showing results similar to a search engine.

Pasting a token address on the SolanaFM platform will reveal all the linked transfers, transactions, distribution, and instructions for the largest holders.

How to Buy and Swap Memecoins using Trust Wallet

You can easily buy and swap Solana-based meme coins using a crypto wallet like Trust Wallet. Trust Wallet is also one of the best Solana wallets available today.

Below is a step-by-step guide with images on how to buy the BONK meme coin using Trust Wallet.

Getting Started

The first step in buying the BONK meme coin is to ensure you have downloaded and installed the latest version of Trust Wallet. Downloading Trust Wallet as a mobile app on your Android or iOS device or as a browser extension is easy.

For this guide, we’ll focus on how to install and create a new crypto wallet using the Trust Wallet app. However, you can also check out our detailed beginner’s guide on installing Trust Wallet.

• Install Trust Wallet on your mobile device

• Visit https://trustwallet.com/download to install Trust Wallet.

• Open the app, and click on ‘Get Started’ to begin the setup process.

Install Trust Wallet on your mobile device

• Visit https://trustwallet.com/download to install Trust Wallet.

• Open the app, and click on ‘Get Started’ to begin the setup process.

• Next, select ‘Create a New Wallet.’

• Choose your backup option. Alternatively, you can also ‘Skip’ the backup option and come back to it later.

• You’ll now be ready to ‘Start Using Trust Wallet’ to buy BONK.

How to buy meme coins like BONK using Trust Wallet

Let’s look at how to buy meme coins such as BONK using Trust Wallet.

• Open Trust Wallet and click on ‘Buy’ on the home screen.

• Search for ‘BONK’ and select it.

• Choose the currency you want to use, then enter the amount of BONK you want to buy.

• Click the ‘Buy with Credit card’ button and complete the remaining steps.

Once you are done with your transaction, the amount of BONK you bought will reflect on your Tust Wallet’s main dashboard.

Alternatively, you can swap your existing crypto tokens for Solana meme coins like BONK, using platforms like Jupiter that you can access through Trust Wallet’s in-app browser section. You can learn how to swap other cryptocurrencies for Solana meme coins from this guide.

Conclusion

The Solana ecosystem is home to various meme coins, some of which have been experiencing a resurgence that has increased prices in recent months. Although Ethereum still has the largest share of meme coins, the number of meme coins on the Solana blockchain is increasing, mainly because of faster transactions and lower gas fees than on most other leading chains.

As Solana continues to evolve and expand its ecosystem, we can only expect that more developers will build more meme coins on the blockchain. Just like for mainstream cryptocurrencies, ensure that you do your due diligence and do your own research on any meme coin you want to explore.

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Note: Any cited numbers, figures, or illustrations are reported at the time of writing, and are subject to change.