How can an emoji be worth billions of dollars? Unveiling the real secrets behind getting rich with meme coins

Something pretty surreal happened in May 2021—a “joke coin” born in 2013 actually broke into the TOP 10 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Dogecoin’s insane surge left even seasoned crypto veterans dumbfounded. Outsiders were even more shocked: how could something with a Shiba Inu logo be worth tens of billions of dollars?

The answer is actually buried pretty deep. It’s in every “To the Moon” comment, in the flood of meme reposts, and most of all, in the momentum created by millions of holders banding together.

Today, let’s break down how the Meme coin game works, and why spreading culture is more reliable than constantly watching the charts and hoping for price pumps.

From Joke to #5 by Market Cap: How Dogecoin Pulled Off a Comeback

The story starts in 2013. Programmers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer were fed up with the rampant speculation in crypto, so they made an “anti-cryptocurrency” to mock the whole thing. They casually grabbed the internet’s hottest Shiba Inu meme as the logo, set the supply to unlimited—back then, this was a textbook “shitcoin” setup.

But the tables turned fast.

Reddit users started tipping fun posts with Dogecoin. The community organized charity events, even crowdsourced sponsorship for a NASCAR driver and the Jamaican bobsled team. No whitepaper, no real tech innovation—just pure community enthusiasm. In 2021, Dogecoin peaked at $0.74, with a market cap topping $85 billion.

Sure, Musk’s tweets poured gasoline on the fire. But honestly, what kept Dogecoin alive is its hardcore fanbase. Other altcoins died off long ago, but Dogecoin holders have kept creating memes and running online events day and night. That cultural stickiness has carried it through a decade of bear markets.

SHIB and PEPE: Masters at Monetizing Memes

If Dogecoin was a happy accident, Shiba Inu Coin (SHIB), which appeared in 2020, came in with a plan.

It boldly branded itself as the “Dogecoin Killer,” but copied the same playbook—using the cute Shiba Inu image to rally a community, creating the concept of the “SHIB Army,” making every holder feel like they’re part of a cultural movement.

In 2021, SHIB’s price surged 120,000x. At its peak, the market cap hit $36 billion.

And it gets crazier. In 2023, PEPE Coin, based on the “Sad Frog” meme, burst onto the scene with no backing at all—just organic meme sharing by netizens—and hit a $7 billion market cap in two weeks.

What do these cases show? Meme coin prices aren’t set by code—they’re set by cultural symbol propagation. Just like Disney makes money off Mickey Mouse, meme coins turn memes into tradable cultural assets. The more people recognize, use, and spread a symbol, the more valuable it becomes. Simple and brutal.

If You’re Always Asking for a “Pump,” You’re Doing It Backwards

A lot of newbies buy meme coins and immediately start pestering project teams in chat groups: “When’s the pump?”

If you understand the nature of meme coins, you’ll see that’s completely missing the point.

Meme coins aren’t stocks or traditional cryptos. Stocks are backed by company fundamentals. Bitcoin is backed by blockchain tech. Meme coins’ only “fundamentals” are community consensus and cultural virality. At best, the project team can light the spark, but the real “market makers” are every single holder.

Look at the PEPE example: no founding team, no so-called operators—just users organically creating memes and spreading them on Twitter and Telegram. Every time you forward a PEPE meme, or joke about the silly frog with friends, you’re literally “empowering” it—every share adds value to the cultural symbol.

On the flip side, if the community just waits for the team to pump the price, it’s like a group sitting around a fish pond that can’t breed—sooner or later, you’ll run out of fish. On Pump.fun, hundreds of new meme coins pop up daily, but 99% die within a week because all they have is code, with no culture or community willing to spread them.

Attention Is the Real Mine

In an age of information overload, attention is the scarcest resource. Meme coins are fundamentally about “securitizing attention”—turning users’ focus, discussions, and shares into tradable assets.

Platform algorithms naturally favor entertaining content. A funny meme spreads 10,000 times faster than a whitepaper. One “To the Moon” line triggers more FOMO than a sheet of tech specs. When you post a SHIB meme in your friend group, you’re helping it capture attention, and that attention eventually turns into buy orders.

Meme coins thrive on Solana and Base chains because these platforms are fast and have low fees—perfect for retail investors to trade and share at high frequency. Tech is just the infrastructure; the real engine is the “social currency” created by the community.

Three Survival Rules for Newbies

If you decide to join this cultural game, remember these three things—they’ll help you way more than staring at candlestick charts:

First, choose a cultural symbol you truly identify with

Don’t buy meme coins you don’t get. If a meme doesn’t make you laugh, don’t expect others to spread it. Most PEPE holders are Gen Z who grew up with this frog meme—they spread it because they genuinely love it, not just for profit.

Second, be a spreader, not just a speculator

Instead of always asking “When’s the pump?”, think about how to get more people to know about the meme. Make a funny meme, write a short story, or interact in related comment sections. Every bit of creative sharing adds value to your own holdings.

Third, treat it as entertainment investing

Meme coins are basically “culture lotteries.” They have more cultural value than pure gambling, but are still highly speculative. Never invest more than you can afford to lose—think of it like buying a ticket to an amusement park: having fun is the main goal; making money is just a bonus.

Everyone Is Their Own Whale

When we turn memes into cryptocurrencies, we’re essentially IPO’ing internet culture. Every meme coin surge is grassroots culture ambushing the traditional financial system.

But remember: no virality, no value.

Pie-in-the-sky roadmaps and influencer calls to action are nothing compared to the meme you’re about to post on your feed. Instead of waiting for someone else to “pump,” open up your drawing app now and create a financial culture symbol for this era.

After all, in the attention economy, everyone is their own whale.