GlossaryWhat is a memecoin?
What is a memecoin?
A memecoin is a crypto token built around an internet meme, a character, a joke or a trend, and bought mostly for fun, community and speculation instead of any use it has. The first famous one, Dogecoin, launched on December 6, 2013, according to its own history page.
What a Memecoin Is
A memecoin is a token whose main draw is its meme and its community, not a product or cash flow. SEC staff describe meme coins as crypto assets inspired by internet memes, characters, current events or trends, usually bought for entertainment, social or cultural reasons, with value driven mostly by demand and speculation, in their February 27, 2025 staff statement.
The same statement says meme coins usually have limited or no use and often swing hard in price. Most are ordinary tokens on an existing chain, such as an ERC20 token on Ethereum or an SPL token on Solana, so creating one takes no new blockchain.
Meme Coin History: Dogecoin to Launchpads
Meme coin history starts with Dogecoin, which dogecoin.com says launched on December 6, 2013 as a joke by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, who felt crypto was being taken far too seriously.2 Its logo is a Shiba Inu from a 2010 photo of a dog named Kabosu.
Dogecoin caught on fast. Its own history page says it passed Bitcoin in daily transactions within two weeks, and in 2014 its community raised 26.5 million DOGE to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Sochi Winter Olympics.
Later waves moved to cheap, fast chains and to launchpads that make a new token in one click. In 2024 The Block described pump.fun on Solana as a launchpad that grew popular during that year's memecoin boom, helped by Solana's low fees.
How Memecoin Launchpads Like pump.fun Work
Memecoin launchpads like pump.fun let anyone create a token and start trading it at once, with the price set by a formula instead of an order book. The Block describes pump.fun as a Solana-based memecoin launchpad where each coin trades on a bonding curve, a price that steps up as more people buy, according to its August 9, 2024 report.
When a coin hits a set market cap, part of its liquidity moves to a regular decentralized exchange. In 2024 that exchange was Raydium. The Block reported that only about 1.4% of tokens deployed on pump.fun had reached that point, citing Dune Analytics data. DefiLlama now lists pump.fun as a launchpad and PumpSwap, run from swap.pump.fun, as a Solana exchange.4
Are Memecoins Securities
Memecoins of the kind SEC staff described are not securities in the staff's view, so buyers do not get the protections of federal securities laws. The statement is staff opinion with no legal force, and it does not cover tokens that use the meme coin label to hide what is really a security.
SEC staff add that fraud tied to meme coins can still be pursued by other federal or state agencies under other laws. Common tricks around new tokens include the rug pull and the honeypot token, which this site explains on their own pages.
Questions People Ask About What is a memecoin
These are the questions people ask next about what is a memecoin.
What is the first memecoin?
The first memecoin to gain wide attention was Dogecoin, which dogecoin.com says launched on December 6, 2013. Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer created it as a joke, using the Shiba Inu meme as its mascot.
What makes a coin a meme coin?
What makes a coin a meme coin is that its value rests on a meme, a joke, a character or a trend and the community around it, not on a product. SEC staff add that meme coins usually have limited or no use and often see high price swings.
Is memecoin one word or two?
Memecoin and meme coin are the same term, spelled as one word or two. The SEC staff statement writes meme coin as two words, and The Block writes memecoin as one. Both refer to tokens built on memes, jokes or trends.
How are memecoins created?
Memecoins are created as ordinary tokens on an existing blockchain, either by deploying a token contract or through a launchpad. On pump.fun, The Block reports, a coin trades on a bonding curve from the start and moves liquidity to a regular exchange once it reaches a set market cap.
Sources
Every number on this page comes from these sources, checked November 9, 2026.