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Cryptocurrency is an extremely high-risk and complex investment. Don’t invest unless you’re prepared to lose all the money you invest. You are unlikely to be protected if something goes wrong.
Forbes Advisor has provided this content for educational reasons only and not to help you decide whether or not to invest in cryptocurrency. Should you decide to invest in cryptocurrency or in any other investment, you should always obtain appropriate financial advice and only invest what you can afford to lose.
A memecoin is a cryptocurrency founded on a kind of internet ‘in-joke’, but the sizes of some of these tokens is no joke at all.
We’ve taken a look at some of the biggest memecoins and ranked them according to their market caps.
1. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Market Capitalisation: £7.4 billion
If Bitcoin was the original cryptocurrency, Dogecoin was the original memecoin. In fact, Dogecoin was conceived as a parody of cryptocurrencies back in 2013.
The eponymous Doge is a shiba inu dog that has appeared in memes since 2005, surrounded by text made up of broken English – as if spoken by the confused canine.
With a market cap of £7.4 billion, DOGE is the world’s biggest memecoin. It currently trades at around £0.05 per token. DOGE has a large following, partially because it’s been backed publicly by Twitter and Tesla owner Elon Musk.
2. Shiba Inu (SHIB)
Market Capitalisation: £3.5 billion
Another dog-themed memecoin, Shiba Inu (SHIB) was created anonymously in August 2020 and is based on the same set of internet memes as Dogecoin.
It has a market cap of £3.5 billion and peaked in value at £0.00005 during October of 2021 after it was added to major crypto exchange Coinbase. Currently, SHIB is valued at £0.000006.
3. Pepe (PEPE)
Market Capitalisation: £523 million
Falling way behind DOGE and SHIB in terms of market capitalisation, Pepe is a memecoin based on a meme popularised by the often-problematic image board website, 4chan.
Controversy aside, the cartoon-frog-fronted memecoin has made a big splash since launching in the spring of 2023. Its market cap is now around £500 million, but peaked at £1.17 billion in May, shortly after launch.
PEPE currently trades at £0.000001.
4. Bone ShibaSwap (BONE)
Market Capitalisation: £223 million
BONE is a governance token used by members of the Shiba Inu (SHIB) community on the decentralised ShibSwap exchange. Members spend BONE tokens to vote on the direction of the exchange’s future.
Its market cap peaked at £387 million but is now £223 million. Its value peaked at £2.37 in November 2021, and now trades at £0.95.
5. Floki (FLOKI)
Market Capitalisation: £189 million
Floki is another offshoot of the Shiba Inu/Doge meme pool, specifically named after a dog owned by Twitter and Tesla owner (and Dogecoin supporter) Elon Musk.
Floki serves as the native currency and utility token of the Floki ecosystem, which is focussed on NFTs and NFT gaming.
The highest its market cap ever went was £401 million, and now stands at £189 million. FLOKI currently trades at £0.00001.
What is a memecoin?
Bitcoin is the original and biggest cryptocurrency. Every other cryptocurrency is known as an altcoin. Some altcoins are themed around internet memes. These are memecoins.
Memetic theory came from evolutionary biologist and educator Richard Dawkins. In his 1976 book The Selfish Gene, Dawkins coined the term meme to describe the way ideas and cultural phenomena are passed down and adapted, changing over time. Memes are to sociology what genes are to biology.
Today, the term meme usually refers to image-based jokes that are effectively one-panel, digital comic strips. People share memes online, often after putting their own spin on them.
Popular memes include the Shiba Inu ‘Doge’, which became the basis for several meme coins, and Pepe the frog, which became a memecoin in 2023.
Where can you trade memecoins?
The bigger memecoins such as DOGE and SHIB are listed on major crypto exchanges such as Coinbase and eToro. We’ve listed our pick of the best exchanges
Memecoins, like any cryptocurrency, are volatile and unpredictable. The UK’s financial watchdog has repeatedly warned would-be investors that they should be prepared to lose everything they put into crypto markets.
The crypto market is also unregulated in the UK, for the time being. This means there’s no support or recourse if you lose your investment because, for example, your exchange went bust.
