--- title: "What Is a Memecoin? How They Differ From Other Crypto Tokens" term: "Memecoin" type: glossary_term canonical: https://www.moonwire.org/insights/glossary/memecoin.html --- # What Is a Memecoin? How They Differ From Other Crypto Tokens > A crypto token whose value rests on attention, community and internet culture rather than on a product, cash flow or technical claim. Most are issued on an existing blockchain and are cheap and quick to create. A **memecoin** is a crypto token whose value rests on attention - community, humour and internet culture - rather than on a product, a revenue stream or a technical claim. Dogecoin, launched in 2013 as a joke, is the original; thousands have followed. ## How they are made Most memecoins are not separate blockchains. They are tokens issued on an existing chain such as Ethereum or Solana, using the same token standard any other project uses. Creating one costs very little and takes minutes, which is why so many exist: launchpad tools let anyone mint a token, seed a trading pool and list it without permission. Supply is usually fixed at creation and often very large, so individual units trade at fractions of a cent. That is a formatting choice rather than a discount - what describes size is market capitalization, price multiplied by supply. ## Why they behave differently - **No cash flows and no fundamental anchor.** There is typically nothing to value in the usual sense, so attention is the variable being traded. - **Thin liquidity.** Trading often concentrates in one or two pools, so both directions move quickly. - **Concentrated holdings.** A small number of wallets frequently hold a large share of supply. - **Episodic attention.** Activity tends to arrive in bursts around a narrative rather than building steadily. ## What it is not "Memecoin" describes what supports a token's price, not its size, its quality or its legal status. Some have persisted for years and reached large market capitalisations; many do not survive their first cycle. The label is a classification, and it carries no view about any particular token. ## In MoonWire analysis Memecoin activity is tracked as a sector in our corpus, because bursts of it describe where speculative attention is sitting. In September 2026 we covered [a memecoin that ran a new chain's on-ramp backwards](/insights/market-pulse-2026-09-03.html), pulling volume onto a network that had been pitched as a route in the other direction. We report what the sources we track say about these tokens and describe the activity; we do not make a case for or against owning any of them. ## Further reading - [Wikipedia: Meme coin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme_coin) ## Where this appears in MoonWire analysis - [The Bitcoin Argument Moved From Direction to the Calendar](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-09-20.md) — Sep 20, 2026 - [Zcash's Bull Case Is Monetary. The Measured Print Said “Not Only ZEC”.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/zcash-bull-case-monetary-not-only-zec.md) — Sep 8, 2026 - [Robinhood's Chain Was Framed as an On-Ramp. One Memecoin Ran It Backwards.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-09-03.md) — Sep 3, 2026 - [Three Reads Put Bitcoin's Next Test at $83K. They Don't Mean the Same Thing.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-27.md) — Aug 28, 2026 - [July CPI Printed Exactly on Forecast. The Rotation Talk Was AI Equities.](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-08-12.md) — Aug 12, 2026 - [Source Spotlight - Ansem, Week of July 21: Seven Days on Solana's App Layer, and Not One Mention of the Closures](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/source-spotlight-ansem-2026-07-27.md) — Jul 28, 2026 - [Two hits, one miss - and an XRP read that turns over](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/prognosis-daily-2026-07-21.md) — Jul 21, 2026 - [Prognosis daily: a choppy, Bitcoin-led drift as the recalibrated engine restarts its record](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/prognosis-daily-2026-07-18.md) — Jul 18, 2026 - [Sector Rotation - Week of July 7: The Loudest Sector in Crypto Wasn't Crypto - Attention Rotated Toward AI and the Real World](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/sector-rotation-2026-07-14.md) — Jul 14, 2026 - [MoonWire Prognosis — July 10: a choppy tape bounces, receipts land mixed](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/prognosis-daily-2026-07-10.md) — Jul 10, 2026 - [Market Pulse — July 8: The Builders Stepped Back, and the Balance Sheets Stepped In](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/market-pulse-2026-07-08.md) — Jul 8, 2026 - [Sector Rotation - Week of June 30: Risk Appetite Came Back, but It Chased the Wrapper and the Froth](https://www.moonwire.org/insights/sector-rotation-2026-07-07.md) — Jul 7, 2026 --- *MoonWire surfaces and summarizes public crypto news.* **General information only — not financial advice.** MoonWire Ltd. is not licensed by ASIC and holds no AFSL. This content does not consider your objectives, financial situation, or needs, and is not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any asset. *This analysis is generated by artificial intelligence and may be inaccurate, incomplete, or fabricated. Independently verify before acting.* © 2026 MoonWire Ltd. · [Terms](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/TOS) · [Risk Disclosure](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/RISK_DISCLOSURE) · [Privacy Policy](https://www.moonwire.org/legal/PRIVACY_POLICY)