Memecoins
Dogecoin to Pepe: What’s Driving the Price Rise and the Best Memecoins, Explained
Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that originated from memes or jokes on the Internet. Unlike other well-known cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether, which were created with specific financial goals or technological designs, memecoins often start as jokes or social experiments. Some of the most speculative cryptocurrencies introduced in recent years trade at recordswhich makes jokes expensive: the total market value of all memecoins is over $50 billion.
At the center of every memecoin is a famous Internet joke or meme. For the original memecoin, Dogecoin, it is a photo of a Shiba Inu dog. For newcomers dogwifhat and Pepe, they’re literally a dog wearing a hat and a green anthropomorphic frog, respectively. The technology behind each memecoin varies. Dogecoin, for example, is an open-source peer-to-peer digital currency built on its own “blockchain,” which is a public ledger of ownership and transaction activity. Other memecoins are built on popular blockchains like Ethereum or Solana. For unknown reasons, dogs have always been the most popular theme choice for memecoin creators, who are usually anonymous crypto developers.