Investing hundreds of dollars, or even just a few dozen dollars, can turn you into a millionaire within a year. Besides MEMEs, I can't think of any other track for 2024. If you were given a second chance, which MEME coin would you heavily invest in?
In 2024, there will be no shortage of hundredfold myths, just as a friend turned 2 sol into over 20,000 sol after 9 months with bome, while another friend, disdainful of MEMEs, is now stuck with VC coins.
If you don't want to miss the perfect MEME of 2025, you shouldn't miss the review of the best MEME of 2024.
New leading MEME - PEPE
In 2024, PEPE gallops ahead, announcing the arrival of the Frog Era with an annual increase of 1918%, the highest ever. Currently, PEPE's trading volume on the Ethereum network far exceeds that of its competitors, being 1.65 times that of the second place and 6.4 times that of shib, making it the third largest MEME coin by market cap.
First of all, the image of PEPE the frog has natural artistic and communicative qualities; its artistic nature comes from a comic abroad, and its communicative quality arises because, after being modified, the character has an ugly and depressed aura, becoming popular both domestically and internationally. Regardless of whether you have ever bought this coin, as long as you are online, you must have seen its memes.
Secondly, the PEPE culture has nearly a decade of accumulation online, with different meanings at different times. It can be divided into three stages: the first stage is the pure entertainment period of PEPE, which carries various emotions of netizens; the second stage is PEPE, assigned political symbolism during the U.S. elections, conveying political satire and racism. Due to its overly negative impact, the founder even actively killed off PEPE in the comics. The third stage is the community-led PEPE culture extending again, marked by the birth of the PEPE coin in 2023, backed by a large community foundation. In 2024, PEPE also launched on multiple mainstream exchanges, pushing the token market value to $10 billion.
In this round of bull market, PEPE is very likely to surpass shib and stand alongside DOGE as a MEME barometer.
Summary: Reflecting on PEPE's explosion, a deep cultural foundation combined with an opportunity chosen by the times is indispensable and cannot be sought. Such targets can only be selected from a few communities with cultural and 'aesthetic' potential MEMEs, held long term to become diamond hands, and then wait for the wind; otherwise, there is no other way.
The fastest MEME to launch on Binance - Bome
50 times in one day, a hundred times in three days, with addresses holding coins exceeding 30,000, total market value surpassing $150 million, listed on Binance in three days, market value breaking $2 billion—this is the miraculous bome, shattering the MEME launch record. If you had privately invested 1 sol at the beginning, congratulations, you would receive back 1000 sol.
Many people are reviewing bome's launch record, but bome is not the first in MEME presales; its explosive popularity is largely a rehearsal of the anti-VC trend in the first half of the year. A more equitable fundraising launch returns profit opportunities to the market, and due to this fairness and randomness, it can also bring a higher market value ceiling. Therefore, although many presale clones appeared later, none could surpass bome. Instead, pump.fun, which emerged in the second half of the year, industrialized and simplified bome's launch, igniting the MEME carnival season of 2024.
Summary: BOME carries the ZZ significance and emotional outlet of dissatisfaction with VC issuance mechanisms, coupled with manipulation by market makers. When facing such MEMEs, you need to be sufficiently sensitive to changes in market direction, quickly follow up after triggering heat, and seize the second wave.
Base Chain's top player - Brett
With the same origin as PEPE, featuring quirky expressions, unreasonably pushing the price up, and backed by Base Chain, Brett has accumulated numerous buffs and has taken the throne of the leading MEME on Base Chain in 2024.
The keyword for Brett's rise is diligence; the official Twitter account markets in various ways daily, and the discussion heat in domestic and international communities remains high. The Telegram community is filled with Holder's self-made memes, and the number of holders has reached 527,000, even surpassing shib's 444,000. Currently, the coin price has risen 12,092% since its launch, in a bull market with a large community and the most active Base Chain, giving Brett capital to push for higher market value.
Summary: BASE is a divine chain; if SOL and ETH have been speculated, you might as well spend some effort to find clones.
AI MEME leader - GOAT
AI Bot goes unnoticed, but its market value breaks a hundred million, known across the world. In a situation where the zoo concept is tired and political celebrity themes are exhausted, the market urgently needs new narrative stimulation, and GOAT has emerged. Although GOAT's momentum has now been overshadowed by AI Agent tokens, it indeed opens up a new direction for MEME narratives. The issuance of traditional MEME coins relies on community, celebrities, or project teams, but GOAT completely hands over this process to AI. This 'unmanned intervention' mode is not only full of topics but also brings AI to the forefront.
Summary: From purely MEME narratives and useless applications to seemingly useful AI agents, GOAT may be changing the future development of MEMEs, which also depends on whether you can grasp the pulse of the times.
AI Agent represents MEME - AI16Z
The AI Agent that exploded at the end of 2024 is bound to have a major breakout in 2025. According to data from Cookie.fun, as of December 30, the overall market value of AI Agents has reached $11.68 billion, with a nearly 39.1% increase over the past 7 days. One of the leaders in this field is AI16Z. Recently, AI16Z has been continuously releasing positive news, and on December 31, Shaw announced plans to make AI16Z a Layer 1, with the coin price rising 37% within 24 hours, and the current market value has reached $1.9 billion. The first time I recommended it in the VIP group, AI16Z's market value was only $8 million, and it has increased by 2275% since then. Currently, the AI16Z ecosystem token is still on the rise, and it is very likely to be the representative of the first AI agent with a market value of $10 billion.
Summary: When MEME issuance starts to carry narrative changes as a fundamental mechanism of assets, we should realize that MEME has changed. It will retrace the path walked by VC and DEFI SUMMER; the important thing is that you must quickly adjust your thinking to keep up.
Conclusion
Looking back at 2024, we can see that the rise of MEME coins has three key factors, which are all indispensable:
Meme culture and community consensus are the foundation, allowing it to continuously tell an attractive and sexy story. You need to have a deep cultural empathy, which is particularly suitable for community-based MEMEs.
Emotions are the source of explosive power; the market's enthusiastic emotions and investors' FOMO can raise the upper limit of market value. This is a paradise for risk lovers, and one must be highly sensitive to the market to accurately grasp news, celebrities, and ZZ-type MEMEs.
Most importantly, MEME has already changed. By borrowing new concepts and applications, such as AI agents and decentralized science, to give wings of fundamentals to useless MEMEs, can we pick up the long-abandoned ability of VC fundamental analysis?
The MEME coins in 2025 are sure to bring us new surprises, and our thinking will certainly match the wealth opportunities we should have.
Last issue review: Must-read! 2024 Year-end Review of the Crypto Circle: What are the best-performing tracks? What are the wealth opportunities you've missed? (Part 1)