My Article from 2023, Still Helpful Today

Dogecoin. Shiba Inu. Pepe… you can probably feel where this is going.

Today we’re going to talk about memecoins! What in the blue heck is going on with them, why are they getting so popular, and what is their ultimate goal. Put your serious thinker cap on, because today we are going to analyze the everliving crap out of the aforementioned tokens.

Just kidding, we’re going to talk about cryptocurrency based on memes and try to predict the next big thing in the memecoin market. Ready or not, here we come, you can’t hide!

DOGE, The Curtain Raiser and Memecoin Trailblazer

We must go back ten years in time to start our retrospective analysis.

2013 is the year many consider the starting point of the memecoin ‘revolution’, as the image of Shiba Inu aka Doge has burst onto the crypto scene. It will be hard to find an extremely online person that didn’t see that meme at least once during their web surfing tenure. Mind you, the meme itself gained traction in early 2010, according to a reputable knowyourmeme source.

So why was Doge shoved into crypto? Very simple. It was made by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer as a joke - exclusively for ‘kicks and wriggles’. It is really that simple. 

Shiba Inu infiltrating the world economy, colorized… Source: https://pin.it/3rgo6Mu

In the industry mainly orchestrated by progressive intellectuals, Dogecoin emerged as the symbol of self-irony and harmless banter. The sheer cuteness of the japanese doggie and its miniscule price has turned the token into an attractive asset, plus something familiar in the often intimidating space of complicated tokenomics and rambunctious exchanges.

$DOGE exploded in popularity during the Bitcoin bubble in 2016 and went down again in 2018. In May 2021, it surged to an all-time high of around $0.74, boasting a market cap of over $80 billion at its peak. Much cute, such capitalization, wow!

These days the OG memecoin proudly sits in the top 10 crypto charts and is often referred to as Elon Musk’s favorite crypto. One day he’s pedaling it ‘to the moon’, the other he throws it away like a toy out of the pram. Sadly, he’s not doing it for a laugh.

Dogecoin’s fame has spawned a bunch of other dog memecoins, one of which is Shiba Inu.

Enter Shiba Inu - Another Memecoin The Noobies Are Into

You thought one shiba inu was enough? Not for crypto people, apparently.

SHIB is a descendent of the Shiba Inu tribe that was created in 2020. Unlike its predecessor, it is painfully obvious that this memecoin was bred to capitalize on the popularity of the trailblazer.

Let’s say you have ‘missed the hype train’ of Dogecoin but you still want to become a crypto millionaire. What do you do? You are looking for something similar that hasn’t ‘left the station yet’.

Every dog has its day! Source: https://pin.it/69iaZJs

 There was palpable demand for another dog in crypto, and so the new pup was minted to please the masses. Shiba Inu has gained significant attention, peaked in price and did what every respectable memecoin would do - dropped 90% just because the cycle is over.

You may think that Shiba Inu is a joke that has worn out its welcome, and you would be only halfway right, because it has actual utility! There’s a Shiba Wings cafe at the Gold Coast in Australia, where you can buy food and drinks using SHIB. Because reasons.

Having two dog coins in your portfolio is probably ‘pushing it’, but dogs are pack animals. They need companionship, a buddy to hang out with while you’re sweating off at work.

Do not put them in the same wallet with the Nyancoin though!

It’s Raining Cats and Dogs… and Frogs?

Back to the present time. Let’s give some spotlight to a new memecoin, the one and only, Pepe.

Pepe is an anthropomorphic frog character that amassed cult status on the infamous message board called 4chan. First steps of Pepe can be traced back to the long gone 2005, where he was one of four characters of the comic series Boy's Club.

As in tradition, Pepe had to wait three long years before nailing a joke. One funny joke, and Pepe became a posterfrog for the "Feels Good Man" reaction image and subsequent “Feels Bad Man” meme template. The rest was left to 4chan…

The dastardly frog transcended the pond it was born in, and became a global meme mainstay in the 2010’s. You know you have made it as a meme when Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj post you on their main accounts, and your image is used in 95% of the most disturbing Internet memes.

Great! Wrong! SAD! Source: https://pin.it/2nVJoWe

The only surprising thing about Pepe is its late crossover to the crypto culture. Somehow it has only rocked the blockchain world this year, taking the industry by a storm. Minted on 4/20, it was destined for greatness.

I witnessed this greatness first hand, as there was a literal frog takeover at the Bitcoin 2023 conference I attended and wrote about in my Blockleaders debut. Simply put, Pepe was made for crypto, and crypto was made for Pepe. It’s really a match made in heaven.

As you could see from a mile away, $PEPE creators wanted to compete with other popular memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu and they put a twist on it.

Pepe is built on the Ethereum blockchain, and people who hold onto the coin get a little bit of money each time someone buys or sells the tokens, incentivizing people to HOLD.