Memecoins, which are based on internet memes, became the most lucrative crypto sector during the first five months of 2025, going against conventional wisdom. As the rest of the crypto market struggled with high volatility, memecoins showed immense strength. A recent deep dive into crypto performance found that memecoins topped the list with the greatest share of winners.
The recent explosion in memecoin creation and trading activity makes clear just how quickly the world of digital assets continues to change. Memecoins drew a lot of investor interest, for better or worse. It underscores the dual role of speculation and community-driven value in the crypto space. The profitability analysis used CoinGecko’s downmarket data for 10 different crypto sectors. It calculated the performance of each token during the period of January 1 through May 31, 2025. For the profitability analysis, tokens with an end price of 0 were given a return of -100%.
Memecoin Dominance in 2025
Memecoins were responsible for 18.82% of projects reaching profitability, making it the sector with the largest share of profitable projects. This figure puts into perspective just how profitable these “meme” coins have been. This strong performance was in stark contradiction with the broader market, showcasing a unique set of forces behind memecoin mania.
The resulting memecoin boom on platforms such as Pump.fun went further than ever. Since 2025, there has been an average of 36,405 meme tokens launched each day on Pump.fun. This is over three times the 2024 daily average of 10,417.
The amount of new memecoins hitting the market is mind-boggling. At the same time, almost 5.9 million new meme tokens have been created through Pump.fun as of June 11, 2025. That’s a remarkable deepening! In fact, by April 2024, the total number of new tokens ever recorded on all decentralized exchanges exceeded 540,000 in over ten times increase! By 2025, weekly meme token launches regularly topped 800k per month. For starters, January 2025 was a historic month where over 1.7 million new meme tokens were created.
Market Share and Investor Behavior
Memecoins made up over 11.21% of the total cryptocurrency market, without $BTC and $ETH. By 2024, memecoins were up 330% with a $140 billion total market value. This large market capitalization is indicative of the increasing power memecoins are having on the overall cryptocurrency space.
The promise of easy returns comes with a big caveat. In Feb 2025, 78% of crypto investors purchased presidents-endorsed memecoins such as $TRUMP, $CAR, and $LIBRA.
The net result is that a large percentage of these investors ended up with serious financial damage. 66% of investors that purchased president-endorsed memecoins lost money, largely due to greater volatility and pump-and-dump schemes. It serves as a reminder of the dangers of meme coin investing fueled by hype instead of inherent value.
Risks and Alternatives
Despite failing less than memecoins did, Real World Assets (RWA) still finished with a -7.95% average return. This example essentially highlights the struggles all sectors of crypto are experiencing in driving sustained core profitability.
The memecoin craze highlights one of the more speculative aspects of the broader cryptocurrency space. For some investors like Big Whale, memecoins can be a fun break. Yet, due to their high failure rate and possible major financial losses, they require very specialized scrutiny. Ultimately, memecoins—like any high-risk cryptocurrency—are a gamble, and smart investors should take the time to research and do their diligence before putting any capital into them.
