There are more than 2000 cryptocurrencies currently in existence, according to CoinLore, but not all of them were created with the intention of becoming a legitimate store of value.
Spend enough time on any social network and you’ll quickly realize that if something can be turned into a meme, someone out there will do it. Apparently, the same can be said for cryptocurrency. If something can be turned into a coin, someone out there will likely do it (and a bunch of someones may be willing to mine it).
Why Would Anyone Invest in a Meme Coin?
People who are new to cryptocurrency may feel as though they missed out on acquiring Bitcoin or other big cryptocurrencies while they were at the ground floor. Nowadays you need quite a bit of money to buy a Bitcoin (roughly $3800), whereas a new, cheaper cryptocurrency might seem more appealing to novice crypto traders.
“Despite being able to purchase a fraction of each, there is a real psychological barrier around owning something in its entirety,” Dave Chapman, managing director of Octagon Strategy told CNBC.
And, of course, some people just really love memes and happen to have some extra cash to throw at a digital currency that references their favorite internet sensation.
Based on the popular “Doge” meme, which features a shiba inu with a perturbed expression on its face, Dogecoin (DOGE) is probably the most well-known meme coin on the cryptocurrency market. It was created in 2013 as a joke but it quickly gained popularity and is still a functioning cryptocurrency today. It is considered a fork from Litecoin, with no cap on how many Dogecoin can be created. According to its website, Dogecoin is most often used to tip digital content creators, especially on Reddit.
The doge meme made its first appearance on the internet in 2010, after a kindergarten teacher in Japan posted the pictures of her rescue shiba, Kabosu, on her blog.
For more information about Doge, check out the Know Your Meme page.
Memetic (MEME), also known as PepeCoin, is another peer-to-peer cryptocurrency that was created in 2016. Memetic also has its own decentralized asset exchange called Kekdaq where you can exchange your favorite memes for existing cryptocurrencies or use them to create your own meme token. Its website touts that the Kekdaq platform allows you to preserve and protect memes and political information from censorship.
Memetic/PepeCoin is based on a meme called “Pepe the Frog,” which was originally an illustration drawn for an internet comic on MySpace but it eventually became appropriated as a symbol by the alt-right political movement. This caused a lot of controversy among fans of the original meme, and Matt Furie, the artist who created Pepe, was compelled to speak out against its use as a hate symbol. This is likely why the cryptocurrency has tried to distance itself from the name of PepeCoin, although it is still often called that.
For more information on Pepe the Frog, check out its Know Your Meme page.
Nyancoin (NYAN) is a coin based on the “Nyan Cat” meme and was first mined back in 2014. Five years later this cryptocurrency is still on the market despite its creators suddenly and inexplicably disappearing a couple months after its origin. The original Nyancoin website also disappeared but was brought back by its community of miners, who have kept the software going ever since.
In January 2019 a Twitter account called @Nyancash cropped up on Twitter, announcing a change in direction from Nyancoin, so a possible fork from the original cryptocurrency could be entering the market sometime this year.
Nyan Cat is an 8-bit animation that was originally posted on the internet in 2011 and features a cherry pop-tart cat flying through space on a rainbow. It was turned into a GIF and then shared and parodied all over the web, beginning with Tumblr. A song titled “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!” was eventually added to the background in a YouTube video and that version of the meme gained even more popularity. “Nyan” or “nya” is the Japanese word for “meow.”
For more information on Nyan Cat, check out its Know Your Meme page.
Garlicoin (GRLC) began with a Reddit meme posted by “DigitalizedOrange” that promised a garlic bread cryptocurrency would be created if the post received 30,000 upvotes. Reddit users were obviously happy to oblige. The coin is still being mined and traded today but its website currently seems to be having technical issues.
You can read more about Garlicoin on Reddit.
Unobtainium (UNO) is a cryptocurrency named for a fictional mineral at the center of the 2009 movie “Avatar.” Its website claims that Unobtanium is “the original rare cryptocurrency.” It has a market cap of 250,000 and has been around since 2012.
“Unobtainium” is a term that has been used in fiction, engineering, and astronomy since the 1950s to refer to an extremely rare or expensive material. It’s sometimes used as a placeholder in science fiction for a particular substance that’s necessary to the plot but doesn’t exist within the real world. While “Avatar” may have popularized the term, it was also mentioned in the 2003 movie “The Core.”
Cthulhu Offerings (OFF) is a now-defunct cryptocurrency based on the ominous sea entity conceived by the writer H.P. Lovecraft. The Cthulhu Offerings website promised a “2018 social reboot” of the cryptocurrency with a link to a new Twitter handle, but a resurgence hasn’t happened yet.
Cthulhu was first introduced in Lovecraft’s short story “The Call of Cthulhu,” published in 1928. Since then it’s been referenced frequently in popular culture, even long before the existence of the internet.
Coinye, formerly called Coinye West, was a cryptocurrency concept inspired by rapper Kanye West. West sued the developers of Coinye shortly after it was introduced in 2014, and the lawsuit resulted in the demise of the cryptocurrency. Its original logo was an illustration of Kanye West wearing his signature shutter shades, but after the lawsuit was initiated the logo was changed to a different image of West, as he was depicted in the animated comedy “South Park.”
Although Kanye West is a real person, not a meme, Coinye is yet another example of a “joke” cryptocurrency created just for fun, much like the other coins on this list.
Additional Reading
Deadcoins.com compiles a list of dead cryptocurrencies that were either parody-related, revealed to be a scam, or were simply unsuccessful.
