A memecoin is a cryptocurrency associated with an internet joke, character, cultural trend, or online community. The label describes a social and market identity rather than a single technical design. The US SEC's February 2025 staff statement described typical meme coins as speculative assets whose appeal centres on entertainment and community participation; that description was part of a specific legal analysis.1

Origins and cultureReport an error

Dogecoin's project history credits Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer with creating it as a joke in 2013. It dates launch to 6 December and describes its inspiration as the Doge meme featuring a Shiba Inu. The same account records its use for tipping on Reddit. These social uses help explain how a coin can acquire a community beyond the original joke.2

Later token-launch platforms made creating new coins a repeatable process. A 2026 research paper on pump.fun examined coins created on Solana between January 2024 and January 2026. Its description of the platform shows creators supplying a name, symbol, and image, with optional descriptions and social links. The cultural packaging and the onchain token are related but distinct components.3

Trading and manipulationReport an error

The CFTC's 2018 advisory describes pump-and-dump schemes in thinly traded cryptocurrencies: organisers accumulate an asset, encourage buying through promotional messages, and sell into the resulting demand. Later buyers can be left with losses as prices fall. The advisory predates many current memecoin platforms and concerns a trading practice, not a finding that every meme-themed token is fraudulent.4

The pump.fun study identified patterns it classified as wash trading, creator-address obfuscation, coordinated selling, copycat coins, and social-media manipulation. These are the researchers' findings from a specified dataset and detection methods, not court findings about every coin or participant on the platform.3

US regulatory debateReport an error

On 27 February 2025, SEC corporation-finance staff stated that transactions in the kinds of meme coins it described generally did not involve securities. The statement expressly excluded disguised securities and said it had no legal force. It also noted that other authorities could pursue fraud. Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw criticised the category's vagueness and argued that individual economic arrangements required analysis.15

In March 2026, the SEC issued a broader interpretation separating categories such as digital collectibles, commodities, tools, stablecoins, and securities. Its announcement also distinguished an asset from an investment contract involving that asset. This later framework is relevant context; a token's marketing label alone does not resolve the treatment of a particular transaction.61

See alsoReport an error

ReferencesReport an error

  1. ^ a b c d SEC Division of Corporation Finance (27 February 2025). Staff statement on meme coins. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/staff-statement-meme-coins 

  2. ^ a b Dogecoin. The history of Dogecoin. https://dogecoin.com/dogepedia/articles/history-of-dogecoin/ 

  3. ^ a b c Meme coin factories: uncovering large-scale manipulations on pump.fun (September 2026). Research preprint. https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.10246 

  4. ^ CFTC (2018). Customer advisory: beware virtual currency pump-and-dump schemes. https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect/AdvisoriesAndArticles/beware_virtual_currency_pump_dump.html 

  5. ^ Crenshaw, C. (27 February 2025). Response to staff statement on meme coins: what does it meme?. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/crenshaw-response-staff-statement-meme-coins-022725 

  6. ^ SEC (17 March 2026). SEC clarifies the application of federal securities laws to crypto assets. https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2026-30-sec-clarifies-application-federal-securities-laws-crypto-assets