Meme coins are cryptocurrencies inspired by memes or jokes on the Internet and social media. The first meme coin created was Dogecoin (DOGE). Launched in 2013 as a parody, DOGE was inspired by the popular Doge meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu dog.
Meme coins tend to be highly volatile. They are mainly community-driven and can gain popularity overnight due to online community endorsements and FOMO. Still, their price can also slump unexpectedly when traders turn their attention to the next meme coin.
Another characteristic of meme coins is that they often have a huge or unlimited supply. For example, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has a total supply of 1 quadrillion tokens, while DOGE has no maximum supply, and over 100 billion tokens are already in circulation. As meme tokens generally do not have a coin-burning mechanism, their relatively low prices explain the huge supply. With just $1, you can buy millions of meme tokens.