Crypto heavyweights are starting to whisper it: the peak of memecoin mania has passed.

Consider this: a G20 president facing impeachment for pushing a memecoin, every Trump-related memecoin in the red since hitting a major US exchange, and even memecoin platforms under scrutiny for money-laundering linked to massive hacks. Suddenly, that memecoin bubble doesn’t look so inflated anymore.

Even Solana, the go-to blockchain for most memecoins, has taken a hit, shedding a third of its market cap in just the last month.

And it looks like people are getting tired of the memecoin game. TRUMP has plummeted by over $11 billion since its high point, MELANIA is down a staggering 90%, and investors have collectively lost millions on duds like Argentina’s LIBRA, Central African Republic’s CAR, and a flood of celebrity and brand-backed tokens.

We’re talking projects backed by figures as diverse as Dave Portnoy, Changpeng Zhao, and even entities playing on names like Enron and Vine, not to mention John McAfee, Trump’s inauguration pastor, the Hawk Tuah girl, and countless others.

The smart money has spotted a pattern: it’s all endless supply and rapidly fading demand.

Even before memecoins reached those crazy highs, seasoned crypto watchers had a hunch they’d follow the typical boom-and-bust cycle of past crypto crazes – remember the metaverse hype, the NFT bubble, DeFi summer, or the ICO winter? Just another fleeting trend, they thought.

In the crypto world, trends tend to blaze brightly for a few months, then quickly become yesterday’s news.

No Value Except for Vibes and Feels

But here’s the really wild part about memecoins: they’re practically designed to be worthless! Unlike utility tokens, yield farms, NFTs with art, or other crypto with supposed purpose, memecoin creators often flat-out say their tokens have no inherent value and promise zero future development.

This “no promises” approach is actually a clever tactic to dodge the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and its pesky disclosure rules. By openly stating they offer nothing of value, memecoin creators hope to sneak under the SEC’s radar and avoid being classified as investment contracts under the Howey Test.

Read more: Abolish the SEC! A decade of battling crypto’s top regulator

Memecoin Seasons: A History of Cycles

Believe it or not, memecoins have been around since the early days of crypto, popping up as far back as Dogecoin and Counterparty tokens in 2013. While this latest surge of Solana-based memecoins seems to be losing steam, a few weeks of downturn probably isn’t enough to declare the memecoin party definitively over. They have a habit of bouncing back.

If history is any guide, we know memecoin seasons come and go. There was a surge back during the ICO craze of 2017, and then again in spring 2021, when Dogecoin went absolutely parabolic, rallying by tens of thousands of percent and giving birth to massive dog-themed coins like Shiba Inu.

Then, in late 2023, another “memecoin supercycle” – as some called it – sent DOGE, SHIB, MOODENG, and PNUT soaring thousands of percentage points once again.

Most recently, just this past January 2025, even the presidents of the US, Argentina, and the Central African Republic got in on the act, launching their own tokens (on Solana, naturally). Many thought *that* had to be the absolute peak.

Maybe they were right. Or maybe, just maybe, memecoins will be back again in the years to come – it’s certainly happened that way throughout the last decade.