Memecoin – The Shameful Hall: The 10 Craziest Tokens of 2025

2025 begins with an incumbent president launching a personal token just three days before his inauguration, and ends with the revelation that one of the year’s most talked-about “resurgence stories” was actually controlled by a few dozen large wallets.

Between these two milestones, memecoin has transformed from a fringe joke into the most prominent – and also most shameful – dark corner of the crypto market. A head of state rugpulled his own citizens on Valentine’s Day, an AI chatbot with crude jokes created a token worth billions of USD, Dogecoin has two managed ETFs, and a platform that minted 9.4 million tokens became the default “casino” of the year.

What makes these 10 tokens iconic isn’t their quality or innovation, but their ability to expose core issues of meme trading. They form a seamless chain: from political profiteering, AI craze, celebrity disasters, organizational involvement, to end-cycle manipulation.

TRUMP and MELANIA Relaunch PolitiFi

On January 17, just three days before Donald Trump’s second term inauguration, the TRUMP token was launched on Solana. A total of 1 billion tokens were created, with Trump-related companies holding 800 million.

Two days later, MELANIA hit the market and quickly reached a $2 billion market cap within hours. This duo laid the groundwork for the concept of “official political memecoin,” sparking ethical debates over whether a sitting president should commercialize political stature through tokens.

TRUMP peaked around $75 in January 2025 before plummeting over 90%, falling below $5. MELANIA also saw over 99% decline, from about $14 to $0.10 by year-end.

What makes TRUMP and MELANIA significant is their formalization of political memecoin as a distinct asset class. No utility, no technological disguise—simply exploiting political brand value.

US lawmakers questioned conflicts of interest, but no concrete enforcement measures were introduced. A precedent was set: if you control enough attention, you can issue tokens, hold most of the supply, and let the market decide legitimacy.

As of December 23, both TRUMP and MELANIA have fallen over 99% from their peaks.

LIBRA Turns Meme Coin into a National Embarrassment

On February 14, Argentine President Javier Milei posted a LIBRA contract address and urged citizens to buy the token. Its price surged from $0.000001 to about $5.20 in just 40 minutes, pushing its market cap to $4.6 billion.

Just hours later, LIBRA crashed 85% as internal wallets dumped around 70% of the supply. By February 18, media called it “Cryptogate,” investors filed criminal complaints, and opposition parties pushed for impeachment.

LIBRA demonstrated that PolitiFi can fail catastrophically at a national level. Milei’s direct promotion created an illusion of official endorsement, while insiders prepared an exit. He brazenly claimed only about 10 Argentinians lost money, while most victims were Chinese and US investors burned.

The collapse wiped out enormous assets, triggered political crises, and froze risk appetite for memecoin for months. Regulators cited LIBRA as evidence of celebrity and politician endorsements causing serious consumer harm.

LIBRA now down 99.99% from its peak, with zero liquidity remaining.

FARTCOIN and the Revival of AI Memes

FARTCOIN appeared in April on Solana, inspired by the crude AI chatbot Truth Terminal. By June, exchanges called it the “market-wide memecoin storm.”

This token became a symbol of the 2025 AI memecoin wave. It had no utility beyond the story “AI tells dirty stories, so there’s a token.” But that was enough. The chatbot’s autonomous nature brought a fresh narrative for speculators.

FARTCOIN peaked around $1.30 before dropping nearly 90%, to about $0.28 by year-end. Despite childish content, it didn’t weaken trading, because memecoin is fundamentally a game of attention, and an AI spamming crude jokes can generate massive interest.

After FARTCOIN, many AI projects emerged, many artificially linked to AI and quickly collapsed. FARTCOIN persisted, perhaps because it was early and absurd enough to become a reflective joke.

PUMP, the Casino Chip

In early June, Pump.fun prepared to sell PUMP tokens, aiming to raise about $1 billion. On July 12, PUMP officially launched via ICO, positioned as the native token of Solana’s largest memecoin launchpad.

PUMP doesn’t represent a specific meme, but a “meta-meme”: betting on the casino itself, amid criticism that Pump.fun is a direct pump-and-dump chain.

The key point of PUMP is its financialization of memecoin infrastructure. Holding PUMP isn’t betting on a token, but on the platform’s ability to keep creating tokens, attract liquidity, and collect fees.

Ironically, Pump.fun allows anyone to create tokens in minutes without censorship, yet PUMP’s ICO was limited and raised hundreds of millions USD. Buyers believed they were closer to the “croupier” than to gamblers.

By year-end, that trust was unfulfilled. PUMP fell 57% from ICO price and nearly 81% from its peak.

YZY and the Dark Side of Celebrity Tokens

On August 21, Kanye West launched YZY on Solana with the slogan “a new economy built on blockchain.” Its market cap soared over $2 billion then plunged more than 60% within hours.

On-chain analysis showed unusual transactions and signs of insider dumping. YZY became a textbook example of the 2025 celebrity token disaster: big name, grand story, but a brutal ending for fans.

No utility, no token lock, no anti-manipulation mechanism. Early wallets sold directly into retail buying pressure. Many lost up to 70% within hours.

After YZY, exchanges began delisting celebrity tokens more aggressively. The narrative “celebrities bring acceptance” was replaced by “celebrities use fans as liquidity for exit.”

YZY declined 87.6% from its peak.

DOGE Enters the ETF Era

On September 18, the first US Dogecoin ETF launched. By late November, Grayscale listed a spot DOGE ETF on NYSE Arca.

A coin born from a joke now became an asset in managed funds. This was both ultimate formalization and the biggest paradox of memecoin.

ETFs create structural demand, reducing dependence on retail sentiment or Elon Musk’s tweets. It set a precedent: if Dogecoin has an ETF, other high-liquidity memecoins might follow. The line between “serious crypto” and “rubbish meme” nearly disappears.

4 and the Meme Season on BNB Chain

In October, Four.meme on BNB Chain surpassed Pump.fun in protocol fees and new tokens created. Binance called the token “the flagship symbol of the meme season on BNB Chain.”

An internal joke by Changpeng Zhao spanning years was turned into a ticker representing an entire mini-cycle. 4 shows memecoin is no longer exclusive to Solana.

This cycle also emphasizes blockchain locality: each ecosystem has its own launchpad, KOLs, and stories. Since the peak, 4 has fallen 92.8%.

MOTHER and the Art of “Fail to Progress”

In November, Iggy Azalea joined Thrust as creative director and planned to move MOTHER onto this platform.

MOTHER isn’t a success story but a typical example of failing yet leveraging the brand. The token crashed 99% from its 2024 peak, but Azalea continued promoting it and turned controversy into a career launchpad.

Buyers of MOTHER are stuck in losses, while creators gained a new line on their CV. MOTHER proves you can rug fans and still advance.

PIPPIN, the Meme “Staged” at the End of the Cycle

At year-end, PIPPIN unexpectedly rebounded strongly, rising about 400% in 2025. On-chain data shows dozens of wallets controlling nearly half the supply.

The revival seems natural but is actually a coordinated campaign: buy low, hype the story, attract new buyers, then exit.

PIPPIN serves as a warning: if a memecoin looks too perfect, check wallet distribution. After the truth is exposed, the token only dropped 12% from the peak, indicating significant manipulation control.

What 2025 Has Proven

These ten tokens vividly depict the journey of memecoin in 2025: from politics, AI, celebrities, financial organizations to sophisticated manipulation.

Memecoin hasn’t disappeared. They generate enough volume, fees, and attention that platforms abandon them. They’ve entered ETFs, national politics, and billion-dollar valuations.

The lingering questions are whether memecoin can survive without structural exploitation, whether political and celebrity tokens can avoid becoming scams, and whether accumulated reputational damage will lead to tighter regulation waves.

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