Meme coins are cryptocurrencies inspired by memes or jokes on the Internet and social media. The first meme coin was Dogecoin (DOGE). Launched in 2013 as a parody, DOGE was inspired by the popular Doge meme of a Japanese Shiba Inu named Kabosu.
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 crash unexpectedly when traders turn their attention to the next meme coin.
Another typical characteristic of meme coins is their huge or unlimited supply. For example, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has a total supply of 1 quadrillion tokens, while DOGE has no maximum supply. As meme tokens generally do not have a coin-burning mechanism, the huge supply explains their relatively low prices
