With its exponential growth and relentless innovation, the cryptocurrency market has seen the rise of numerous altcoins that offer unique investment opportunities. Among them, meme coins have emerged as a captivating and often controversial subgroup fueled by the power of internet memes and social media frenzy. While meme coins gained immense popularity in 2021 when Shiba Inu took the crypto sphere by storm, it is important to highlight that this subgroup of altcoins also comes with an inherent level of risk that could either make or break an investment portfolio.
Shiba Inu, a now well-known meme coin, first saw the light of day in August 2020 but only soared to unprecedented heights during the bull market of 2021. In the period between January 2021 and October 2021, SHIB’s price grew over 85,784,180% to reach the token’s ATH (all-time high) valuation of $0.00008845 on October 28, 2021.
Which crypto will become the next big meme coin?
Here are 8 meme coins with a Shiba Inu-like explosive potential:
- Pepe Coin – A community-driven meme coin built upon the legacy of Pepe the Frog
- Dogwifhat – The biggest meme coin on Solana
- Wen – A meme coin with connections to the Jupiter project
- Baby Doge Coin – A meme coin incorporating auto-burn, NFTs, and more
- Dogelon Mars – An Elon Musk-inspired meme coin venturing into new frontiers
- Floki Inu – A meme token depicting a Shiba Inu dog in a Viking hat
- Bone ShibaSwap – A playful decentralized trading platform
- Tamadoge – A play-to-earn meme coin platform that is set to revolutionize the game
In the following sections, we’ll embark on a journey through the unpredictable world of meme coins, exploring the factors that make them a captivating investment in an attempt to identify those that could potentially become the next Shiba Inu.
Examining 8 meme coins that could become the next Shiba Inu coin
Let’s examine the meme-inspired cryptocurrencies that we believe have the potential to rally in the future due to a combination of lively communities and unique value propositions.
1. Pepe Coin – A community-driven meme coin built upon the legacy of Pepe the Frog
Pepe Coin (PEPE) is a deflationary meme coin launched on the Ethereum blockchain, paying homage to the Pepe the Frog internet meme created by Matt Furie. Capitalizing on the popularity of meme coins like Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, PEPE is one of the newest contenders for the title of the leading meme-based cryptocurrency. Shortly after its launch, PEPE experienced a significant surge in value, causing it to reach a market cap of $1.6 billion in late May 2023. This rapid growth attracted buyers and turned several early adopters into millionaires in the process.
PEPE differentiates itself from other meme coins through its no-tax policy, rewarding long-term stakers through a redistributive system, and implementing a burning mechanism to ensure scarcity of the PEPE coin. Founders of PEPE, on the other hand, remain anonymous. They do, however, regularly utilize social media platforms like Twitter to promote the meme coin and cultivate its devoted community. To conclude, Pepe Coin has several unique characteristics, that could make it stand out among other meme coins also in terms of price performance.
2. Dogwifhat – The biggest meme coin on Solana
Dogwifhat (WIF) is a meme coin on the Solana blockchain that has become the main representative of Solana’s meme coin scene. Dogwifhat launched in November of 2023, which almost perfectly coincided with the resurgence of the Solana ecosystem. Positioned at the right place and at the right time, WIF benefited significantly as a growing number of crypto traders started paying close attention to the Solana ecosystem.
The Dogwifhat project is not promising any utility for the WIF token, and they don’t even provide a roadmap. The entire token revolves around an image of a Shiba Inu breed dog wearing a knitted hat, which is often edited by community members to create memes.
Although the fact that WIF has no utility whatsoever means that the token could easily crash in value, it also ironically works in favor of the token. By not making any promises at all, the Dogwifhat team seems to have completely embraced the high-risk and speculative nature of the crypto markets.
Recently, Dogwifhat managed to surpass Pepe to become the third largest meme coin by market capitalization, behind only Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
3. Wen – A meme coin with connections to the Jupiter project
Wen (WEN) is a popular meme coin on Solana that was created by “meow”, a pseudonymous developer that plays a major role in the Jupiter decentralized finance project.
The project claims its mission is to “give back to the Solana community”, and this is reflected in the fact that most of the WEN token’s supply was given away to the Solana network’s users through a free airdrop.
A wide range of users was eligible for the WEN airdrop – this includes past users of the Jupiter decentralized exchange, owners of the Solana-friendly Saga smartphone, as well as users who held NFTs from selected NFT projects. In total, 700 billion WEN tokens were made available through the airdrop, of which more than 400 billion were successfully claimed. The tokens that weren’t claimed were permanently removed from circulation via a token burn.
Wen is predominantly a simple meme project, and is not focused on providing utility. However, it does have some niche utility, as each WEN token represents an ownership share in a fractional NFT created by the project’s founder “meow”.
4. Baby Doge Coin – A meme coin incorporating auto-burn, NFTs, and more
Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) is a meme-inspired cryptocurrency that fostered significant attention in the crypto community. The project was created as a joke with a mission to help spread awareness of animal adoption by members of the Dogecoin (DOGE) online community. Nevertheless, the BABYDOGE crypto launched in June 2021 and strives to impress users as well as its father (the Dogecoin project) by showcasing enhanced transaction speeds and undeniable cuteness. This hyper-deflationary cryptocurrency also incorporates a smart staking system that rewards holders, automatically adding more BABYDOGE coins to their wallets.
Furthermore, the developers of Baby Doge Coin follow a rather ambitious roadmap for the project, which included plans for NFT creation, charitable initiatives for pets, and the integration of GameFi elements. Baby Doge also boasts its own dedicated platform, BabyDogeSwap.com, featuring an array of services such as an AMM, pool as a service, farming as a service, a free token locker, burn portal, and more! Despite facing a challenging price prediction, the coin has demonstrated impressive performance, adding almost 60% to its USD valuation this year. Although past performance is no indication of future gains, we believe BABYDOGE could further appreciate.
5. Dogelon Mars – An Elon Musk-inspired meme coin venturing into new frontiers
Dogelon Mars (ELON) is the next meme coin that looks poised for future growth. Dogelon Mars was created in April 2021 following the launch concept of Shiba Inu, meaning that 50% of ELON tokens have reportedly been sent to Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum, while the other half remains locked within a Uniswap pool with the keys burned. This meme coin draws inspiration from both Dogecoin as well as the enthusiasm surrounding Elon Musk’s personality and the exploration of Mars. Thanks to the association with these themes the project has been able to build a numerous and active community, which also engages in philanthropic activities. For example, the Dogelon Mars community has donated ELON coins to victims of cryptocurrency scams to help reduce their losses on several occasions.
During the crypto bull market of 2021, ELON, the native token of Dogelon Mars, demonstrated significant progress, albeit not reaching the same magnitude of gains as DOGE and SHIB. However, ELON holders envision a future where the coin builds upon its progress to become the next prominent meme coin during the upcoming bull market.
6. Floki Inu – A meme token depicting a Shiba Inu dog in a Viking hat
Floki Inu (FLOKI) is a cryptocurrency that emerged from the Shiba Inu (SHIB) community and draws inspiration from Elon Musk’s Shiba Inu dog. It aims to be the people’s cryptocurrency and serves as the utility token for the Floki Ecosystem. The project is focused on developing four flagship utility projects, including Valhalla, an NFT gaming metaverse, FlokiFi, a suite of decentralized finance products, FlokiPlaces, an NFT and merchandise marketplace, and the University of Floki, a content and education platform. The first-mentioned Valhalla project remains one of the main highlights of Floki’s development. It is an NFT gaming metaverse where players can earn rewards, battle with creatures called Vera, and engage in activities like gardening and trading assets.
Floki is managed by a decentralized community and has a core team representing the community’s interests. The members of the Floki community, who are known as the “Floki Vikings”, take social engagement very seriously. In addition, the project has formed quite a few partnerships with prominent crypto projects like Chainlink, Trader Joe, and ApeSwap. They work towards the long-term vision of creating an autonomous and decentralized ecosystem, combining memes with utility, and exploring various use cases through NFTs, games, and decentralized finance features.
7. Bone ShibaSwap – A playful decentralized trading platform
Bone ShibaSwap (BONE) is the governance token of the ShibaSwap decentralized exchange (DEX), offering voting functionality to the Shib Army community. With BONE, users can vote on proposals, submit their suggestions, and gain access to future NFTs. The more BONE tokens held, the greater the voting power wielded by users. ShibaSwap, launched in July 2021, serves as an exchange platform for users to trade their SHIB tokens for other cryptocurrencies, and BONE which is an Ethereum-based token, acts as a crucial component in the Shiba ecosystem, which also includes the popular Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Doge Killer (LEASH) tokens.
The ShibaSwap platform offers various features, including liquidity provision (DIG), staking of SHIB, LEASH, and BONE tokens (BURY), ERC-20 token swapping, earning WOOF returns (rewards), migration of Uniswap V2 liquidity to ShibaSwap for additional BONE rewards (FETCH), and access to analytics through BONEFOLIO. With Shiba Inu ranking as the second most valuable meme coin by market capitalization, having reached a high of $40B, BONE presents an enticing opportunity within this vibrant ecosystem. In addition, ShibaSwap envisions building a metaverse platform by combining SHIB, LEASH, and BONE. This development aims to create the “best Decentralized Ecosystem (DECO) on the planet,” with BONE serving as the governance token of this revolutionary DAO called Doggy.
8. Tamadoge – A play-to-earn meme coin platform that is set to revolutionize the game
Tamadoge (TAMA) emerged in September 2022 and made a remarkable entrance into the crypto space as it combined the characteristics of a meme coin with the then-very popular metaverse concept. This play-to-earn meme coin serves as a gateway token to Tamaverse, an immersive metaverse gaming environment reminiscent of the beloved Tamagotchi toys from the 1990s. Users can engage in activities such as minting, breeding, and battling with their own virtual pets within this vibrant digital universe.
While TAMA is down around 10% this year, and the sentiment on TAMA markets is slightly bearish, these market conditions can turn bullish very fast. TAMA exhibits strong potential for future growth as the Tamaverse continues to evolve and expand. In addition, projects like Tamadoge could greatly benefit from the currently ongoing convergence of the gaming industry and blockchain technology. It is, therefore, likely that coins like Tamadoge will perform well in the future, especially when the general crypto market sentiment turns bullish again.
So, which crypto could become the next Shiba Inu?
Gone are the days when meme coins were underestimated and disregarded by crypto investors. Especially after Dogecoin’s and Shiba Inu’s remarkable performance in 2021, crypto enthusiasts often and eagerly seek the next best meme coin. In addition, meme tokens often boast strong communities and a high potential for deploying decentralized apps and projects. Perhaps also because of this, it is nowadays not a rarity that meme coins appear on lists of the best cryptocurrencies to invest in.
In this article, we presented the top 8 meme coins that we believe have a high potential to be the next coin to explode, with the reasoning behind each token’s inclusion. To conclude, we are adding a concise table of all the featured meme coins along with each token’s basic market data.
| Name | Ticker | Blockchain Platform | Launched | Market Cap* |
| Shiba Inu | SHIB | Ethereum | August 2020 | $ 16.2 billion |
| Pepe Coin | PEPE | Ethereum | April 2023 | $ 2.95 billion |
| Dogwifhat | WIF | Solana | November 2023 | $3.89 billion |
| Wen | WEN | Solana | January 2024 | $235 million |
| Baby Doge Coin | BABYDOGE | BNB | June 2021 | $ 310 million |
| Dogelon Mars | ELON | Ethereum | April 2021 | $ 99 million |
| Floki Inu | FLOKI | BNB | July 2021 | $ 1.97 billion |
| Bone ShibaSwap | BONE | Ethereum | July 2021 | $ 171 million |
| Tamadoge | TAMA | Ethereum | September 2022 | $ 9.7 million |
*Market capitalization data as of April 4, 2024.
However, if you are a slightly more conservative investor, you might find some less memeable digital asset investment ideas in our top altcoin picks for 2023 and the best long-term cryptos articles. In any case, it is crucial for you to conduct your own due diligence before making any investment decisions.
If you want to leverage freely available cryptocurrency investment tools to find the next promising meme coin before it peaks in value, check our video below which showcases how you can find the next Pepe Coin or Shiba Inu yourself.
