Memecoin Meltdown: 10 Tokens That Defined 2025's Craziest Trades

2025 was a year of extremes in the cryptocurrency world, particularly within the memecoin sector. It began with a former president launching his own token days before inauguration and ended with revelations of manipulation behind one of the year’s biggest “comeback” stories. Between these events, memecoins exploded from a niche corner of crypto into its most visible – and often most embarrassing – segment. From sovereign scandals to AI-driven hype, celebrity fiascos to institutional involvement, and ultimately, late-cycle manipulation, these ten tokens encapsulate everything that was broken about the memecoin trade. This article dives deep into the narratives, the numbers, and the lessons learned from a year that redefined the risks and rewards of memecoin investing.

PolitiFi Rekindled: TRUMP and MELANIA

The year kicked off with a bold move into the world of “PolitiFi” – the intersection of politics and cryptocurrency. On January 17th, just three days before President Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the TRUMP token launched on the Solana blockchain. A total of one billion coins were created, with Trump-linked companies retaining a substantial 800 million. Two days later, MELANIA followed suit, rapidly reaching a $2 billion market cap within hours. This marked the creation of a template for “official” political memecoins, sparking intense ethical debates about the monetization of a presidential position through crypto.

However, the initial hype quickly faded. The TRUMP token plummeted over 90% from its January 2025 peak of around $75 to below $5. MELANIA fared even worse, crashing over 99% from its launch peak of around $14 to a mere $0.10 by late 2025. Despite the dramatic price declines, TRUMP and MELANIA were significant because they formalized political memecoins as a product category, demonstrating that attention could be directly translated into token launches and market capitalization, regardless of utility or inherent value.

LIBRA: A Sovereign Scandal

February 14th saw a dramatic turn of events with Argentina's President Javier Milei publicly endorsing the LIBRA token, even posting the contract address and urging citizens to buy. The token experienced a meteoric rise, jumping from $0.000001 to roughly $5.20 in just 40 minutes, hitting a $4.6 billion market cap. However, the rally was short-lived. Within hours, insiders dumped 70% of the supply, causing the token to crash 85%. The incident, quickly dubbed “Cryptogate” by the press, led to criminal complaints and calls for impeachment.

LIBRA proved that PolitiFi could go catastrophically wrong at the state level. Milei’s direct endorsement created the appearance of official backing, while insiders positioned themselves to profit from the ensuing frenzy. The crash destroyed wealth and provided ammunition for Milei’s political opponents. It also significantly dampened memecoin risk appetite for months, prompting regulators to cite LIBRA as evidence of the consumer harm caused by celebrity and political endorsements.

FARTCOIN and the AI Meme Revival

In April, FARTCOIN emerged as a Solana memecoin born from the Truth Terminal AI chatbot, fueled by a combination of fart jokes and internet culture. By June, exchanges were calling it “the memecoin that took the crypto world by storm.” FARTCOIN became a symbol of the AI-linked memecoin comeback following the LIBRA fallout. The token offered no utility beyond the novelty of being generated by an AI bot making fart jokes – and that proved to be enough.

The success of FARTCOIN demonstrated that an AI narrative could reignite memecoin mania. The chatbot’s autonomy provided speculators with a novel story, and the juvenile content didn’t hinder the trade, as memecoins thrive on attention arbitrage. Following FARTCOIN, numerous AI-linked projects emphasized their chatbot integration, though most collapsed within weeks. FARTCOIN’s longevity likely stemmed from being the first and its inherent absurdity.

PUMP: The Casino Chip

By early June, Pump.fun was preparing a PUMP token sale potentially raising around $1 billion. On July 12th, the platform launched PUMP via ICO, positioning it as the native token of Solana's largest meme launchpad. Throughout the second half of the year, PUMP traded as a meta-meme – a bet on the “casino” itself, rather than any individual token, even as some described Pump.fun as a Ponzi-like spectacle of livestreamed pump-and-dumps.

PUMP mattered because it financialized the infrastructure of memecoin creation. Owning PUMP wasn't a bet on a specific token, but on the platform’s ability to continuously launch tokens, attract volume, and generate fees. The ICO raised significant capital while the platform faced legal pressure, including a class-action lawsuit accusing Pump.fun of enabling systematic fraud. The irony was stark: Pump.fun democratized token launches to an absurd degree, allowing anyone to create a coin in minutes with no vetting, while its own ICO was gated and required accredited buyers.

YZY: Celebrity Token Fiasco

On August 21st, Kanye West launched YZY on Solana with branding proclaiming “A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN.” The token’s market cap spiked above $2 billion before crashing more than 60% within hours. Blockchain analytics flagged suspicious trading patterns and likely insider activity. YZY became the defining celebrity token fiasco of 2025: a big name, an ambitious pitch, and a launch that heavily favored insiders at the expense of retail investors.

YZY combined maximum celebrity wattage with maximum extraction. The “new economy” pitch hinted at something larger, perhaps a token tied to Yeezy products or music rights. Instead, the launch delivered a standard Solana token with no utility, no lock-ups, and no mechanisms to prevent coordinated dumping. Early wallets, likely connected to the launch team, sold into retail demand within hours, leaving buyers with significant losses. The collapse hardened sentiment against celebrity tokens, leading exchanges to more aggressively delist them.

DOGE Crosses into ETF Land

September 18th marked a significant milestone with the launch of REX-Osprey's DOJE, the first US ETF dedicated to Dogecoin. By late November, Grayscale’s GDOG spot Dogecoin ETF was listed on NYSE Arca. DOGE represented the ETF push, with the original joke coin now available through regulated funds, formally joining the ETF era. This legitimized the memecoin category in a way that undermined its original premise.

Dogecoin started as a parody, utilizing a popular meme. The ETFs provided institutional investors and retirement accounts with access to the token through familiar and regulated wrappers. This was either ultimate validation – signifying that memecoins are now legitimate assets – or ultimate absurdity, representing the financialization of a joke token. The ETFs also created a valuation floor, providing structural bid from funds holding the underlying asset.

4 and the BNB Chain Meme Season

In early October, BNB Chain-based launchpad Four.meme briefly surpassed Solana's Pump.fun in daily protocol fees and token creation. Days later, Binance highlighted the token 4 as “the main symbol of the meme season on BNB Chain,” noting whale accumulation as its market cap approached $200 million. Binance founder Changpeng Zhao’s long-running “4” in-joke crystallized into a ticker capturing an entire mini-cycle on a non-Solana chain.

4 proved the meme trade wasn't exclusive to Solana. Throughout 2025, Solana had dominated memecoin volume. Four.meme and the 4 token demonstrated that BNB Chain could host its own ecosystem with comparable velocity. Turning an inside joke from crypto’s most influential entrepreneur into a tradable token was a peak moment for memecoins in 2025. This also highlighted how chain-specific these cycles had become, with each ecosystem developing its own launchpads, influencers, and narratives.

MOTHER: Failing Forward

On November 5th, reports confirmed Iggy Azalea had joined Thrust, a new Solana-based celebrity token launchpad, as creative director, with plans to migrate her MOTHER memecoin to the platform. Thrust marketed itself as an effort to make celebrity tokens less predatory by introducing clearer legal terms and smart contract controls. MOTHER wasn’t a success story, but a masterclass in failing forward. Launched in 2024, it followed the typical boom-and-bust pattern, leaving many late buyers with losses.

What sets MOTHER apart is how Azalea leveraged the controversial token into a branding asset. She continued promoting the token even as holders lost money, then parlayed that notoriety into a creative director role at Thrust, positioning herself as the “professional face” of celebrity coins. MOTHER proved that you can rug your fans and turn it into a resume line.

PIPPIN: The Last Big “Rigged” Meme

In early December, research revealed that PIPPIN had experienced a significant revival after a 2024 crash, fueled by fresh inflows and aggressive social campaigns. By mid-December, analyses showed PIPPIN up roughly 400% for 2025, while on-chain data suggested a few dozen wallets controlled close to half the supply, implying coordinated market manipulation. PIPPIN arrived at year-end as the archetypal late-cycle, heavily gamed memecoin.

The 2025 revival appeared organic, with spiking social engagement, new wallets, and surging trading volume. However, on-chain forensics revealed the truth: a small group coordinated the comeback, accumulated supply at depressed prices, and marketed the token to lure new buyers. By the time the manipulation became public, the coordinating wallets had already begun to exit. PIPPIN became a cautionary tale: if it looks too good in memecoins, check the wallet distribution.

What the Ten Tokens Proved

These ten tokens traced the evolution of memecoins from political controversy through AI mania, celebrity fiascos, institutional crossover, and late-cycle manipulation. TRUMP and MELANIA showed political figures could monetize brands directly through tokens with no legal consequences. LIBRA demonstrated that sovereign endorsement could turn a memecoin into a national scandal. FARTCOIN showed that an AI narrative could revive speculation, and PUMP financialized the infrastructure of memecoin creation. YZY showed celebrity tokens could destroy wealth at scale, while DOGE showed even joke tokens could gain institutional acceptance. 4 proved memecoins weren't Solana-exclusive, MOTHER showed attempts to create less predatory tokens, and PIPPIN revealed the prevalence of coordinated manipulation.

2025 settled the fact that memecoins aren't going away. They generate too much volume, fees, and attention for platforms to abandon them. They’ve crossed into regulated products, state-level politics, and multi-billion-dollar market caps. What remains unresolved is whether memecoins can exist without structural extraction, whether celebrity and political tokens can avoid becoming scams, and whether the sector’s reputational damage will trigger a regulatory crackdown.