Investing in Meme Coins: A Comedy of Errors and Tokens

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Well, well, well! The meme coin circus is expanding faster than a cat on a hot tin roof, with new launch platforms like Raydium’s LaunchLab and Bonk’s LetsBonk trying to outshine the old-timer Pump.fun. As the number of launchpads multiplies like rabbits in spring, so does the avalanche of meme coins flooding the market.

In a world already brimming with projects, drawing the line between gold and fool’s gold is becoming as tricky as finding a needle in a haystack. The surge in meme coin projects also raises the specter of scams lurking in the shadows. Representatives from CoinGecko, Space ID, and Neiro have warned that this wild west of meme coins is fraught with risks like pump-and-dump schemes and rug pulls, which are as common as a cold in winter.

The Rise of New Meme Coin Launchpads

If one meme coin launchpad didn’t seem enough, now there’s a whole smorgasbord to choose from! Pump.fun was the pioneer, shaking things up by making token launches as easy as pie.

But hold your horses! Competition is heating up. Raydium has rolled out LaunchLab, and Bonk’s LetsBonk is already giving Pump.fun a run for its money. Meanwhile, Believe and CMC Launch are also making waves. It seems our dear Pump.fun is losing its grip on the industry like a slippery fish.

More alarming than Pump.fun’s dwindling performance is the relentless tide of meme coin launches. This trend has significant implications for an already unregulated industry, costing most retail investors more than a pretty penny.

Does Accessibility Equate to Sustainability?

When Pump.fun first hit the scene, it introduced a concept as novel as a cat in a dog show. The idea was simple: if you fancied launching your own meme coin, you could do so for practically nothing and in the blink of an eye.

“The accessibility of meme coin launchpads drives both innovation and speculation, with each reinforcing the other. Speculation fuels market activity, drawing capital and participants who create a competitive environment. This pressure compels creators to innovate, developing compelling narratives, community-driven models, or unique token structures that resonate culturally or socially,” S, Neiro’s pseudonymous Community Lead, told BeInCrypto.

But when a sea of meme coins turns into a tsunami, finding projects with actual utility becomes a Herculean task.

“While it is generally accepted that meme coins don’t need any sort of utility as they are seen as projects that people can identify with or ‘vibe’ with, the sheer number of them being launched does draw liquidity away from projects with products or use cases,” Shaun Lee, Research Analyst at CoinGecko, said.

This has already begun to affect meme coins that have relied on their strong community backing to weather past market storms.

“Unfortunately, the flood of thousands of new meme coins into the market has affected established meme coins such as DOGE and SHIB. These coins have faced brand dilution and, with liquidity spread thin, have been unable to break their all-time highs from the 2021 bull cycle,” Lee added.

To make matters worse, this added layer of speculation in an already volatile industry significantly increases the risk of scams. It’s like adding fuel to a fire!

The Alarming Scale of Fraud and Project Failures

A recent Solidus Labs report revealed a staggering scale of fraudulent activities on Solana. According to the findings, approximately 98.7% of tokens on Pump.fun and 93% of liquidity pools on Raydium have exhibited characteristics of pump-and-dump schemes or rug pulls.

Knowing this, many token launches are done exclusively to take advantage of the market’s casino-like nature. It’s like a game of poker where the house always wins!

“It’s certainly very concerning. Meme coin launchpads capitalize on human greed and FOMO, which makes them the perfect place to launch pump-and-dump schemes, even if that’s not their original intention,” Alice Shikova, Marketing Lead at Space ID, told BeInCrypto.

Since thousands of coins are launched daily, many of which become scams, most of these projects typically end up defunct. The data on this phenomenon are staggering.

A recent CoinGecko report indicates that of approximately 7 million cryptocurrencies listed on GeckoTerminal since 2021, 3.7 million –or 53%– have become inactive. The majority of these collapses occurred in 2024 and 2025. Notably, over 1.82 million tokens stopped trading in 2025 alone, significantly exceeding the approximately 1.38 million failures recorded throughout 2024.

“The meme coin sector has historically prioritized quantity over quality, reflecting modern market dynamics where attention is transient. Many coins capitalize on short-lived trends, sacrificing depth for immediacy. Launchpads amplify this tendency by streamlining token creation, resulting in many projects, most of which lack staying power,” S explained.

With no federal regulation in sight, only two options remain. The launchpads either take action, or traders decide to get smart about their investment decisions.

The Regulatory Void: Who is Responsible?

Currently, no comprehensive, specific regulatory framework exists for the meme coin industry, which creates an environment where pump-and-dump schemes and rug pulls remain prevalent.

In February, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a statement indicating that typical meme coin transactions are not considered securities. This classification means that investors in these specific assets are generally not afforded the protections of federal securities laws.

According to Shikova, launchpads must take on the responsibility in light of these nonexistent regulations.

“Right now, it’s not even clear which agency is responsible for memecoins, let alone what the rules should be. And realistically, it will take a long time for government agencies to catch up and understand this space properly. So launchpads need to self-regulate if they want memecoins to become a legitimate investment sector. Otherwise, regulators will come in and outright ban them,” she warned.

Fortunately, existing methods can help mitigate the growing risk of scams.

The Path Forward: Audits, Lock-ups, and Due Diligence

In a sector that prioritizes quantity over quality, launchpads have the opportunity to implement safeguards that prevent projects from immediate collapse.

“The only way to solve this is through transparent audits and also enforcing lock-ups for anyone launching a new token, so they can’t just close the project and take off with the money as soon as it pumps. And it’s the launchpads that are responsible for putting these rules in place – otherwise, the regulators will do it, and then the rules will certainly be much stricter,” Shikova told BeInCrypto.

However, this isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Even with established regulations and protections, traders still bear the ultimate responsibility for vetting projects before investing.

“They can check out the team’s background (beyond whatever they say on LinkedIn), the project’s tokenomics and roadmap (if it even has these), and also, importantly, its community. You can typically tell if the community is just there for the short-term hype or genuinely believes in the project, and this often determines its longevity, especially when it comes to speculative assets like memecoins,” Shikova added.

While democratizing access and fueling innovation, the proliferation of meme coin launchpads has undeniably intensified the challenges within this highly speculative market.

As these platforms continue to take off, the onus remains on both the launchpads to implement stricter safeguards and on individual investors to exercise rigorous due diligence to navigate the escalating risks.

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2025-05-23 13:22