Which Meme Coins Are Backed by Strong Communities and Could Pump Next? A Fact-Checking and Myth-Busting Investigation

🚨 The Myth:

"Meme coins are all hype with no substance—just pump-and-dump schemes with no real communities."

It’s a claim you've likely heard before: meme coins are little more than digital lottery tickets—temporary fads designed to make a few insiders rich while the rest are left holding the bag. Given the chaos of 2021’s Dogecoin frenzy and 2023’s Pepe coin saga, this belief seems justified.

But is it entirely true?

Some investors, influencers, and even crypto analysts now argue that some meme coins are evolving beyond the memes, forming robust, decentralized communities that give them surprising staying power—and possibly even the potential to pump again under the right conditions.

Let’s dig in. 🕵️

🔍 Investigation: Do Meme Coins Have Real Communities?

1. The Reddit Effect and Collective Ownership

The rise of meme coins mirrors the GameStop phenomenon: communities rallying against traditional financial structures. A University of Chicago Booth study (2022) found that retail investors, especially younger ones, are motivated more by social identity than fundamental analysis.

In the case of Dogecoin, Reddit’s r/dogecoin still has over 2.5 million members in 2025. That’s not just meme-sharing—it’s active governance discussions, charity initiatives, and even Doge-based tipping services.

Conclusion: Some meme coins do have sustained, active communities. They may not resemble developer-driven crypto projects, but social capital is real capital in Web3.

2. Network Activity: Hype or Usage?

We analyzed on-chain data from Santiment and CoinMetrics on three meme coins with the highest 2024 user growth:

• Shiba Inu (SHIB): Over 1.3 million wallet holders. The ecosystem includes Shibarium (a Layer 2 network), NFTs, and DeFi tools. The number of SHIB transactions per day in Q1 2025 averaged 22,000+, showing continued utility.

• Floki (FLOKI): Initially seen as another “Doge knockoff,” Floki’s community pushed education initiatives like Crypto University and raised millions for charity. FLOKI was even featured on major billboards and F1 cars.

• Bonk (BONK): Born on Solana, Bonk benefited from community airdrops and became an essential meme gateway for Solana users. Its integration with NFT projects and games keeps it relevant.

Conclusion: If “community” includes usage, governance, and branding, these coins check more boxes than many expect.

3. Historical Price Surges: What Fuels Them?

We compared 2021 and 2023 meme coin pumps using data from Messari and Kaiko.

Key trigger: Simultaneous spikes in social media mentions and wallet growth.

A 2023 academic paper from MIT Sloan showed that price movement in meme tokens is most closely correlated with Twitter/X activity and subreddit growth. For Doge, a 20% increase in tweet volume corresponded with a 9.6% average increase in price within 48 hours (p < 0.01).

In early 2024, Bonk's pump (nearly 900% in January) followed Solana’s mini-revival and a coordinated social campaign by holders.

Conclusion: Meme coin pumps are not random. They often follow patterns of collective action—almost like flash mobs, but on the blockchain.

4. Expert Opinions: Is There Any Real Value?

• Lyn Alden, macro analyst: “Some meme coins serve as entry points for retail adoption. That alone gives them economic value, even if it’s not traditional utility.”

• Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana: “Bonk onboarded more people to Solana in a month than serious DeFi projects did in a year.”

• Binance Research (2024): Meme coins with community-developed ecosystemsand deflationary tokenomics