
What Are Meme Coins and Tokens?
Inspired by Internet memes and current events, and promoted by influencers, meme coins and tokens have shot to prominence.

Inspired by Internet memes and current events, and promoted by influencers, meme coins and tokens have shot to prominence.

Dogecoin is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency based on a popular Internet meme. The token started off as a joke, but it's become a serious proposition.
Markets
Bitcoin's latest push higher is dragging the rest of the crypto market along with it, and few coins are feeling the love more than Dogecoin. The original meme coin punched through the psychological $0.10 level this week, hitting its highest price since June and riding a mix of platform news, sector-wide meme coin enthusiasm, and no shortage of leveraged bets. Myriad: Where does XRP go next? Click to make your prediction. The broader market mood has turned risk-on, with traders rotating profits o...
Business
Crypto asset manager Bitwise is winding down its Dogecoin exchange-traded fund less than a year after launch, ending a product that held about $722,000 in assets this month. Bitwise made the announcement on Thursday, telling investors that it would liquidate BWOW, with October 14 expected to be its final trading day on NYSE Arca. Myriad: XRP's next price move? Click to make your prediction. “On Thursday, October 22, 2026, the remaining shareholders will receive the net asset value of their share...
Law and Order
A Hollywood director who took $11 million from Netflix to finish a TV show, then gambled it on crypto, is heading to prison. Carl Erik Rinsch, who directed Keanu Reeves in the 2013 film "47 Ronin," was sentenced on Monday to 30 months for defrauding Netflix, capping a saga of failed trades and lavish spending. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff also ordered three years of supervised release and $11 million in restitution. Director sentenced for production fraud: “Carl Erik Rinsch promised to make a...
Business
Crypto is pushing SpaceX’s IPO far beyond traditional brokerage accounts. With Wall Street’s books heavily oversubscribed ahead of Friday’s historic liftoff, the industry is enabling investors to speculate on the firm’s $1.75 trillion debut in a variety of ways. Those options include wagers on prediction markets, bets made via perpetual futures, and the purchase of synthetic assets designed to mirror the performance of Elon Musk’s rocket-maker. To be sure, most products offered by various firms...
Business
Trading card company Cardsmiths has unveiled its latest collection with a patriotic twist: Currency Series 6, developed in collaboration with America250, the congressionally-established organization overseeing the country's 250th anniversary celebrations. The collection, timed to coincide with the semiquincentennial of the Declaration of Independence, features 90 base cards and more than 120 unique designs in total. The cards spotlight historical figures, currencies, markets, and cultural force...
Business
Kalshi moved swiftly to lock down an emerging market for perpetual futures in the U.S. on Monday, filing to certify a menu of offerings tied to crypto’s leading altcoins. Following the CFTC’s approval of Bitcoin perpetual futures on Friday, the prediction market has begun eyeing derivatives tied to Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Stellar, Chainlink, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Sui, Shiba Inu, Polkadot, and Hedera, according to a filing. The robust slate of products tied to digital assets highlight...
Markets
Nasdaq-listed Shuttle Pharmaceutical Holdings agreed to acquire United Dogecoin Inc. in a merger backed by $11 million in concurrent PIPE financing, creating a publicly traded miner for the leading meme coin. And the coin continued to rise Friday, outpacing the weekly gains of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies. The transaction will enable United Dogecoin to secure 3,000 ElphaPex mining rigs, according to an announcement. These rigs are expected to deliver a combined hash rate of 43,200 G...
Coins
MoonPay, the Dogecoin Foundation, and its corporate arm House of Doge collectively donated 1 million DOGE—roughly $95,000 worth—to the AKC Humane Fund on Monday, enabling ongoing crypto donations to the dog welfare charity through MoonPay's payment infrastructure. The contribution will fund shelter assistance for pet owners affected by domestic violence, stray dog rescues, and veterinary support for families facing financial hardship across the United States. (Disclosure: MoonPay Ventures is an...
Coins
Dogecoin Cash Inc. announced Thursday it is developing Dogecoin Gold, a planned token that would link digital assets to physical gold reserves while borrowing the name of the most valuable and longest-running meme coin on the market. The framework proposes tokens representing precisely defined units of gold held by an independent, institutional-grade precious metals custodian. Under the proposed system, tokens would be created only when gold enters custody and removed from circulation upon verif...
Business
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) raised fresh concerns Tuesday about the planned April launch of X Money in a letter to its owner Elon Musk. In the letter to the billionaire entrepreneur, Warren flagged potential risks to consumers and financial stability, stating that, “If your track record operating X is any indication of how you’ll operate X Money, consumers, our national security, and the stability of the financial system may be at risk.” Warren noted that since acquiring Twitter and rebrand...
Markets
Canary Capital thrust Pepe into the limelight on Wednesday with an application for an exchange-traded fund that tracks the meme coin’s price, but the token’s muted reaction may serve as the latest sign of Wall Street’s tepid appetite for assets that trade on vibes. On Thursday, Pepe changed hands around $0.00000359, up about 0.6% over the last day, according to CoinGecko. The day before, trading volume rose 10% to $432 million. Not long ago, meme coins served as key growth drivers for firms lik...
Law and Order
Bitrefill, a platform that lets users exchange cryptocurrency for gift cards and phone service credit, disclosed Tuesday that it was targeted in a March 1 cyberattack. According to the firm, it began with a compromised employee laptop, then expanded into broader infrastructure after attackers exfiltrated a legacy credential tied to a snapshot containing production secrets. In an incident report posted to X, the company said the attackers moved from initial access into parts of its database and...
Opinion
Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. And check out our new daily news show covering all of the top stories in 5 minutes or less, downloadable on Apple Pod or Spotify. GM! Today’s top news: Crypto majors fall ahead of CPI this morning; BTC at $70.6k Saylor’s STRC sets another smashing record, enough to buy 2,038 BTC Polymarket taps Palantir to police sports markets Hyperliqui...
Business
Elon Musk’s long-awaited financial “everything app,” X Money, is entering early public access in April, according to the billionaire entrepreneur. The payments app, which has recently been teased on social media from early beta testers, allows users to set up direct deposits, earn yield, and make payments directly in the app, rivaling the capabilities of other financial platforms like Venmo or Cash App. “X Money early public access will launch next month,” Musk posted to X on Tuesday morning....
Markets
A day after leading the crypto market’s top tokens in gains, leading meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE) is atop the pack of losers on Thursday as Bitcoin slides to nearly $71,000 after nearly touching $74,000 on Wednesday for the first time in four weeks. DOGE has now fallen about 8% in the last 24 hours, turning the token red for the week as it recently changed hands around $0.094. No other coin has fallen harder among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap in the last day, according to CoinGecko. T...
Markets
Leading meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE) is up nearly 15% in the last 24 hours as Bitcoin’s jump to almost $74,000 has led to a strong rebound in crypto prices. Dogecoin is currently the largest gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap over the last day, per CoinGecko. By comparison, Bitcoin is up about 7.7% in the last 24 hours at $73,961, with Ethereum showing a 10% leap to $2,183. The surge has helped recover DOGE losses from the last month, which now sit at just 6% as the token trad...
Business
Elon Musk’s X is eyeing crypto users with its introduction of “Smart Cashtags,” but the company isn’t getting its hands dirty with digital assets yet, according to Head of Product Nikita Bier. The feature, which was teased last month, will allow users to better specify which digital assets they post about, but it won’t facilitate users' crypto trades, Bier clarified on Saturday. Since Musk’s acquisition of the platform in 2022, speculation has abounded that the Dogecoin fan could fold crypto int...
Markets
Some of crypto's largest altcoins, like the Ripple-linked XRP and leading meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE), are trading at their lowest marks since 2024 on Thursday as Bitcoin extends its slide. The top crypto asset has fallen below $84,000 amid a broader market reset, following a rapid run-up in precious metals prices and a new all-time high for gold above $5,600 per ounce. Bitcoin fell to a two-month low price Thursday, but some altcoins are hitting prices not seen in more than a year. DOGE is now do...
Markets
The Dogecoin Foundation has officially gone Wall Street. A spot Dogecoin ETF backed by the organization began trading in traditional financial markets this morning, launching on the Nasdaq under the ticker TDOG. The product will allow retail and institutional investors to gain exposure to the world’s first meme coin—without relying on self-hosted wallets or crypto exchanges. The Dogecoin Foundation is a nonprofit that has overseen Dogecoin’s decentralized development and supported the token’s co...
Coins
A draft version of a key U.S. Senate bill could grant major cryptocurrencies like XRP, Solana, and Dogecoin significant regulatory relief by placing them in the same category as Bitcoin and Ethereum, according to text circulating ahead of the official release. The draft of the Senate Banking Committee's "Clarity Act," released by Chairman Tim Scott of the Senate Banking Committee today, includes a provision that would classify certain tokens as "non-ancillary" assets, effectively exempting them...