Best 2024
2024 was the year Solana memecoins reshaped crypto speculation. pump.fun launched 5M+ tokens, WIF hit multi-billion market cap, and BRETT put Base on the memecoin map.
2024 was the defining year for modern memecoin speculation. Pump.fun, Solana's permissionless bonding-curve launchpad, launched in January 2024 and by year-end had hosted the launch of over 5 million tokens — the highest token-creation velocity in crypto history. Solana established dominance as the memecoin chain: WIF (dogwifhat) rallied from cents to multi-billion-dollar market cap, BONK reached top-50 crypto market cap, POPCAT established the cat-coin narrative, and FWOG demonstrated Solana's ability to produce sustained 100x moves. Meanwhile on Base, BRETT emerged as the L2's breakout memecoin, followed by DEGEN and TOSHI. The year ended with the TRUMP token launch in January 2025 — but the groundwork for political memecoins was laid during 2024's narrative expansion. 2024 also saw the AI Memes narrative emerge from the broader AI boom, producing GOAT and various Solana AI-character tokens.
2024 narrative rotation sequence: Early Q1 was Solana-memes-first (WIF rally); Q2 saw rotation into frog coins (PEPE resurgence) and Base memes (BRETT emergence); Q3 shifted toward AI Memes (GOAT) and political-adjacent tokens; Q4 concluded with anticipation of the TRUMP launch and late-cycle euphoria in micro-caps. Narrative rotation velocity compressed from weeks (2021 cycle) to days by Q4 2024, with retail attention cycles closer to 48 hours than multi-week.
Three lessons from 2024 memecoin cycles. First, chain-level rotation matters more than individual-token bets — capital flowed from Ethereum memes to Solana memes to Base memes over the year, and chain-level exposure outperformed token-specific picks. Second, narrative velocity accelerated materially — 2024's 48-hour attention cycles vs 2021's multi-week cycles reward faster rotation systems. Third, pump.fun's graduate-rate (~1-2%) set realistic expectations — even in the peak cycle, the vast majority of memecoin launches failed. Sharpe's memecoin rotation tooling is designed for this velocity — 30-minute refresh + narrative-level aggregation helps catch rotations that single-token tracking misses.
The defining Solana memecoin of 2024. Launched late 2023, rallied from cents to multi-billion-dollar market cap through mid-2024. CEX-listed on all major venues with active perp markets.
Carried over from 2023 launch, PEPE solidified as the second-generation blue-chip memecoin. Ethereum mainnet but CEX-liquid across every major venue.
Established the cat-coin narrative category on Solana. Multiple multi-billion-dollar market cap peaks during 2024 rotation windows.
Base's breakout memecoin — proved Coinbase's L2 could host a serious memecoin ecosystem. Coinbase-listed by mid-2024, deep perp liquidity.
Solana's OG memecoin (launched December 2022) continued to perform throughout 2024, maintaining top-50 crypto market cap position.
The breakout AI Memes launch of late 2024 — tied to the Truth Terminal AI agent experiment. Established AI Memes as a distinct memecoin narrative.
Live rankings across 17 memecoin narratives
What's hot right now across all narratives