title: Memecoins Have Gone From Being a Joke to a Major Cultural Phenomenon

Memecoins have gone from being a joke to a major cultural phenomenon that has managed to influence politics, economics and even public sentiment.

Let’s figure out how memecoins have transformed from an ironic speculative asset to politics, presidents and billion-dollar scams.

A joke that went too far

The first is considered to be DOGE. It was created by Billy Marcus and Jackson Palmer in 2013.

At that time, the topic of crypto was too serious, so they decided to create a humorous response to Bitcoin and the arrogant market – a coin with a funny dog.

Who knew that it would instantly start gaining popularity? It was first used as a tipping currency on Reddit, and in just two weeks, it had more daily transactions than Bitcoin.

The success of DOGE was inspiring, and within a month, this trend was picked up by YeCoin, a reference to Kanye West, MaxCoin, a reference to Max Kaiser and more.

This entire category of coins began to form based on references to someone or something famous.

Ethereum and the ICO boom revitalized the market, but memecoins remained in the shadow of more serious projects.

UnderDOGE – The original memecoin branch

Currently, DOGE is considered a hype coin, but it has a responsive community at heart. The coin was positioned as a challenge, a contrast, an underdog or perhaps ‘underDOGE.’

And this community often supported charitable initiatives and other underdogs.

You may not have heard about it, but they raised money to send a team from Jamaica to the Olympics, to train dogs for children with disabilities, to build wells in Kenya and to finance the participation of an outsider driver, Josh Wise, in Nascar.

It created a feeling of kindness and unity and allowed even outsiders to stand a chance.

This is also a part of the project’s manifesto – to do good every day, put benefit above technical perfection and people above competition and profits.

In 2021, DOGE became mainstream. Thanks to Musk’s activity, the token was picked up by the masses.

For example, Mark Cuban – owner of the NBA team Dallas Mavericks –