Meme coins remain the wildest corner of crypto, and the board looks nothing like it did when we first published this list during the 2024 supercycle. Old dogs came back to life, cats took over Solana, and memes now pay dividends in tokenized stocks. We keep this shill list updated every few weeks, refreshing it whenever new memes start trending. The old guard pumped hard in recent weeks, pump.fun started paying holders again, and retail is sniffing around the trenches. Time for a fresh look at the best meme coins to buy right now.
Study this guide on how to trade meme coins before you ape into anything below.
Let’s get started with the top dog of the bunch.
The Best Meme Coins Right Now
1. Dogecoin (DOGE)
The king never left. Dogecoin (DOGE) is still the largest meme coin by market capitalization and the one your uncle has actually heard of. Elon Musk shills, real-world payment integrations, and a decade of survival give DOGE something no other meme has: a track record through four market cycles.
DOGE led the recent dino coin revival, dragging the entire animal kingdom up with it. Even after that move, it trades almost 9x below its 2021 all-time high. The wiggle room from our 2024 write-up only grew. When retail comes back in force, DOGE is historically the first door they walk through.
2. Dogwifhat (WIF)
Dogwifhat (WIF) wrote itself into Solana history as the first meme of that cycle to break $1, topping out at $4.85 in March 2024. The retrace since has been deep and painful, which is exactly the meme coin lifecycle working as intended.
Why keep it on the list? The hat stays on. WIF retains one of the most committed communities on Solana, deep liquidity, and listings on every major exchange. It remains a proven vehicle for Solana meme beta, and beaten-down former leaders tend to move violently when their chain heats up again.
3. Pepe (PEPE)
Pepe (PEPE) still refuses to pretend. No roadmap, no utility, no promises, just the most recognizable frog on the internet. That honesty carried it from joke launch to top-tier meme, and the race with SHIB for Ethereum’s meme crown stays tight.
PEPE joined the old-guard pump alongside DOGE and BONK, proving the big frogs get bid whenever meme sentiment returns. For pure meme exposure on Ethereum with serious liquidity, PEPE remains the pick.
4. Catecoin (CATE)
The newest name on this list earned its spot in one weekend. CATE launched on pump.fun in July 2026 after Kabosu’s owner posted a viral kitten video, did a 230x on day one, crashed, and then doubled to a $74 million market cap after Gate listed spot and perps. We wrote a full CATE breakdown, including the contract address and my own botched trade around it.
CATE currently leads the cat meta on Solana. Viral origin, clean fair-launch tokenomics, and fresh CEX listings make it the highest-momentum play here. It’s also the youngest and riskiest entry, so size accordingly.
5. Pudgy Penguins (PENGU)
PENGU flips the usual meme formula. Instead of a joke racing to build legitimacy, it started with legitimacy: Pudgy Penguins toys sit on real retail shelves, and the brand commands mainstream recognition few crypto projects match. The token even has a US ETF filing to its name.
That brand backing showed up in price too, with PENGU running alongside the majors in the recent meme upswing. For anyone who wants meme upside with an actual consumer brand attached, PENGU is the closest thing this market offers.
6. Shiba Inu (SHIB)
Shiba Inu (SHIB) remains the ecosystem play of the meme world. Staking, NFTs, its own DEX, and the Shibarium chain give holders more to do than post memes, and the SHIB army is still one of the largest communities in crypto.
The flip side: that giant 2021-era holder base means heavy overhead supply. SHIB moves slower than the newer names, but it has survived everything the market threw at it. A steady, liquid meme with actual infrastructure underneath.
7. SPX6900 (SPX)
“6900 is bigger than 500.” What started as a $150k joke we flagged in the original version of this list grew into one of the great meme runs of the cycle, peaking above a billion-dollar valuation in 2025. The thesis never changed: flip the S&P 500, laugh while doing it.
SPX built one of the most cult-like holder bases in crypto, famous for refusing to sell through brutal drawdowns. It sits well below its highs now, which cultists read as accumulation and skeptics read as a warning. Either way, it earned its place as the meme that mocked traditional finance and got paid for it.
8. Fartcoin (FARTCOIN)
Yes, it’s still here, and yes, that’s the point. Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) was born from an AI experiment and became the purest absurdity trade in crypto, at one point commanding a unicorn valuation for a joke about flatulence.
FARTCOIN participated in the recent old-meme pump and keeps proving that in this market, attention is the only fundamental. It trades far below its early highs, holds strong liquidity on Solana, and remains the coin that makes normies question everything. Sometimes that’s exactly the trade.
Other Notable Meme Coins
A few that didn’t make the cut, but belong on your radar:
- $BONK, Solana’s OG dog and the coin that made Bonkguy famous
- $ZCAT, the privacy-flavored cat we broke down here
- $CASHCAT, $PONS, and $STONK from the Robinhood Chain trenches
- $MARSCOIN, the meme that airdrops tokenized SpaceX stock
- $POPCAT, $MOG, $BRETT, $FLOKI, and $USELESS
We’re building out full per-chain lists as part of our meme coin cluster, so expect dedicated Solana, Ethereum, and Base editions soon.
Full Disclosure: My Meme Bag
I trade my own money in this market, so here’s where I actually stand. My current meme bag holds $MARSCOIN, $BOOMER, a speculative Baton punt from the Pump fun Holder Rewards launch, and a stack of tokenized SpaceX collected from holder airdrops. I recently rotated out of CATE at the worst possible moment, which I confess to in full in the CATE post linked above. Positions change fast, and I post my bigger moves on X.
Risks of Investing in Meme Coins
Meme coins can print life-changing gains, and they can erase your stack in an afternoon. Sentiment drives everything, so the swings are brutal in both directions.
Scams and rugs: Insider launches still drain wallets daily. I bought the LIBRA narrative in 2025 and lost a significant amount within hours. Political memes have the worst track record of all, as our worst political memecoins list shows in painful detail.
Market manipulation: Pump-and-dump groups thrive in an unregulated market. If a coin only pumps when one account tweets, that account is your exit liquidity risk.
Poor liquidity: Low caps mean slippage. Getting out of a $5M coin during a crash costs far more than the chart suggests.
Total loss: Every coin on this page can go to zero. The younger the coin and the smaller the cap, the higher the odds.
The rule of thumb never changes: size every meme position like it can vanish, because it can. Learning breakout patterns helps with timing entries, but no chart pattern saves you from a rug.
Where to Trade Meme Coins
For fresh Solana launches and the pump.fun trenches, I use the fomo app daily, and code FairSaltySquid takes 10% off your fees. For the bigger names on this list, MEXC carries one of the widest meme selections of any exchange, with a sign-up bonus on top.
Keep This Content Free
This list has stayed free since the 2024 supercycle days, with no project paying for a spot on it. If it ever put a winner on your radar, the cheapest way to say thanks is signing up through our OKX or Bybit links and grabbing their deposit bonuses.
Final Words
The meme market matured in the strangest way possible. The old guard of DOGE, PEPE, and SHIB still anchors the space, while new metas rotate faster than ever: cats, AI absurdity, tokenized-stock hybrids, and whatever pump.fun’s holder payouts spawn next. Attention remains the only fundamental, and the coins that capture it repeatedly are the ones on this list.
Treat every entry as speculation, take profits on the way up, and never marry a meme. We refresh this list whenever the leaderboard shifts, so bookmark it and check back before your next ape.
FAQ
What are the best meme coins to buy right now? DOGE, PEPE, and SHIB remain the established anchors, while CATE, PENGU, SPX6900, WIF, and FARTCOIN offer higher-momentum plays. The full list above covers why each one made the cut.
What is the best new meme coin? CATE is the standout newcomer, doubling to a $74 million market cap after its Gate listing. New leaders rotate quickly though, which is why we refresh this list every few weeks.
Where can I buy meme coins? Major names trade on exchanges like MEXC, OKX, and Bybit. For brand-new Solana launches, on-chain apps like fomo give you access before any exchange lists them.
Are meme coins a good investment? They’re high-risk speculation, not investment. Meme coins run on attention rather than fundamentals, so only trade with money you can afford to lose and take profits when you have them.
