Donald Trump

United

President Donald Trump

Memecoins are not dead because the market is down and the narrative has faded, according to president of payment infrastructure company MoonPay, Keith A. Grossman, who said that memecoins will be back but in a different form.
The real innovation of memecoins is that <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/hashed-cofounder-ryan-kim-attention-economy-memecoins" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">attention can be tokenized</a> easily and at low costs through blockchain technology, democratizing access to the attention economy, Grossman <a href="https://x.com/KeithGrossman/status/1999899175253598469" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">said</a>. He continued:
<blockquote>
 “Before crypto, attention could only be monetized by platforms, brands and a small group of influencers. Everyone else generated value and gave it away for free. Likes, trends, inside jokes and communities created massive economic value.”
</blockquote>
<figure>
 <img alt="Memecoin, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-12/019b1e6a-ef1d-7ca2-90f2-12796c572e58.png" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 The memecoin sector declined significantly in 2025. Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/view/memes/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CoinMarketCap</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
However, that value did not flow back to participants and mostly remained trapped by large, centralized platforms, he added.
Grossman compared the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-dead-but-will-be-back-coin-gecko" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">dismal memecoin outlook among analysts</a> to forecasts of the demise of social media after the first generation of social platforms failed in the early 2000s, before the rise of a latter cohort of companies that turned the niche sector into a cultural phenomenon.
Memecoins were one of the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-were-most-profitable-crypto-narrative-in-q1-2024-coingecko" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">best-performing crypto asset sectors</a> in 2024 and were the <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-top-crypto-investor-interest-2024-coingecko" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">top narrative that year</a> among crypto investors, according to crypto market data platform CoinGecko.&nbsp;
However, sharp <a href="https://x.com/digitalassetbuy/status/1995551713324105878" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">criticisms</a> that memecoins and other social tokens have no value and several high-profile token implosions eventually caused the market to crater and investors to move on from the narrative.
Related: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/pepe-memecoin-launch-insider-wallet-concentration-bubblemaps" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bubblemaps challenges PEPE’s fair launch, alleges 30% of genesis supply bundled</a>
<h2 id="presidential-antics-and-the-downfall-of-the-memecoin-sector">Presidential antics and the downfall of the memecoin sector</h2>
The memecoin market collapsed in Q1 2025 following several high-profile token collapses and significant drawdowns that were characterized as “rug pulls.”
United States President Donald Trump <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/official-trump-memecoin-launch-breaks-records-as-solana-sol-rallies-to-new-all-time-high" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">launched a memecoin</a> ahead of the January 2025 inauguration, which reached a peak of $75 before <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/trump-tokenholders-face-90-decline-peak-unlock-begins" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">collapsing by over 90%</a> to about $5.42 at the time of this writing, <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">according</a> to CoinMarketCap.
<figure>
 <img alt="Memecoin, Tokenization, RWA Tokenization" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-12/019b1e6c-b5da-770c-9514-c15bed211524.png" title="">
 <figcaption style="text-align: center;">
 The Official Trump memecoin from Donald Trump, president of the United States, has declined by over 90% since launch. Source: <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/official-trump/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">CoinMarketCap</a>
 </figcaption>
</figure>
Javier Milei, the president of Argentina, endorsed a social token called Libra in February, which also crashed, leaving 86% of LIBRA holders with <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/libra-investors-lost-251-million-memecoin-javier-milei" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">realized losses of $1,000 or more</a>.&nbsp;
The token had reached a market cap of $107 million before its collapse and was <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/milei-libra-token-scandal-107m-rug-pull" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">characterized as a rug pull</a> by the crypto community.
Although Milei attempted to <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/argentina-president-javier-milei-denies-promoting-libra-token" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">distance himself from the token launch</a>, a government probe was launched into Milei’s involvement, which <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/argentine-lawyers-charge-president-milei-with-fraud-over-cryptocurrency-promotion" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">culminated in lawsuits</a> from retail investors and <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/javier-milei-risks-impeachment-107-m-libra-rug-pull" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">calls for impeachment</a> from Argentine lawmakers.
Magazine: <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/magazine/proton-mail-exposing-activists-info-showed-the-limits-of-encryption/" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Proton Mail exposing activist’s info showed the limits of encryption</a>

Memecoins will rise from the dead, but in a new form: Crypto exec

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