Memecoin Hall of Shame: 10 Tokens That Defined the Year of Grift, Mania, and Coordinated Dumps

The memecoin market in 2025 was not defined by innovation or utility—it was defined by excess, extraction, and embarrassment.

From a sitting U.S. president launching tokens days before his inauguration to an AI chatbot’s fart jokes briefly creating a billion-dollar valuation, the year crystallized everything broken about the meme trade: political monetization, celebrity rug pulls, institutional crossover, and late-cycle manipulation revealed through wallet forensics.

This analyst insight revisits the 10 tokens that defined the memecoin hall of shame in 2025, tracing a narrative arc from PolitiFi scandals through AI-driven absurdity, celebrity fiascos, regulated legitimacy, chain-specific mini-cycles, and finally coordinated control. Together they proved memecoins are not going away—they are evolving into crypto’s most visible, most profitable, and most shameful corner.

1. TRUMP & MELANIA — PolitiFi’s Official Launch and 99% Crash

On January 17, 2025—three days before Donald Trump’s second inauguration—the TRUMP token launched on Solana with 1 billion supply, of which Trump-linked entities reportedly retained 800 million. MELANIA followed shortly after, briefly reaching $2 billion market cap.

Both tokens formalized “official” political memecoins, sparking immediate ethics debates about whether a sitting president could monetize brand equity through crypto. No pretense of utility existed—pure attention arbitrage.

TRUMP peaked near $75 and MELANIA near $14, before both collapsed over 99% by late 2025. The precedent stood: high-profile individuals could launch tokens, keep most supply, and let retail bear the downside.

2. LIBRA — Sovereign Endorsement Turns into National Scandal

On Valentine’s Day 2025, Argentine President Javier Milei posted the LIBRA contract address and urged citizens to buy. The token exploded from near-zero to $5.20 in 40 minutes, reaching $4.6 billion market cap—then crashed 85% as insiders dumped 70% of supply.

LIBRA became “Cryptogate”: investors filed criminal complaints, opposition parties pushed impeachment, and Milei faced accusations of enabling fraud. The episode killed memecoin risk appetite for months and demonstrated that state-level endorsement could destroy credibility overnight.

3. FARTCOIN — AI Meme Revival and Billion-Dollar Absurdity

Born in April 2025 from the Truth Terminal AI chatbot’s fart-joke content, FARTCOIN became the poster child for AI-linked memecoin mania. By June, it was called “the memecoin that took the crypto world by storm,” briefly hitting billion-dollar valuations on hype alone.

FARTCOIN proved an AI narrative could revive speculation after the LIBRA crash. No utility beyond absurdity—yet that was enough. The token survived multiple cycles while imitators collapsed, largely because it was first and shameless enough to become self-referential.

4. PUMP — Financializing the Casino Itself

Pump.fun’s PUMP token launched via ICO in July 2025, raising massive capital while positioning itself as the native asset of Solana’s largest meme launchpad. Traders treated PUMP as a meta-bet on the “casino” infrastructure rather than any single joke.

The token faced class-action lawsuits accusing Pump.fun of enabling systematic fraud, yet PUMP traded as a bet that the platform would survive controversy. It exposed the irony: the site that let millions launch tokens without permission required accredited buyers for its own offering.

5. YZY — Celebrity Token Extraction Masterclass

Kanye West launched YZY on Solana in August 2025 with “A NEW ECONOMY, BUILT ON CHAIN” branding. Market cap spiked above $2 billion, then crashed over 60% within hours as early wallets dumped into retail demand.

YZY became the defining 2025 celebrity token fiasco: maximum fame, zero utility, coordinated insider exits. Exchanges accelerated delisting celebrity tokens, shifting narrative from adoption to exit liquidity.

6. DOGE — From Joke to Regulated ETF Land

On September 18, 2025, REX-Osprey launched the first U.S. Dogecoin ETF (DOJE), followed by Grayscale’s GDOG spot ETF on NYSE Arca in November. Dogecoin crossed into regulated products, legitimizing the memecoin category.

The ETFs created structural bid from funds holding underlying assets, setting a precedent: if the original joke coin could get ETFs, other high-volume memecoins might follow. DOGE blurred the line between “serious crypto” and “meme garbage.”

7. BNB Chain Meme Season Symbol

In early October 2025, BNB Chain launchpad Four.meme briefly surpassed Pump.fun in daily protocol fees and token creation. Binance highlighted the token 4 as “the main symbol of the meme season on BNB Chain,” with whales accumulating as market cap approached $200 million.

The BSC meme season, centered on 4, proved memecoins were no longer Solana-exclusive. BNB Chain developed its own launchpads, influencers, and narrative cycles, with 4 turning an inside joke into a tradable asset capturing a chain-specific mini-cycle.

8. MOTHER — Celebrity Tokens Fail Forward

Iggy Azalea joined Thrust launchpad as creative director in November 2025, migrating her MOTHER token to the platform marketed as a less predatory celebrity token effort. MOTHER followed the classic boom-bust pattern but Azalea spun the controversy into a resume line.

The token crashed 99% from its 2024 peak, yet Azalea leveraged the notoriety to advance her career while holders remained underwater—classic “rug and rebrand.”

9. PIPPIN — The Last Big Rigged Comeback

In early December 2025, PIPPIN staged a dramatic revival, surging over 1,000% from near-zero levels. On-chain forensics later revealed a few dozen wallets controlled nearly half the supply, coordinating the comeback to lure retail.

PIPPIN became shorthand for late-cycle manipulation: organic-looking social campaigns masking concentrated control and planned exits. It crystallized the realization that 2025’s biggest winners weren’t the best memes—they were the best-coordinated.

10. BONK — The Solana Meme Survivor That Defined the Cycle

BONK, Solana’s flagship meme coin, survived multiple crashes and regulatory scrutiny to become the chain’s cultural anchor. While not the flashiest 2025 story, BONK’s resilience—through airdrops, ecosystem integrations, and community loyalty—made it the quiet survivor of the cycle.

The token proved that memecoins with genuine chain affinity and sustained narrative could outlast pure hype plays.

What 2025’s Memecoin Hall of Shame Proved

These ten tokens traced memecoin evolution from political controversy through AI absurdity, celebrity extraction, regulated crossover, chain-specific mini-cycles, and late-cycle manipulation. They showed:

• Political figures could monetize brands directly with minimal consequences.
• Sovereign endorsement could turn memecoins into national scandals.
• AI narratives could revive speculation post-crash.
• Infrastructure layers could be financialized.
• Celebrity tokens could destroy wealth at scale.
• Joke coins could cross into regulated products.
• Memecoins were now multi-chain.
• Some celebrities could spin rugs into career assets.
• Coordinated control often beat organic hype.
• Chain-native memes could survive cycles.

Memecoins are not disappearing—they generate too much volume, fees, and attention. They crossed into ETFs, state-level politics, and multi-billion market caps. What remains unresolved: whether they can exist without structural extraction, whether celebrity/political tokens can avoid scam status, and whether reputational damage will trigger regulatory crackdown.

The memecoin market of 2025 proved one thing conclusively: attention is the ultimate asset. The tokens that captured it best—through scandal, absurdity, or coordination—won. Whether that makes the category sustainable or terminal is the question 2026 will answer.