Memecoin Mania: Over One Million New Tokens Launched Since April

The cryptocurrency market has witnessed a surge in token creation, with over one million new tokens launched since April. This explosion, driven largely by the explosion of memecoins, has raised concerns about speculation and potential scams.

Nearly half of the newly created tokens, exceeding 640,000 tokens, were launched on the Solana network. Ethereum, the leading smart contract platform, also saw a substantial influx of new tokens, with over 370,000 created during the same period.

This surge in token creation is particularly evident on Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain, Base. The platform has seen a staggering 88% increase in token creation compared to Ethereum with 372,642 new tokens launched. The low transaction fees offered by Base is believed to be a major factor attracting users to capitalize on the memecoin frenzy.

Coinbase director Conor Grogan underscored the magnitude of the current memecoin craze, noting that the number of tokens created on Base surpassed all of tokens created on Ethereum from 2015 until 2023.

Furthermore, the Total Value Locked (TVL) on Base has skyrocketed by approximately 630% since the beginning of 2024, as reported by L2beat, driven primarily by the memecoin mania that has gripped the crypto space.

Solana also has seen a significant influx of these memecoins, with 466,914 out of 643,227 tokens falling into this category, according to data from Step Finance. This proliferation of memecoins has led to the creation of dedicated categories on platforms like CoinGecko, listing over 600 coins with a combined market capitalization of $52.7 billion. Nonetheless, CoinMarketCap has added a category specifically for memecoins, listing the 500 newest tokens added to its platform in the last 30 days.

However, the memecoin craze has its critics. Some within the cryptocurrency community view memecoins as a negative development, citing their susceptibility to scams and “rug pulls” (abrupt abandonment by developers). Critics argue that investments in memecoins could be better directed towards more established and legitimate projects.