Research · September 2026
PEPE, WIF, FARTCOIN, PNUT, GOAT, TRUMP, PENGU and the rest of the cycle's leaders. Winner tokenomics is almost identical. What wins is not the allocation table — it's the meme that already lived in culture before the contract.
Thesis
In two years the memecoin market standardized the “honest” scheme: full float, mint closed, LP burned, zero tax, no presale. This is not economics in the Bitcoin sense. It is a trust ritual — on-chain proof that the dev cannot print more or yank the pool.
After that, everyone who passed the filter trades one resource: attention. The 2024–2025 winners almost always took an already-finished cultural object — a frog, a dog in a hat, a squirrel from a news segment, a baby hippo from TikTok, an AI-agent thread, a president's face.
So copying PEPE's tokenomics is useless. Everyone already copies it. There is nothing to copy — except the discipline of not lying to the market about supply.
Shared code
Not every token has all seven. Pure memes almost always do. BONK, PENGU, and TRUMP have some traits broken: they won with a different resource and later paid dearly for it.
Everyone buys from the same block
No venture rounds, no discounted whitelist, no “strategic allocation.” The 2024–2025 market harshly punished any wallet that looked like an insider. Winners launched as if the team did not exist.
No unlock overhang
Circulating supply equals max supply. No 3/6/12-month cliffs that later crush the price. Holders are not trading against a future team unlock — only against each other.
Can't print more
On Solana — revoked mint/freeze authority; on Ethereum — renounced ownership. This is the first check anyone with real capital runs. Without it, the token does not pass the filter.
The pool can't be pulled
Liquidity sits in the pool, LP tokens sit in a burn address. The classic “yank the pool” rug is technically impossible. On pump.fun this happens automatically at graduation.
Friction = zero
2–10% buy/sell taxes died as a meta. They break CEX routers, kill volume, and look like food for the devs. Winners trade like a normal SPL/ERC-20.
1 billion, or a joke number
The Solana standard is 1,000,000,000. The price looks like $0.00x — “a million coins for $10.” PEPE took 420.69 trillion. PENGU — 88,888,888,888. A low unit price lowers the retail barrier more than any “utility.”
A story in one sentence
Pepe the frog. A dog in a hat. The squirrel from CNN. A baby hippo from a zoo. An AI agent that named the coin itself. The token did not create culture — it rode an already-viral object. That is the real distribution.
Cycle chronicle
Nov 2023 — Mar 2024
After FTX the chain needed its meme. WIF — fair launch, one picture, zero complexity. By spring 2024 it was already billions and the template for everything that would follow on Raydium.
Mar — Jun 2024
BRETT takes Base; POPCAT and other animals carve up Solana. Tokenomics is copied one-to-one: 1B, mint revoked, LP burn. What wins is not the allocation table — it's the slot in the chain's cultural menu.
Sep — Nov 2024
The bonding curve makes fair launch the default. MOODENG, GOAT, FARTCOIN, PNUT all fly on the same on-chain scheme. The differentiator is a headline, an AI agent, or an already-viral animal. Graduation = automatic LP burn.
Dec 2024
Old memes get re-rated alongside new ones. PEPE prints an ATH. Pudgy launches PENGU as an IP token — the only major launch with a team and vesting that still cleared at auction on the hype.
Jan 17, 2025
The worst (for the holder) tokenomics of the cycle produces the fastest pump. 80% with the issuer, 20% in the market. Within a day — a historic ATH and the start of a slow float grind.
2025 — 2026
Of thousands of pump.fun tokens, a handful still trade. Survivors are the ones that kept a picture, CEX books, and the market's habit of using them as beta on “meme season.” By this point, every winner's tokenomics is already the same.
Lab
Click a ticker for the full write-up. Market-cap peaks are estimates; most are already −70–95% from the top. This is not a buy recommendation.
12 of 12
The exception that proves the rule: a political atom overpowers bad tokenomics — for 36 hours.
Launch
Jan 17, 2025
Peak
Jan 18, 2025
ATH mcap
~$15B float / ~$73B FDV
Supply
1B
1B. At TGE only 20% hit the market (10% public + 10% LP). 80% — affiliated entities with 3/6/12-month cliffs and 24-month linear vesting. No utility, no rights. The issuer also earns trading fees. This is the opposite of PEPE/WIF.
Launched three days before the inauguration. The name, the fist-pump picture, the entire planet's information volume. A 200M float at $70+ produced a circulating cap of ~$14B almost instantly. Then — a crash and constant unlock pressure.
Takeaway. Celebrity replaces a fair launch only at the moment of the event. After that, tokenomics takes revenge: 80% of supply still comes out.
DNA 4/7
The frog the entire internet already knew — no utility, no roadmap, no apologies.
Launch
Apr 2023
Peak
Dec 2024
ATH mcap
~$11B
Supply
420.69T
Fixed supply of 420,690,000,000,000. 93.1% went into Uniswap v2, LP burned, contract renounced. 6.9% — a multisig for CEX listings, bridges, and extra liquidity. 0% tax. No emissions, no unlocks. A few cosmetic burns that did not move the price.
The cycle's template for “honest” meme tokenomics. The peak did not come in the launch month — it came in December 2024, when meme season swallowed the whole market. PEPE traded like a highly liquid proxy for attention, not like a startup.
Takeaway. Clean tokenomics does not make the multiple. It buys you a seat when the season of attention arrives.
DNA 7/7
A dog in a pink hat. That's it. That was enough for the top of Solana.
Launch
Nov 2023
Peak
Mar 2024
ATH mcap
~$4.8B
Supply
~999M
Almost a billion tokens, 100% circulating from launch. No presale, no VC, no team reserve. Mint and freeze revoked. Plain SPL. No staking, no tax, no “ecosystem” at the start.
WIF became the face of the 2024 Solana meme boom. The image is instantly recognizable, the ATH price around $4.83 looked “like a real asset,” and listings on every major CEX delivered a second wave.
Takeaway. The strongest brand of the cycle is not a logo — it's one image people repost without a caption.
DNA 7/7
Not a meme from scratch — a token on top of already-living IP, toys, and NFTs.
Launch
Dec 2024
Peak
Dec 2024
ATH mcap
~$4B
Supply
88,888,888,888
Supply 88.89B. ~26% to Pudgy holders, ~24% to other NFT communities, 12.35% liquidity, 17.8% team, 11.48% company (1-year cliff + 3 years linear), plus public good / proliferation. At TGE ~71–74% circulating. This is brand tokenomics, not degen tokenomics.
PENGU proved a second path: if you already have characters on Walmart shelves, you can drop a token as a brand extension. The launch peak was violent — and it deflated just as violently under the weight of airdrop unlocks.
Takeaway. IP gives you a start that pump.fun cannot buy. Team unlocks and airdrop farmers eat that start.
DNA 5/7
Solana after FTX: an airdrop “for our people,” not a stealth deploy.
Launch
Dec 2022
Peak
Nov 2024
ATH mcap
~$3.5B
Supply
100T (lower after burns)
50% — airdrop to Solana NFT/DeFi/artists/devs. 21% — early contributors with a 36-month vest. 15.8% — BONK DAO. 5.3% liquidity, 5.3% marketing, 5.3% devs. This is not a fair launch: there is a treasury and insiders. But the wide drop built an army of holders before the 2024 pumps.
BONK won as an ecosystem meme: Jupiter, DEX, NFT, later a burndown. The peak came in 2024, when Solana became a casino again. Airdrop = distribution. The 21% vest is the price of someone building around the ticker.
Takeaway. The airdrop model works if you drop to an existing on-chain tribe, not a “community on Twitter.”
DNA 4/7
An AI agent coined the name. An anon tokenized it. The deployer sold. The coin still reached $2.5B.
Launch
Oct 2024
Peak
Jan 2025
ATH mcap
~$2.5B
Supply
1B
Classic pump.fun: 1B, bonding curve, graduation to Raydium, LP burned, mint revoked. No team, no presale, no inflation. After graduation, ~999.98M circulating.
The “AI + absurd” narrative of fall 2024. Truth Terminal (Andy Ayrey's agent) made Fartcoin a meme before the token even had liquidity. This is culture-first at its purest: culture generated the ticker, not the other way around.
Takeaway. On pump.fun, tokenomics is standardized. The only differentiator is the meme and the speed of the first hours.
DNA 7/7
The squirrel from the news. A political meme, packaged overnight.
Launch
Nov 2024
Peak
Nov 2024
ATH mcap
~$2.4B
Supply
~1B
Pump.fun, 100% of supply in liquidity/circulation from TGE. Fixed supply, mint revoked, LP burned. No vesting, no treasury, no team.
P'Nut was euthanized in New York — the story exploded across American social media. The token dropped in the same news cycle. In ~11 days market cap punched through a billion: this is not a “product,” it's a headline tokenized.
Takeaway. Speed beats polish. Whoever first puts a ticker on a story that's already on fire takes the attention.
DNA 7/7
Pepe's blue friend — Base's mascot at the moment the chain needed its meme.
Launch
Mar 2024
Peak
Jun 2024
ATH mcap
~$2.3B
Supply
10B
Fixed supply of 10B, no VC, no presale. Community-driven, contract renounced. 0% tax. Base supplied cheap transactions and the Coinbase audience.
Every chain in a cycle gets “its Pepe.” On Base that was BRETT. Tokenomics was an honest fair launch, but the alpha was timing: Base season plus a character from the Matt Furie universe.
Takeaway. A chain season picks a mascot. Whoever occupies the slot first takes the ecosystem premium.
DNA 7/7
An old internet meme of a cat opening its mouth. The token is just the caption.
Launch
2024
Peak
Nov 2024
ATH mcap
~$1.9B
Supply
~980M
Fair launch, ~980M, 100% circulating. Mint/freeze revoked, LP burned. No inflation, no team vesting, no tax.
Popcat had lived on the internet for years. When Solana season needed “the next picture,” the market lifted an existing meme instead of a new brand. Simple tokenomics didn't get in the way of CEX listings.
Takeaway. Dormant 2010s memes are free distribution. You don't have to explain them.
DNA 7/7
A parody of the S&P 500: “we will replace the stock market.” A cult, not a product.
Launch
2023–24
Peak
late 2024
ATH mcap
~$1.5B
Supply
1B
Max supply 1B, fair launch, ownership renounced, LP locked for 69 years. A bridge to Solana/Base widened liquidity, but the canon stayed ERC-20. No utility, by the site's own admission.
SPX didn't win with an animal picture — it won with a religion: holders as a sect, a slogan instead of a roadmap. In late 2024 that worked as an anti-TradFi narrative while indexes were ripping.
Takeaway. If you don't have a character, you need faith. A cult scales worse than a frog, but it holds the core deeper.
DNA 7/7
The first meme “launched” by an AI agent, not a Telegram shiller.
Launch
Oct 2024
Peak
Oct 2024
ATH mcap
~$1.3B
Supply
1B
Pump.fun standard again: 1B, fair bonding curve, LP burn, mint revoked, 0% tax. No economy of its own besides price.
GOAT opened the AI-memes category. Truth Terminal tweeted about Goatseus Maximus — retail read it as “the agent picked the coin itself.” Dozens of copies followed, but the first one took the entire first-mover premium.
Takeaway. A new category beats an old picture. In October 2024 an AI agent was fresher than any dog.
DNA 7/7
A pygmy hippo from a Thai zoo that was already viral on TikTok.
Launch
Sep 2024
Peak
Oct 2024
ATH mcap
~$0.6B
Supply
~990M
Pump.fun, ~1B, fully circulating, no presale and no team allocation. Mint closed. After graduation — a regular AMM.
The animal was already a meme before the blockchain: millions of views, merch, news. The token just gave the market a handle to buy “a share of the virality.”
Takeaway. A living viral character converts into market cap faster than a drawn logo.
DNA 7/7
| Token | Chain | Model | ATH | DNA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $TRUMP | Solana | Celebrity | ~$15B float / ~$73B FDV | 4/7 |
| $PEPE | Ethereum | Fair launch | ~$11B | 7/7 |
| $WIF | Solana | Fair launch | ~$4.8B | 7/7 |
| $PENGU | Solana | IP / brand | ~$4B | 5/7 |
| $BONK | Solana | Airdrop | ~$3.5B | 4/7 |
| $FARTCOIN | Solana | Pump.fun | ~$2.5B | 7/7 |
| $PNUT | Solana | Pump.fun | ~$2.4B | 7/7 |
| $BRETT | Base | Fair launch | ~$2.3B | 7/7 |
| $POPCAT | Solana | Fair launch | ~$1.9B | 7/7 |
| $SPX | Ethereum | Fair launch | ~$1.5B | 7/7 |
| $GOAT | Solana | Pump.fun | ~$1.3B | 7/7 |
| $MOODENG | Solana | Pump.fun | ~$0.6B | 7/7 |
Exceptions
The market sometimes pays more for distribution, brand, or a political moment than for a fair launch. But for each of these three, tokenomics later became an anchor, not a wing.
Solana after FTX: an airdrop “for our people,” not a stealth deploy.
The airdrop model works if you drop to an existing on-chain tribe, not a “community on Twitter.”
Not a meme from scratch — a token on top of already-living IP, toys, and NFTs.
IP gives you a start that pump.fun cannot buy. Team unlocks and airdrop farmers eat that start.
The exception that proves the rule: a political atom overpowers bad tokenomics — for 36 hours.
Celebrity replaces a fair launch only at the moment of the event. After that, tokenomics takes revenge: 80% of supply still comes out.
What didn't work
In short: anything that looked like a way to quietly extract value from retail. The 2024 meme market got toxically literate.
In 2021–22 this looked clever. In 2024 it's a filter: do not enter. Tax breaks aggregators, scares CEX desks, and signals that the dev feeds on every trade. Not a single cycle top wears one.
On Bubblemaps this looks like a future dump. The memecoin market learned to read holders in 15 seconds. If a dev wallet is visible — smart money skips.
Any discount before listing turns early buyers into exit liquidity. Winners either launched into a pool or onto a pump.fun curve, where the price rises the same for everyone.
Staking, DAO, metaverse, an “AI platform” on a ChatGPT fork. PEPE, WIF, FARTCOIN, PNUT had no utility. Those who promised it too early looked like a costume around a dump.
A high price per coin screens out retail. A meme lives on the feeling of “I bought a million.” 1B on Solana beat the “deflationary hard cap” almost every time.
Cliffs, 8% at TGE, seed, KOL, advisor — that's venture-chain tokenomics. In memes it reads as guaranteed supply in six months. TRUMP confirmed it with the price after the peak.
Take an already-viral object. Launch a simple token with no presale, no team allocation, mint revoked, LP burned. Put it on the chain where retail is flowing at that moment — in 2024 that was Solana and sometimes Base. Don't promise utility. Pray the first 48 hours line up with a headline, a trend, or an agent people already read. Everything else is noise. And even if every item lined up, the chance of staying in history is still close to a lottery: on pump.fun, less than one percent of launches make it to a DEX.