Meme coins are showing incredible growth at the beginning of 2025, and a clear confirmation of this was the record transaction volume on the Pump Fun platform, which exceeded the figures of such giants as Solana and Ethereum. Over the past 30 days, Pump Fun has generated $116.72 million in revenue, which exceeded the revenue of Solana ($116.46 million) and Ethereum ($107.64 million). In the last 24 hours alone, the trading volume on the platform amounted to $295.53 million, and fees reached $1.45 billion.
Pump Fun, the largest platform for launching meme coins has registered the launch of more than 4.2 million meme tokens. In January, the platform broke its own records with a daily trading volume of $544 million, which coincided with the launch of the TRUMP/USD and MELANIA/USD tokens. These events caused a real explosion of activity on the platform: the number of meme coins named "Trump" grew from 3,300 to 6,800 tokens in just a few days.
Institutionals' Inflow Into Meme Coins
Analysts note that active movement in the meme coin sector attracts the attention of not only retail investors but also large investment companies. The latter are actively filing applications with the SEC to launch exchange-traded funds (ETFs) related to cryptocurrencies, including meme coins. This underscores the growing potential of this market, which was previously considered speculative but is now becoming a strategic direction for institutional capital.
The market is seeing the transition of meme coins from simple speculative assets to instruments that are starting to play a more important role in the crypto economy, as said Nathan Dean, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.
The Impact of TRUMP Tokens on Pump Fun Records
The launch of TRUMP and MELANIA tokens in January became a catalyst for explosive growth on the Pump Fun platform. Ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration on January 20, the platform recorded a weekly trading volume of $3.3 billion, which was an all-time high. This success again confirmed that political events can significantly affect the memecoin market.
At the same time, research by Dune Analytics showed that only 0.4% of the platform's users made a profit of more than $10,000. This indicates a highly speculative nature of the market but also opens up opportunities for creating more sustainable investment models in meme coins.
Meme Coins on the Path to Structured Growth
Experts predict that by 2030, meme-coins will have matured and become an important part of the cryptocurrency ecosystem. CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Joo compared their development to the art market, where value is formed thanks to unique stories and social context. Memecoins like PEPE/USD and Shiba Inu could play a major role in this transition, thanks to their active communities and support from decentralized finance platforms. According to CoinCodex analysts, PEPE value could rise to $0.000068 by February 2025, with an estimated growth of 234.69%. Technical indicators suggest a positive trend for the token, but the cryptocurrency market remains unpredictable.
If Pepe Coin continues to grow, this could also have a positive effect on other Pepe Frog-inspired tokens, such as Wall Street Pepe and Agent A.I. Such tokens often show multiple gains after listing on major exchanges. According to DWF Labs, the memecoin market has increased by 500% in 2024, reaching $120 billion in December. The share of investor interest in this sector has grown to 15%, which underscores its attractiveness even against the backdrop of a possible correction.