While often dismissed unseriously as the “joke coins” of crypto, memecoins are achieving something remarkable in 2025: outperforming every other market segment. This comes at a time when the vast majority of memecoins have already faded into obscurity. According to ChainPlay, a staggering 97% of memecoins have died in 2024, with 9,900 tokens becoming defunct daily on Pump.fun.
So, are meme coins really dead as many critics claim? To find out the true state of memecoins, this study by NFTEvening examined key data from early 2025 to assess their activity, profitability, and comparative performance against other major crypto sectors.
Methodology
For Token Creation Volume, we collected the number of daily tokens launched from Pump.fun between January 1 and June 11, 2025. To enhance visualization and contextual understanding, this data was then calculated and compared against CoinGecko’s token creation data in 2024.
For PnL Calculations, this study utilized Coingecko’s market data across 10 key sectors (Meme, AI, GameFi, Layer 1, Layer 2, DEX, Lending, Restaking, NFT, RWA). We evaluated PnL by comparing Start price (January 1, 2025) and End price (May 31, 2025) of each token. For tokens without end price (which could be due to zero trading volume, project inactivity, or delisting, etc.), a default -100% PnL was applied. Other missing data was excluded from the final dataset to ensure the data integrity.
5.9 Million New Meme Tokens Have Already Launched in 2025
As of June 11, 2025, Pump.fun has witnessed the launch of 5,897,541 new meme coins. This figure represents more than a tenfold increase compared to the total number of new tokens launched across decentralized exchanges by early April 2024, which CoinGecko reported at approximately 540,000.
Every day, an average of 36,405 new meme tokens were created on Pump.fun. This means that the daily creation rate has grown 3.5x from 2024’s average of 10,417 new tokens per day. This explosive growth in memecoin creation suggests a fundamental shift in how retail investors and crypto entrepreneurs approach token launches.
Across the first half of 2025, meme token creation consistently surpassed 800,000 per month, which is equivalent to an average of 1,117,943 new coins monthly. Notably, January alone witnessed a jaw-dropping 1.7 million meme tokens go live.
| Month | Total Created (Tokens) | Average Daily Launches (Tokens) |
| January 2025 | 1,727,508 | 55,726 |
| February 2025 | 1,140,175 | 40,721 |
| March 2025 | 823,401 | 26,561 |
| April 2025 | 1,001,077 | 33,369 |
| May 2025 | 897,553 | 28,953 |
This data reveals that despite the high failure rate, the meme sector continues to attract significant interest and activity. While most meme coins die shortly after launch, their persistent proliferation suggests that market participants remain motivated by the potential for short-term gains. This leads us to examine: are meme coins profitable enough to justify this sustained market enthusiasm?
Memecoin Is the Only Profitable Crypto Sector in 2025
In stark contrast to other cryptocurrency sectors, memecoins have demonstrated remarkable profitability in 2025. During the first 5 months, the meme category recorded an average profit and loss (PnL) of +33.08%, making them the only category with a positive returns. The second-closest performer in terms of profitability, Real World Asset (RWA) still recorded a negative PnL of -7.95%.
A notable 18.82% of meme projects achieved profitability. While this figure may seem modest, it was 117% higher than AI (8.69%) and 207% higher than Layer 2 (6.14%), both of which were heavily favored sectors at the start of 2025.
The performance metrics become even more compelling when examining failure rates across different sectors. When compared to Layer 2 and Restaking, where 93.86% and 91.38% of projects respectively incurred losses, memecoins still performed better in this regard. Although 81.18% of meme projects experienced losses, this represented the second-lowest failure rate across all sectors, only behind RWA.
| Category | Profit (%) | Loss (%) |
| Meme | 18.82% | 81.18% |
| RWA | 28.90% | 71.10% |
| Layer 1 | 10.23% | 89.77% |
| DEX | 10.22% | 89.78% |
| Lending | 11.11% | 88.89% |
| NFT | 8.04% | 91.96% |
| GameFi | 8.37% | 91.63% |
| Restaking | 8.62% | 91.38% |
| AI | 8.69% | 91.31% |
| Layer 2 | 6.14% | 93.86% |
In conclusion, the findings challenge several preconceptions about memecoin investments and suggest that despite their reputation for volatility, their unprecedented creation volume and unique profitability in an otherwise challenging market signal a profound shift in crypto investment dynamics. Far from being dead, memecoins in 2025 represent a vibrant frontier where speculative interest, community engagement, and the allure of outsized returns continue to drive significant market activity.
