---
title: 'What Are Meme Coins? | Definitive Guide 2026'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=OO4s_HA37i0'
video_id: 'OO4s_HA37i0'
date: 2026-07-19
duration_sec: 889
channel: 'Andres Garza'
---

# What Are Meme Coins? | Definitive Guide 2026

> Source: [What Are Meme Coins? | Definitive Guide 2026](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OO4s_HA37i0)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive overview of cryptocurrencies, distinguishing between traditional cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and altcoins, and meme coins like Dogecoin and Trumpcoin. It explains the underlying blockchain technology, the speculative nature of meme coins, and offers practical advice for investing in them, including a step-by-step guide to buying on the MEXC exchange.

### Key Points

- **Cryptocurrency Basics** [00:03] — Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies operating on a blockchain, a distributed ledger verified by nodes. Bitcoin, created in 2009, is the first and most recognized, with a limited supply of 21 million coins, designed as digital gold for value storage.
- **Altcoins vs. Meme Coins** [00:46] — Altcoins like Ethereum and Solana aim to improve upon Bitcoin with faster transactions or smart contracts. Meme coins, such as Dogecoin and Trumpcoin, lack utility and rely on hype and community support, making them highly volatile.
- **Dogecoin Origin Story** [02:50] — Dogecoin was created as a joke in 2013 based on a dog meme. Its founder sold his entire holding for $10,000 in 2015 to buy a Honda Civic; those coins would be worth over $27 million today.
- **Trumpcoin Launch** [03:31] — Trumpcoin was launched in January 2025 during Donald Trump's second term, leveraging Solana's infrastructure. It rose 300% in its first hours, reaching a high of $78 on January 17th before crashing to $17 days later.
- **Advantages of Meme Coins** [05:04] — Meme coins have low entry costs, active communities, and speculative opportunities for quick profits. However, they suffer from extreme volatility, lack of utility, and high risk of scams like rug pulls.
- **Investment Rules for Meme Coins** [06:51] — The creator invests only 1% of their portfolio, does their own research, and accepts potential losses. They emphasize that meme coin investing is speculation, not investment.
- **Buying Gigachat on MEXC** [07:44] — Gigachat, a new meme coin, is available on MEXC exchange. The creator demonstrates buying $150 worth via a market order, showing the process from account creation to order execution.
- **Portfolio Performance** [10:44] — The creator's meme coin portfolio (including Pepe, Gigachat, Trump) is down 32% from its peak of $10,000, currently at $5,583. Only Pepe is in profit with a 40% return.
- **Selling Meme Coins** [12:18] — Selling is easy for high-volume coins like Trumpcoin. The creator demonstrates selling 3.75 Trump for 105 USDT instantly. Low-volume coins may require decentralized exchanges, which are riskier for beginners.

### Conclusion

Meme coins are highly speculative and risky, but can be part of a diversified portfolio if approached with caution. The creator stresses the importance of risk management, research, and only investing what you can afford to lose.

## Transcript

cryptocurrencies have captured the attention of many people with the promise of making them millionaires overnight, but is this really the case? That's why reality of cryptocurrencies. So let's start at the beginning: cryptocurrencies
are digital currencies that operate through the blockchain network, which is a digital ledger distributed among thousands of computers around the world. Each transaction is verified by network participants called
nodes and recorded in immutable blocks, creating the famous blockchain. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, founded in 2009, and remains the most recognized currency today. However, it is far from the only one.
today. However, it is far from the only one. after Bitcoin are known as altcoins. Some examples of altcoins are Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and Polkadot. However, Bitcoin was created to be a way to conduct
transactions without the intervention of a third party, such as a central bank or financial institution. In addition, it has a limited supply of 21 million bitcoins, with the intention of being the digital gold for storing value.
Let's take an example: imagine you want to send money to someone in another country. If you decide to do it through a bank, you'll have to go through lengthy processes and pay high fees. With Bitcoin, however, you can
send that money without intermediaries in minutes and at much lower costs. This gives Bitcoin a real function in the market, which is why individuals, companies, and institutions are interested in it. Furthermore, many
alcoins emerge with the intention of improving or expanding what Bitcoin already offers, whether with faster transactions, lower energy consumption, or very specific use cases like the creation of NFTs. There's a phrase I love that
fits perfectly in this situation: everyone wants to save the world. They just do n't agree on how. Virtually every cryptocurrency on the market seeks to create a better solution or offer something different for the
ecosystem. For example, Ethereum and Solana are two projects that, unlike Bitcoin, allow developers to create applications by leveraging smart contracts. And neither of these projects has a supply
limit, as they focus more on distributing themselves as widely as possible. But what does all this have to do with memecs? Well, unlike Bitcoin and the Altcoins, or meme coins, don't have a clear use case or
innovative technology behind them; rather, their value depends on hype and community support. These coins often start as jokes or viral trends on the internet, but some have achieved surprising popularity. What
really matters in meme coins is the community, since there's no software or anything backing them up. For example, Dogecoin was created as a joke in 2013 based on the famous dog meme. It was born when two software engineers,
met and decided to create a more comical, interesting, and easy-to-use cryptocurrency. The reality is that nobody expected it to be popular, not even Billy, its founder, who sold his entire holding of Dodge Coin in 2015 for
$10,000 to buy a Honda Civic. Those same coins would be worth more than 27 million today. It seems obvious, but it wasn't always so. Another example of a meme coin is Trumpcoin, launched by the
President of the United States, Donald Trump. Like other meme coins, it doesn't have its own blockchain but rather...  Although it leverages the infrastructure of other more solid and recognized currencies, such as Solana in this case,
which gives it greater speed and lower transaction costs, this project was launched in January 2025 during Donald Trump's second term as President of the United States and
aims to promote his economic vision and conservative values. Although there was much skepticism at first, in the first few hours the currency reached a first few hours the currency reached a rise of 300%.  What attracted thousands
initial value of $78 on January 17th and in just two days reached an impressive high of $
days later. As you can see, volatility is a daily occurrence in this market, since, lacking a solid value, these types of coins can rise and fall dramatically. This leads us to three conclusions: first,
designed to solve specific problems, while meme coins tend to have a more humorous or viral purpose; second, although all cryptocurrencies are volatile, meme coins tend to be even more unstable
due to their dependence on hype; and third, meme coins rely heavily on the community to maintain their relevance, while traditional cryptocurrencies have technical fundamentals and
institutional adoption that much more strongly support their value. However, one thing that cannot be denied is that you can make or lose a lot of money here, and meme coins also have some advantages. For example, number one, the low
entry cost, which allows more people to invest in them without spending large sums of money; number two, an active community.  Because they focus on humor and virality, meme coins tend to attract large
communities, which can cause significant price fluctuations. Thirdly, they offer speculative opportunities; for risk-takers, the potential for quick profits is quite appealing. However, they also
have many disadvantages, such as: first, extreme volatility—the price of a meme coin can skyrocket or plummet in a matter of hours; second, lack of utility—many meme coins have no practical or
real-world use, making them more vulnerable to losing relevance and value; and third, fraud. Their popularity also attracts scams like Rock BS, where the creators of the coins disappear with
all the investors' money. Now it's more than obvious that meme coins represent a high you've made it this far in the video, it's because even knowing all this, you might still be interested in investing in them. So
let's be clear: more than an investment, buying meme coins represents speculation where things can go very well or very badly. However, buying meme coins isn't always easy, as many platforms don't list them
until they're already out of commission.  It's very late, and this is clearly to protect its users, but it's in these stages where the real gains or losses happen. But if, even knowing all the risks, you're interested in investing in these types of
projects, I'm going to explain the rules I play by. First, I I play by. First, I only invest 1% of my portfolio. Yes, only 1%. Second, I'm aware that I won't become a millionaire quickly; I'm just looking to take
more risks and get higher returns. Third, I do my own research and don't buy just for the sake of it. I investigate the communities, the projects, and their projections. And fourth, I'm aware that I'm going to
lose money. Of course, I hope to win more than I lose, but I know that losing is a really don't recommend starting here, but rather with more traditional cryptocurrencies or even other types of investment like fixed income.
But if, even keeping all these realities in mind, you want to invest in meme coins, I'm going to explain how I do it. So, what would happen if a project catches our attention, but it's still very small and we can't
find it on the main platforms? For example, we can take this cryptocurrency called...  Gigachat, a cryptocurrency also based on the Giga meme, very similar to Dogecoin, is a relatively new cryptocurrency, practically new
to the market— less than a year old. So it's very likely, and we can see it below, that this cryptocurrency isn't listed on many exchanges because platforms
wait for it to pass certain filters or gain more popularity. However, the these types of assets is one that always lists these coins before anyone else, or very early on, and that platform is MXE. Here you can see that you
can buy directly on MXE; it's one of the few centralized exchanges always make my purchases here, and we're going to run the real-world exercise towards this. It's important to emphasize that you shouldn't buy any MM Coin, any cryptocurrency, or any stock—it's that
simple. I'm just doing a mini-example so you can see exactly how to buy them. But remember that you should always do your research before buying anything. So, now that we know that Gigachat is
on MXE, let's go directly to the...  I already can create an account very easily; it's actually quite fast, and they only ask for a few details to verify your identity. Once
inside, I can see my account here, and in the search bar, I can look for Giga, which is the buy today. Here, I'll find the Giga to USDT conversion. So I select it, and you'll see this screen, which looks very complex because we're looking at
technical indicators. But don't worry, this is really more for people who informational purposes if you want to follow a short- want is to buy spot, which is what I do, which is like investing or
holding them for a longer period of time, it 's much simpler. We simply go to the bottom; you have several types of orders: limit and market. In a in a market order, you buy at the current price. So, in this
case, I currently have 151 USDT. That's what I'm going to buy, approximately $150, and I can select the  I clicked the " buy Giga" button and it shows as a successful order. You'll automatically notice that I
You'll automatically notice that I had 151 GBP, now I have 0.82 USDT and 2433 GBP. Now I can go directly to my wallet where this is my estimated balance, and you can see the cryptocurrencies I have in the spot section. Right now I
have Algorand, Gigachat, and Trump. Algorand isn't a microcoin; it's an altcoin with different functionalities. Gigachat is the coin we just bought, and Trump is the
coin I talked about in the Donald Trump video. It's worth noting that these projects are high-risk, and as I mentioned, I only invest 1% of my portfolio. I can show you how I've been doing in recent periods
on CoinMarketCap. You also have that function to view your portfolio. So here I can see my portfolio of what I have as "shitcoins." And if you look, I have 55,583 GBP.
losing 2,657 GBP.  Say a 32 below and these also going to add Gigachat to this portfolio, which is really small, only 5,000-8,000 that I'm using to diversify a bit and
only have one winning coin, which is Pepe, with a 40% return, but I'm losing on the others, which period where this portfolio reached
$10,000. We can see here that this portfolio's maximum was this portfolio's maximum was 1,628 with an initial value of $8,000, just that, due to the current situation with the Trump currency, it
stole the spotlight, and altcoins and meme coins are performing worse. However, since it's a very small part of my portfolio, I'm accumulating some coins that I like. The important thing here is that you
know you can buy them quickly on MXE and on a central ICE exchange because there are other ways to buy, but they are more complicated; you need a  Wallet, and this is much simpler because you just create an account,
easily, and you're practically already buying your cryptocurrencies. I have several portfolios and wallets where I keep my cryptocurrencies; some are cold, some are hot, like MXE, and soon I can explain more about how I
make my investments. In another video, and because I know many people always sell this meme coin? Is it possible or not? In most cases, it's very easy to sell, especially if they are high-volume coins. There are coins that don't
more complicated, but let's use Trumpcoin as an example, since I want to get rid of it. So here I am, and I'm simply going to click on Trade again and select Trade Trump USDT. It will take me to a
very similar screen to the one we saw, and here I'm going to enter that I have 3.75 Trumps. So I'm going to enter 3.75 and select Sell Trump, and that's it! It automatically gives me my 105 USDT, which is my
$5, and I have it back in my account.  In my portfolio, I can go back to my spot wallet and you'll notice that I no longer have Trump and I have USDT. This happens in practically seconds because there's a lot of volume in the coins. If they are
small coins, they generally aren't even buy them another way with a decentralized exchange, but that responsibility and risk, so I would n't recommend getting into that if you're a
beginner. As you can see, I wanted to be very honest about the performance of my meme coins because I firmly believe that it's very important for you to know the whole reality of the cryptocurrency world so you can make the best decisions in
be coins that can make a lot of money or also lose it. As you noticed, I had periods of growth and right now I'm in a period of losses. However, the most important thing here are two things: first, this portfolio does
n't represent something that is vital to me; that is, it's a sideways portfolio that represents 1%, or even in this case now less than 1.1%, of my capital, so if you  I know I'm taking a risk I can afford to lose everything. And
secondly, I know I can buy and sell them quickly and simultaneously take advantage of opportunities at the right time on an exchange like MXE, where I can quickly buy and sell my digital assets. The most
important thing will always be to measure your risk, create an investment profile, and above all, research before buying. This was a short video, but I felt the need to make it because I know it's a topic that many people care about, and there are
many myths out there. So I wanted to tell you the truth and show you how to do it if you're interested. As always, it's a pleasure to serve you. interested. As always, it's a pleasure to serve you. See you soon in another video. Bye!