The term “shitcoin” is somewhat controversial in the cryptocurrency community, and it can have many different meanings. For example, some hardcore Bitcoin fans refer to all coins other than BTC as “shitcoins.”
In most cases, however, crypto community members use the term “shitcoin” to refer to relatively low-effort cryptocurrency projects that don’t have many notable features in terms of design or technology.
Our shitcoin list will help you assess the current state of the market and find out which projects currently have significant market capitalizations. Of course, there are also hundreds of shitcoin projects with negligible market capitalizations, but most of them are not worth mentioning.
List of the best shitcoins for 2024:
- Dogwifhat – Solana-based meme coin that gained 50,000% just months after its launch
- Bonk – Meme coin distributed for free to the Solana community
- Pepe – The hottest meme coin of 2023
- DOGS – A meme coin for the Telegram community
- Dogecoin – The original shitcoin
- Baby Doge Coin – A meme coin project with DEX, NFT collection, and more
- Floki Inu – A Viking-themed meme coin
- Dogelon Mars – Meme coin dedicated to Elon Musk
- Rich Quack – Meme coin on BNB chain with interesting tokenomics
- Shiba Predator – A meme coin that’s trying to overthrow Shiba Inu
Updated shitcoin list for 2024
Before we dive deeper into our shitcoin list, we should remind you that you should be extremely careful, as these coins are extremely risky even by cryptocurrency standards.
Most of the cryptocurrencies featured on this list have very weak fundamentals and are unlikely to stick around over the long term. When looking for the best shitcoins to buy, it’s better to go with a short-term strategy and sell them as soon as you make some gains.
Holding such cryptocurrencies over the long term is usually not the best idea, as such projects tend to fade from popularity rather quickly and are then replaced by new shitcoin projects.
1. Dogwifhat (WIF)
Dogwifhat tops our list of the best shitcoins to buy for a very simple reason – it is up more than 50,000% in the past 6 months alone. WIF is representative of the broader trend we’ve seen during the last crypto bull run, in particular hype around various meme coins issued on the Solana blockchain.
The meme coin is based on the popular online meme involving Achie, who is a dog wearing a pink beanie hat. It’s worth noting that the original picture of Achie was purchased by a trader by the name “GiganticRebirth” during an auction held by Foundation in March 2024. The trader purchased the meme picture for a staggering 1,210 ETH (worth $4 million at the time of the purchase).
At the time of writing, WIF commands a $2.64 billion market cap, which is enough to place the meme coin among the 50 largest crypto projects by market cap. Considering that the token was launched as recently as November 2023, its rise is nothing short of remarkable.
2. Bonk (BONK)
Bonk is a meme coin built on the Solana blockchain. It made waves during its launch in late 2022 when it was distributed for free to the Solana community. According to the Bonk website, the project aims to reduce the influence of venture capital investors on the Solana ecosystem and bring power back to “the people.”
According to the Bonk team, the coin has seen over 130 integrations across sectors such as gaming, gambling, decentralized finance, and NFTs. For example, the Bonk community has created several games where users can spend and earn their BONK. Users can also deposit their BONK in a variety of DeFi tools to earn yield, participate in no-loss lotteries, and so forth.
While Bonk had quite a bit of hype going for it at its launch, the token has lost a lot of its relevance as it had a market capitalization of just $16.9 million in July 2023. However, the interest in BONK skyrocketed along with other Solana-based meme coins, and the project now commands a staggering $1.44 billion market cap, placing it firmly among the most successful meme coins of 2024.
3. Pepe (PEPE)
Pepe exploded onto the cryptocurrency scene in April of 2023 and immediately attracted a massive amount of attention thanks to a major price rally. At the time, Pepe almost single-handedly renewed the crypto market’s interest in meme coins, which faded from relevance in the 2022 bear market.
While the PEPE markets have cooled off a bit since the frenzy last May, it’s still the third-largest meme coin by market capitalization and commands an impressive $2.45 billion valuation at the time of writing.
In terms of fundamentals, the Pepe team hasn’t been announcing any new features or products. To be fair, however, PEPE was never advertised as a useful token, as the team has been upfront about PEPE simply being a “useless” meme token.
4. Dogs (DOGS)
Dogs is a meme coin project that originated within the Telegram community, with its DOGS token issued as a Jetton on the TON Blockchain. The project’s mascot is a drawing of a dog created by Telegram founder Pavel Durov, which was originally part of a charity auction.
The Dogs project aims to build the largest meme coin community globally by leveraging Telegram’s extensive user base. At the time of writing, the official Dogs Telegram channel has amassed over 16 million subscribers. The project’s core principles emphasize community distribution and fair reward allocation.
Initially, DOGS tokens were distributed to Telegram users based on various factors, such as the age of their Telegram account, wallet reputation, and other criteria.
The total supply of DOGS tokens is 550 billion, with 72.73% reserved for community airdrops, further reinforcing its commitment to broad and equitable distribution.
5. Dogecoin (DOGE)
Dogecoin is widely regarded as the first meme coin, created in December 2013 by Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer. Although it now boasts a market capitalization in the billions, Dogecoin was originally conceived as a joke, satirizing the rampant speculation in the cryptocurrency space.
The coin’s name, “Dogecoin,” is a nod to the popular “doge” meme, and its branding centers around the iconic image of a Shiba Inu dog. In a way, all meme coins that have come after Dogecoin are trying to replicate its success.
Unlike Bitcoin and Litecoin, which have capped supplies, Dogecoin has no maximum supply. Each year, 5 billion new DOGE are added to the circulating supply. Dogecoin has gained significant attention and support, particularly from billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has publicly stated that DOGE is his favorite cryptocurrency.
6. Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGECOIN)
Baby Doge Coin is a meme coin that launched in 2021 following the huge success of Dogecoin. As the project’s name implies, the coin attempted to capitalize on the hype around Dogecoin, and it has been partially successful — at the time of writing, BABYDOGE maintains a very respectable market capitalization of about $329 million, placing it among the top 10 largest meme coins by market cap.
We have to note that Baby Doge Coin appears to be among the more serious meme coin projects, as they are attempting to give BABYDOGE some additional utility.
The Baby Doge Coin team has launched a DEX called Baby Doge Swap and an NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain. In this way, Baby Doge Coin is quite similar to Shiba Inu, which is currently the second-largest meme coin by market capitalization.
In terms of tokenomics, Baby Doge Coin implements an auto burn mechanism, a 5% transaction fee that is redistributed to BABYDOGE holders. While this can have some interesting effects, the 5% fee, unfortunately, also provides an incentive against actually using the BABYDOGE token and, therefore, limits its adoption.
7. Floki Inu (FLOKI)
Similarly to Baby Doge Coin, Floki Inu is another cryptocurrency created in an attempt to capitalize on the Dogecoin/Shiba Inu frenzy in 2021. The name Floki comes from the name of Elon Musk’s Shiba Inu dog. The name comes from the TV show “Vikings,” which explains the Viking-themed branding of the Floki Inu coin.
However, while most copycat meme coins launched in 2021 have faded into obscurity, Floki Inu has demonstrated some staying power as it still maintains an impressive $1.76 billion market cap, which is good enough for the 58th spot in the cryptocurrency rankings.
The Floki Inu project has also adopted an approach similar to Shiba Inu, launching various products with the goal of providing some extra utility to FLOKI. For example, they’ve launched a 3D NFT collection, a decentralized finance tool called FlokiFi locker, and a Metaverse game called Valhalla.
8. Dogelon Mars (ELON)
Dogelon Mars is yet another example of a coin that was launched to ride the meme coin bull market that was sparked by Elon Musk’s endorsement of Dogecoin in 2021. While it’s not exactly one of the biggest cryptocurrencies on the market, it still retains a respectable market cap of $86.4 million.
Unlike what we’ve seen with Baby Doge Coin and Floki Inu, the Dogelon Musk project doesn’t really appear to be making any additional products or prioritizing the ELON token’s utility. In fact, the only “product” highlighted on the project’s website is a comic series.
The Dogelon Mars project seems to mostly be relying on community support and social media marketing, similarly to what we’re seeing with Pepe.
9. Rich Quack (QUACK)
Rich Quack is a crypto project on the BNB Chain blockchain platform. It implements some unique tokenomics policies, such as a 12% fee on each transaction that is distributed to QUACK holders, liquidity pools, a burn wallet, and a developer wallet. The token also has an “anti-whale” features which prevents anyone from selling more than 1% of the total token supply in a single transaction.
The Rich Quack project also says it’s providing incubation services to other projects, including advisory services, marketing support, and assistance with exchange listings and marketmaking.
At the time of writing, Rich Quack has a market capitalization of about $52.2 million, which places it at the 520th position in the crypto market cap rankings.
10. Shiba Predator (QOM)
Shiba Predator is a token launched on the Ethereum blockchain that claims to be trying to overthrow the Shiba Inu meme token. The project urges users to “flip” the market caps of the two projects by swapping their SHIB tokens for QOM tokens, thereby decreasing the market cap of SHIB and increasing the market cap of QOM.
So far, the project’s attempts to surpass the market cap of Shiba Inu have been a total failure. Shiba Predator has a market capitalization of $30 million, while Shiba Inu is comfortably sitting at a market cap valuation of $15.26 billion. In other words, Shiba Inu is currently about 500 times larger than Shiba Predator.
The Shiba Predator also provides some perks to QOM token holders. For example, it implements a staking mechanism that allows users to mint NFT digital trading cards.
What is the best exchange to buy shitcoins?
The best place to buy shitcoins are decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap if you’re trying to buy a token on Ethereum or PancakeSwap if you are looking to buy a token on BNB Chain. These decentralized exchanges don’t have any listing requirements, so any project can list its own token so long as it provides some liquidity. Some shitcoins that have reached significant market capitalization have even been picked up by major centralized exchanges.
However, this also means that decentralized exchanges are a bit of a Wild West, as scams and fake projects are constantly on the prowl trying to take advantage of unassuming users.
The bottom line
Shitcoins are not for everyone, as they are extremely risky and usually have almost no fundamentals to back up their value. The price of shitcoins tends to fluctuate almost entirely based on hype, and older projects can fall out of favor very quickly when a new shitcoin begins gaining a lot of popularity.
Instead of buying shitcoins, consider exploring more high-quality cryptocurrency projects that have much better chances of sticking around for the long term. We provide an up-to-date list of the best cryptocurrencies to buy, which is a great place to get started.