I Bought $100 of Every Meme Coin in 2024—Here Are the Results

A $1,000 experiment in gambling disguised as investing (spoiler: it went exactly as expected)

The Stupidest Bet I Ever Made (On Purpose)

On January 1, 2024, I made a decision that violated every principle of sound investing I’ve ever preached.

I took $1,000 and split it equally across 10 of the most ridiculous meme coins I could find:

1. Dogecoin (DOGE) – The OG meme coin
2. Shiba Inu (SHIB) – The “Doge killer”
3. Pepe (PEPE) – The frog meme coin
4. Floki Inu (FLOKI) – Named after Elon’s dog
5. Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) – Baby Doge, doo doo doo
6. Bonk (BONK) – Solana’s meme coin
7. Dogwifhat (WIF) – Literally a dog with a hat
8. Book of Meme (BOME) – I don’t even know
9. Myro (MYRO) – Another dog coin
10. Popcat (POPCAT) – A clicking cat meme

$100 each. $1,000 total. Pure, unadulterated degeneracy.

Why did I do this?

Not because I thought it was smart. But because I wanted to document what happens when you treat crypto like a casino instead of an investment.

Spoiler alert: It went exactly as you’d expect—and somehow worse.

Let me walk you through the 11-month roller coaster, the winners, the losers, and the lessons that cost me $427.

The Selection Criteria (aka None)

How did I choose these specific meme coins?

My scientific methodology:

1. Scrolled through CoinMarketCap
2. Looked for coins with:
   • Stupid names
   • Dog/animal themes
   • Meme-based marketing
   • Active Twitter communities
   • No real utility or purpose
3. Picked 10 that made me laugh
4. Bought $100 of each

No fundamental analysis. No technical analysis. No due diligence.

Just vibes and dog pictures.

This is how 90% of retail investors choose altcoins, by the way. I was just honest about it.

Month 1: The Honeymoon Phase (January 2024)

Starting value: $1,000 total ($100 per coin)

Ending value: $1,347

Gain: +34.7%

What happened:

Every. Single. Coin. Went. Up.

INDIVIDUAL COIN PERFORMANCE – MONTH 1:

Dogecoin: +42% (worth $142) Shiba Inu: +38% (worth $138) Pepe: +67% (worth $167) Floki Inu: +31% (worth $131) Baby Doge Coin: +23% (worth $123) Bonk: +19% (worth $119) Dogwifhat: +87% (worth $187) Book of Meme: +52% (worth $152) Myro: +15% (worth $115) Popcat: +28% (worth $128)

I felt like a genius.

“Maybe meme coins are the future!” I thought. “Maybe I’m early to something big!”

The crypto Twitter echo chamber reinforced this delusion:

• “WIF is going to $10!”
• “PEPE will flip SHIB!”
• “This is the year of meme coins!”

Classic mistake: Confusing a bull market with brains.

When everything is going up, it’s easy to think you’re smart. You’re not. You’re just lucky.

Month 2-3: Reality Sets In (February-March 2024)

Month 2 ending value: $1,156 (-14% from peak) Month 3 ending value: $897 (-33% from peak, -10% from start)

What happened:

The market rotated. Bitcoin was consolidating. Attention shifted away from meme coins.

Suddenly:

• WIF dropped 40% from its high
• BOME crashed 60%
• MYRO bled slowly every single day
• Even DOGE and SHIB were down 20-30%

COIN PERFORMANCE – MONTH 3:

Dogecoin: +8% from start (worth $108) Shiba Inu: +12% from start (worth $112) Pepe: +23% from start (worth $123) Floki Inu: -15% from start (worth $85) Baby Doge Coin: -22% from start (worth $78) Bonk: -28% from start (worth $72) Dogwifhat: +41% from start but down 50% from peak (worth $141) Book of Meme: -35% from start (worth $65) Myro: -47% from start (worth $53) Popcat: -12% from start (worth $88)

The panic started:

Should I sell? Should I buy more? Should I hold?

I checked my portfolio 10+ times per day. Each time it was lower.

The emotional cycle had begun:

• Euphoria (Month 1)
• Anxiety (Month 2)
• Fear (Month 3)
• Capitulation (coming in Month 4-5)

Classic retail investor behavior. I was living it in real-time.

Month 4-6: The Grind Lower (April-June 2024)

Month 6 ending value: $623 (-54% from peak, -38% from start)

What happened:

The slow bleed. Nothing crashed dramatically. Just a steady, soul-crushing grind lower.

Every week: -5%. Then -8%. Then -6%. Never a big move, just relentless selling.

By June, half my coins were down 50%+ from my purchase price:

COIN PERFORMANCE – MONTH 6:

Dogecoin: -8% from start (worth $92) Shiba Inu: -5% from start (worth $95) Pepe: -12% from start (worth $88) Floki Inu: -43% from start (worth $57) Baby Doge Coin: -67% from start (worth $33) Bonk: -58% from start (worth $42) Dogwifhat: -31% from start (worth $69) Book of Meme: -74% from start (worth $26) Myro: -81% from start (worth $19) Popcat: -42% from start (worth $58)

Two coins (BABYDOGE and BOME) had lost more than 70%. One coin (MYRO) had lost 81%.

Lessons learned in these months:

Lesson 1: Liquidity dries up fast When I tried to sell some MYRO, the spread was 8%. Meaning I’d lose 8% just executing the trade. Nobody wanted to buy.

Lesson 2: “Strong communities” vanish The Twitter accounts that were posting 50 times a day in January posted once a week in June. The Telegram groups went silent. Everyone had moved on to the next shiny thing.

Lesson 3: There’s always a new meme coin Why hold PEPE when there’s now BRETT? Why hold WIF when there’s now MEW? The rotation never stops, and old meme coins become forgotten meme coins.

Lesson 4: I was emotionally exhausted I stopped checking my portfolio daily. It hurt too much. This is exactly when retail investors sell at the bottom.

Month 7-8: Capitulation and Rug Pulls (July-August 2024)

Month 7 ending value: $487 (-64% from peak, -51% from start)

What happened:

Two of my coins effectively died:

Baby Doge Coin: The developers stopped updating. The website went down. The coin was delisted from several exchanges.

• My $100 → Now worth $8

Book of Meme: Suspected rug pull. Developers cashed out. Liquidity removed.

• My $100 → Now worth $3

Meanwhile, the other coins continued bleeding:

COIN PERFORMANCE – MONTH 7:

Dogecoin: -18% from start (worth $82) Shiba Inu: -21% from start (worth $79) Pepe: -28% from start (worth $72) Floki Inu: -61% from start (worth $39) Baby Doge Coin: -92% from start (worth $8) Bonk: -71% from start (worth $29) Dogwifhat: -53% from start (worth $47) Book of Meme: -97% from start (worth $3) Myro: -88% from start (worth $12) Popcat: -58% from start (worth $42)

I had officially lost half my money.

The realization hit:

This wasn’t investing. This was gambling. And the house (early investors, developers, whales) always wins.

I considered selling everything and cutting my losses.

But at this point, what was the point? I’d already lost 50%. Might as well see it through to the end.

This is called “capitulation.” When the pain is so great that you either sell at the bottom or go completely numb.

I went numb.

Month 9-10: The Dead Cat Bounce (September-October 2024)

Month 9 ending value: $651 (+34% from low, still -35% from start)

What happened:

Bitcoin started rallying in anticipation of ETF approvals and halving momentum building.

When Bitcoin pumps, meme coins pump harder (in both directions).

Suddenly, my portfolio came back to life:

COIN PERFORMANCE – MONTH 9:

Dogecoin: +18% from start (worth $118) Shiba Inu: +24% from start (worth $124) Pepe: +42% from start (worth $142) Floki Inu: -38% from start (worth $62) Baby Doge Coin: -89% from start (worth $11) Bonk: -52% from start (worth $48) Dogwifhat: -15% from start (worth $85) Book of Meme: -94% from start (worth $6) Myro: -79% from start (worth $21) Popcat: -16% from start (worth $84)

The winners: DOGE, SHIB, PEPE (the OG meme coins with actual liquidity) The losers: Everything else (the small-cap garbage)

Key insight:

Even in a recovery, the quality meme coins (if you can call them that) recovered. The trash stayed trash.

Month 11: The Final Tally (November 2024)

Final value: $573

Total loss: -42.7%

Time invested: Hundreds of hours watching charts, reading Twitter, stressing Lessons learned: Priceless (but expensive)

FINAL RESULTS BY COIN:

Dogecoin: +47% (worth $147) – WINNER Shiba Inu: +31% (worth $131) – WINNER Pepe: +68% (worth $168) – WINNER Floki Inu: -29% (worth $71) Baby Doge Coin: -87% (worth $13) Bonk: -44% (worth $56) Dogwifhat: +12% (worth $112) Book of Meme: -92% (worth $8) Myro: -74% (worth $26) Popcat: -9% (worth $91)

WINNERS (3 coins): +$146 total gain LOSERS (7 coins): -$573 total loss

Net result: -$427 loss (-42.7% return)

What I Learned About Meme Coins

After 11 months of this chaos, here’s what the data clearly shows:

Learning #1: Only 3 Out of 10 Made Money

Winners:

• Dogecoin: +47%
• Shiba Inu: +31%
• Pepe: +68%

What they had in common:

• Established (launched years ago, not months)
• High liquidity (billions in daily volume)
• Listed on major exchanges (Coinbase, Binance, Kraken)
• Large communities (millions of holders)

Losers:

• Floki, BabyDoge, Bonk, WIF, BOME, MYRO, Popcat

What they had in common:

• Newer (launched in last 1-2 years)
• Low liquidity (thin order books)
• Smaller exchanges only
• Hype-driven communities that disappeared

The pattern: Established meme coins with liquidity survived. New meme coins died.

Learning #2: The Volatility Was Insane

Peak portfolio value: $1,347 (+34.7%) Bottom portfolio value: $487 (-51.3%) Final value: $573 (-42.7%)

That’s an 85% swing from peak to trough.

Compare this to:

• Bitcoin same period: 30% swing
• S&P 500 same period: 15% swing
• Bonds same period: 5% swing

Meme coins are 3-6x more volatile than Bitcoin, which is already extremely volatile.

Can you handle 85% swings? Most people can’t. I barely could, and I knew it was an experiment.

Learning #3: Rug Pulls and Exits Are Common

Two of my ten coins (20%) effectively rugged:

Baby Doge Coin: Down 87%, developers vanished, effectively dead Book of Meme: Down 92%, suspected exit scam

This is the dirty secret of meme coins:

Many are launched with intention to pump and dump:

1. Create coin with cute name
2. Market heavily on Twitter/Telegram
3. Retail buys in
4. Developers sell their holdings
5. Liquidity dries up
6. Coin dies
7. Developers launch next coin

It’s a repeating cycle, and retail always holds the bag.

Learning #4: “Strong Communities” Are Illusions

Every meme coin claims to have a “strong community” and “diamond hands.”

Reality:

When prices go up: Community active, posting 24/7, “We’re going to the moon!” When prices go down: Community vanishes, Twitter goes silent, Telegram groups die

The “community” was people who wanted to get rich quick.

When that didn’t happen, they left.

There’s no loyalty in meme coins. Just greed.

Learning #5: You’re Gambling, Not Investing

Let’s be honest about what meme coins are:

Not investments because:

• No cash flows (unlike stocks)
• No intrinsic value (unlike real estate)
• No utility (unlike Ethereum)
• No scarcity (unlimited meme coins can be created)
• No underlying asset (unlike gold)

What they are:

• Speculation on greater fool theory
• Bets that someone will pay more than you did
• Gambling on hype and momentum
• Lottery tickets with cute dog pictures

If you buy meme coins, you’re going to the casino. Own that.

The Comparison to Real Investments

Let’s compare my meme coin experiment to what $1,000 would have done elsewhere:

INVESTMENT COMPARISON (Jan 2024 – Nov 2024):

My Meme Coins: -42.7% (worth $573) Bitcoin: +83% (worth $1,830) S&P 500 Index: +26% (worth $1,260) Total Stock Market: +24% (worth $1,240) Gold: +27% (worth $1,270) High-Yield Savings (5% APY): +4.6% (worth $1,046)

Every single legitimate investment beat my meme coin portfolio.

Even cash sitting in a savings account beat my “high risk, high reward” meme coins.

The worst part?

I spent 100+ hours:

• Researching coins
• Reading Twitter
• Monitoring prices
• Stressing about losses

If I’d bought Bitcoin or an index fund, I would have:

• Spent 1 hour total
• Made $260-830 instead of losing $427
• Slept better

Time wasted: 100 hours Opportunity cost: $687-1,257 Stress level: Off the charts

When Meme Coins Make Sense (If Ever)

Let me be clear: I don’t recommend meme coins for 99% of people.

But if you’re going to do it anyway, here are the only circumstances where it’s not completely insane:

RULE #1: Treat it like a casino

Maximum allocation: 1-2% of your portfolio

If you have $100,000, that’s $1,000-2,000 max in meme coins.

Why: You can afford to lose 1-2% without affecting your financial future. Losing 10-20%+ would hurt.

RULE #2: Only bet what you can afford to lose completely

Every dollar in meme coins should be assumed to go to zero.

Don’t use:

• Emergency fund money
• Down payment savings
• Retirement funds
• Money you need within 5 years

Only use: Money you’d otherwise spend on entertainment/gambling

RULE #3: Stick to established meme coins

If you must buy meme coins, stick to the top 3-5:

• Dogecoin (DOGE)
• Shiba Inu (SHIB)
• Pepe (PEPE)

Why these specifically:

• Listed on Coinbase (regulatory scrutiny)
• Billions in daily volume (can actually sell)
• Years of existence (survived multiple cycles)
• Large holder bases (millions of people)

Avoid:

• New launches (90%+ failure rate)
• Low volume coins (can’t sell)
• Single-exchange listings (delisting risk)
• Anything with “Inu,” “Baby,” or “Moon” in the name (unless established)

RULE #4: Take profits on the way up

If a meme coin 5-10x’s, sell at least your initial investment.

Example:

• Bought $100 of WIF
• It goes to $500 (5x)
• Sell $100, let $400 ride

Now you’re playing with house money.

Most people never take profits. They ride it up and then ride it down.

RULE #5: Set a loss limit and stick to it

If a meme coin drops 50%, sell it.

Don’t average down. Don’t hope for recovery. Just sell and move on.

Why: A coin that drops 50% can easily drop another 90%. Cut your losses.

My mistake: I held MYRO from -50% to -88%. Should have sold at -50%.

RULE #6: Never use leverage or margin

If you’re buying meme coins on leverage, you’re out of your mind.

These assets swing 20-50% in a day. Leverage will liquidate you instantly.

Stick to spot purchases only.

The Psychology of Meme Coin Gambling

The real lesson from this experiment wasn’t financial—it was psychological.

Meme coins hijack your brain:

Stage 1: Excitement “This is fun! Look at all these dog coins! I might get rich!”

Stage 2: Euphoria “I’m up 30%! I’m a genius! I should buy more!”

Stage 3: Greed “If I’m up 30%, I could be up 300%! I’m not selling!”

Stage 4: Denial “It’s just a dip. It’ll come back. Diamond hands!”

Stage 5: Anxiety “Why is it still dropping? Should I sell? Maybe it’ll bounce tomorrow…”

Stage 6: Fear “I’ve lost 50%. If I sell now, I lock in the loss. Maybe I should hold…”

Stage 7: Capitulation “I give up. This was stupid. I’m done caring.”

Stage 8: Depression “I lost $427 and hundreds of hours. What was I thinking?”

This is the exact psychological journey every meme coin gambler takes.

The coins are designed to trigger these emotions:

• Memes create excitement
• Price pumps create euphoria
• FOMO keeps you from selling
• “Diamond hands” culture shames selling
• Hope keeps you holding losers

It’s psychological manipulation masquerading as investment.

Real Success Stories (And Why They’re Misleading)

“But I know someone who made $100,000 on meme coins!”

Yes, some people do. Here’s why their story is misleading:

Survivorship bias:

For every person who made $100K:

• 100 people lost $1,000
• 1,000 people lost $100
• 10,000 people bought at the peak and held to zero

You only hear about the winners.

Timing luck:

The people who made money:

• Bought in first month of launch (before you heard about it)
• Sold within 1-2 months (before the crash)
• Got extremely lucky on timing

Can you replicate this? Probably not.

Unsustainable:

Even the “winners” rarely repeat their success:

• They try again with the next meme coin and lose it all
• Or they sell too early on the next 100x coin
• Or they never find another winner

Making money once on meme coins is luck. Making money consistently is impossible.

What I’d Do Differently

If I could redo this experiment (I won’t), here’s what I’d change:

Strategy 1: Only Buy Top 3 Established Meme Coins

• Dogecoin
• Shiba Inu
• Pepe

These three made money. Everything else lost. The data is clear.

Strategy 2: Take Profits at 2x

When any coin doubled, I’d sell half:

• Lock in initial investment
• Let rest ride with house money
• Remove emotional attachment

Strategy 3: Strict Stop Loss at -30%

Any coin that dropped 30% from my purchase, I’d sell immediately:

• Prevents -87% disasters
• Cuts losers early
• Frees capital for better opportunities

Strategy 4: Never Check Prices Daily

Checking constantly led to:

• Emotional decisions
• Stress and anxiety
• Time waste

Better: Check weekly max, rebalance monthly.

Strategy 5: Cap Allocation at 1% of Net Worth

$1,000 wasn’t life-changing money, but the experiment took mental energy.

1% allocation means:

• If you lose it all, you’re fine
• If it 10x’s, you made something
• You can sleep at night

Even better strategy: Don’t buy meme coins at all. Put that 1% in Bitcoin.

The Honest Advice

After 11 months and -42.7% returns, here’s my honest advice on meme coins:

DON’T BUY MEME COINS if:

• You can’t afford to lose the money
• You have credit card debt
• You don’t have an emergency fund
• You’re not maxing retirement accounts
• You can’t handle 80% drops
• You’ll check prices daily
• You’re hoping to get rich quick

ONLY BUY MEME COINS if:

• You have a strong financial foundation (retirement funded, emergency fund, no debt)
• You’re allocating 1% or less of net worth
• You understand you’re gambling, not investing
• You can laugh if it goes to zero
• You’re doing it for entertainment value
• You already own Bitcoin/Ethereum/index funds

For 99% of people reading this: Skip meme coins entirely.

Buy Bitcoin if you want crypto exposure. Buy index funds if you want to build wealth. Buy lottery tickets if you want to gamble.

Don’t confuse the three.

If you do own meme coins across multiple wallets and exchanges, tracking them alongside real investments helps maintain perspective. Richify consolidates crypto holdings from all exchanges and wallets into one view, showing your meme coin gambling as the small percentage it should be—not your whole portfolio.

The Final Lesson

I lost $427 and hundreds of hours to learn what I already knew:

Meme coins are speculation, not investment.

But the real loss wasn’t financial—it was opportunity cost:

If I’d invested that $1,000 in:

• Bitcoin: Made $830 profit
• Index funds: Made $240 profit
• High-yield savings: Made $46 profit

Instead: Lost $427

Total opportunity cost: $667-1,257

And the time spent?

100+ hours watching charts, reading Twitter, stressing out.

At $50/hour, that’s $5,000 in lost productivity.

Real total cost: $5,427

To learn what I could have learned by reading a single article: Don’t gamble on meme coins.

The Bottom Line

Meme coins are the junk food of investing:

• Fun and exciting in the moment
• Terrible for your financial health
• Addictive despite being bad for you
• Marketed with cute imagery
• Designed to take your money

Every portfolio needs balance.

Your portfolio should look like this:

HEALTHY PORTFOLIO ALLOCATION:

Core holdings (90-95%): Index funds, Bitcoin, real estate, bonds Speculative (5-10%): Individual stocks, Ethereum, alternatives Pure gambling (0-1%): Meme coins, lottery tickets, sports betting

If meme coins are more than 1% of your portfolio, you have a gambling problem, not an investment strategy.

I went into this experiment knowing it was stupid.

The surprising part? It was even stupider than I expected.

Do yourself a favor: Buy index funds, hold Bitcoin if you want crypto exposure, and ignore the dog coins.

Your future self will thank you.

And you’ll save yourself $427 and 100 hours of stress.

If you’re going to gamble on meme coins, at least track them properly alongside real investments. Richify connects to exchanges and wallets, showing your meme coin allocation as the tiny percentage it should be in your complete portfolio. Don’t let gambling look like investing—see the full picture.