By Frank Martin (MoneyAmped.com)
Meme coins have become popular among crypto enthusiasts due to their ability to give significant returns. However, not all are legit projects. Some are created by bad actors who plan to rob investors. This article lists four of the leading meme coin scams to look out for to help you avoid becoming the next victim. But first, let’s understand what exactly meme coins are.
Meme Coins Explained
For starters, meme coins are cryptocurrencies whose value is driven by social media sentiment and their communities. Unlike digital assets like Ethereum or Bitcoin, most meme coins lack utility.
So, what are some of the popular meme coins in 2025? Dogecoin, the largest meme coin by market cap and Elon Musk’s favorite, is one of the most well-known among crypto enthusiasts. Other leading meme coins include BRETT, Shiba Inu, and Pepe.
Top 4 Meme Coin Scams
Rug Pulls
Rug pulls happen when project developers drain liquidity pools, leaving holders with worthless tokens. These are the most common scams in the meme coin ecosystem. The recent notable rug pull involved an American teenager who launched his token ‘Quant’ on Solana via the PumpFun launchpad, promoted it to his supporters, and later sold his holding for $30,000, essentially draining Quant’s liquidity pool.
The good news is that after the teenager abandoned his project, the community took over and propelled Quant’s market capitalization to $1 million.
Fake Presales
Fake presales are scenarios where scammers urge investors to buy their tokens early at discounted prices, but after collecting the funds, they vanish without a trace.
A good example of a presale scam is the Froggy Coin. In February 2024, the developers behind this project urged crypto enthusiasts to invest in the coin, claiming that they had a solid plan to make it successful. However, when Froggy Coin’s launch date arrived, the token was released with a zero balance liquidity pool, signaling that the developers had disappeared with investors’ money.
Pump-and-Dump Schemes
In pump-and-dump schemes, scammers manipulate the prices of their coins by buying large token amounts at considerably low prices, then persuade investors to inject funds by making false promises. As such, the tokens pump, and scammers dump their holdings, causing a price crash.
The recent pump-and-dump scheme happened in January 2025 when a Solana meme coin named CUBA pumped within a few hours into its launch but lost almost all of its gains after its creators dumped $30 million worth of their holdings.
Phishing Attacks
Phishing attacks have been on the rise in the past year. They involve bad actors sharing links on social media to trick people into connecting their crypto wallets to dubious websites in an attempt to gain access to those wallets and drain them.
Why Do Scammers Use Meme Coins to Defraud Crypto Users?
Scammers have flooded the meme coin market due to the following reasons:
Buzz Around Meme Coins
The hype around these cryptocurrencies has attracted bad actors, with unsuspecting investors rushing to purchase coins without due diligence as they attempt to catch early tokens with the potential to rally.
Lack of regulation
The meme coin space remains unregulated, thus allowing scammers to carry out their evil acts without worrying about the consequences. Furthermore, since token creators are not required to reveal their identities to launch projects, it is difficult to trace scammers and hold them accountable for their actions.
FOMO
Bad actors exploit investors’ FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) on what could be the next big crypto project. They make promises of unattainable returns and foster fake partnerships to fuel a sense of urgency among investors, who then rush to invest without researching the projects properly.
Tips for Protecting Yourself for Meme Coin Scams
1. Conduct due diligence: Do not invest in any meme coin out of FOMO. Instead, research the projects you are interested in thoroughly before injecting funds.
2. Do not open random links: We advise against opening links shared on social media as they could lead you to a fraudulent platform, thus causing you to lose your crypto.
