What is a meme coin?
A meme coin is a cryptocurrency that started as an internet joke or community meme rather than to fund a product, such as Dogecoin or Shiba Inu. Its price depends mostly on attention and social media, so meme coins tend to swing much harder than Bitcoin, in both directions.
From the Staxo crypto glossary. The examples use Kraken daily candles (UTC), Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026, for the eight coins on Staxo's free plan that are not stablecoins.
What makes a coin a meme coin
A meme coin starts as a joke or a community in-joke, not as a product. Dogecoin, the first widely known one, was created in 2013 by two software engineers as a parody, named after the Shiba Inu "Doge" meme. Many meme coins since then have copied the formula, often with a dog or a celebrity reference.
There is usually little to value except attention: no cash flows, often no product, and a supply that is very large or, in Dogecoin's case, has no cap at all. The price moves with social media, celebrity posts and the mood of the market. That makes meme coins easy to buy into and hard to judge, and the smallest ones are a common setting for a pump and dump.
Dogecoin against Bitcoin and the other coins
| Coin | 1-year change | Volatility | Max drawdown | Days over 5% | Best day | Correlation with Bitcoin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardano | -62.0% | 76.2% | -80.3% | 65 | +15.2% | 0.80 |
| Dogecoin | -55.8% | 67.7% | -67.7% | 38 | +14.9% | 0.80 |
| Solana | -41.8% | 65.7% | -70.2% | 43 | +11.8% | 0.87 |
| XRP | -41.0% | 64.9% | -62.5% | 36 | +21.2% | 0.86 |
| Ethereum | -34.7% | 62.1% | -63.1% | 37 | +17.5% | 0.91 |
| BNB | -36.3% | 48.3% | -58.1% | 20 | +14.7% | 0.80 |
| Bitcoin | -26.6% | 44.3% | -49.2% | 17 | +12.2% | 1.00 |
| TRON | +2.9% | 23.7% | -16.7% | 1 | +3.8% | 0.42 |
From Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026, Dogecoin's annualized volatility was 67.7%, 1.5 times Bitcoin's 44.3%. It moved more than 5% in a day 38 times against 17 for Bitcoin, fell 67.7% from peak to low and ended the year -55.8%, against -26.6% for Bitcoin.
Still, it was not the wildest coin in this window: Cardano swung more. Being a meme coin makes big swings likely, not certain.
Still tied to Bitcoin
A meme coin is not a way out of the crypto market. Dogecoin's daily returns had a correlation of 0.80 with Bitcoin's, and its beta was 1.22: on average it moved 1.22% for every 1% Bitcoin moved.
Its worst day was Bitcoin's worst day too, Feb 5, 2026: Bitcoin fell 13.9%, Dogecoin 14.7%.
Its best day, +14.9% on Feb 14, 2026, shows the other side of the same volatility. The past year says nothing about the next one, but it shows the range a position in a meme coin had to live with.
How to practice it in Staxo
Dogecoin is on the Staxo free plan, so you can practice it with the $500 in demo money at real prices. Put $100 into Dogecoin and $100 into Bitcoin and check both in your Portfolio every day for two weeks: the same money swings very differently.
If you try leverage with Staxo Pro, keep the numbers above in mind. A 5x long opened on a random daily close in this window hit its liquidation price within 30 days 27% of the time on Dogecoin, against 19% on Bitcoin, on daily closes alone.
Free on iPhone and Android, $500 in demo money. Also on Google Play.Also on the App Store.
Meme coin questions
Is Dogecoin a meme coin?
Yes. It was created in 2013 as a joke based on the Shiba Inu "Doge" meme and is the oldest and largest meme coin. It runs on its own proof-of-work blockchain and has no supply cap.
Why are meme coins so volatile?
Their price depends mostly on attention, so news, social media posts and market mood move them more than coins with a clear use. From Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026, Dogecoin's annualized volatility was 67.7%, against 44.3% for Bitcoin.
Try it with $500 in demo money.
Free download, no card. Also on Google Play.Also on the App Store.
Educational content, not investment advice. The examples describe prices from Oct 10, 2025 to Oct 10, 2026 and say nothing about where they go next. Staxo is a simulator: you practice with demo money, never real money.