How to Buy Meme Coins: Guide For 2023

10/16/2023 19:04

Often, meme coins have zero intrinsic value or utility in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but despite this, meme coins have become incredibly popular in

Often, meme coins have zero intrinsic value or utility in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, but despite this, meme coins have become incredibly popular in 2023. Coins like Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE) are some of the year’s best-performing cryptos.

Buyers looking to join this latest crypto craze and, hopefully, turn a profit by discovering the next big meme coin run should understand how to buy meme coins and the risks.

How to Buy Meme Coins - 3 Most Popular Ways

Presales and ICOs

Meme coins can be bought early directly from the project’s presale or ICO on its website. It’s usually later in a meme coin’s development that it becomes listed on major exchanges.

Cryptocurrency exchanges and brokers

After a presale or ICO stage, a promising meme coin will begin to be listed on cryptocurrency exchanges. The more popular a meme coin is, the more exchanges will offer the coin.

Decentralized exchanges

Sometimes, meme coins hit decentralized exchanges earlier than centralized cryptocurrency exchanges or are only available exclusively on decentralized exchanges.

Next, this article will cover in-depth how to buy meme coins from presales ICOs and crypto exchanges. Buying meme coins is one of the riskier ways to invest in cryptocurrencies because meme coins usually aren’t part of a wider project, tokens for the governance of a blockchain, nor do they typically have other utility that can make them valuable long-term.

Meme coin prices can plummet quickly if a meme coin project fails, flops, or isn’t popular. The speed, frequency, and ease with which meme coins launch means the meme coin space is plagued with scams. First, here’s a quick summary of what to look for when trying to identify a quality meme coin early.

First, here’s a quick summary of what to look for when trying to identify a quality meme coin early :

Does the meme coin have a robust and genuine community or social backing?
Is the meme coin development team credible?
Does the project have a quality roadmap and whitepaper?
What are the meme coin tokenomics?
How will the meme coin be governed over time?
How many meme coins does the development team own?
Are the smart contract audits or good ratings on analytics sites?
Will the meme coin have utility? Is it unique?

Meme coin buyers must conduct thorough research, understand their risk tolerance, and understand that meme coins are a gamble, only investing what they can afford to lose. Successful meme coins often only succeed by accumulating a real fan base of supporters, collectors, and traders.

Buying Meme Coins from Presales and ICOs

A coins website will detail the presales or ICO, including how to buy a meme coin and any terms or tokenomics to understand when owning the coin.

These are the usual steps to buy a meme coin from a presale or ICO:

Complete thorough research
Understand any terms, conditions, and tokenomics
Find the “How to Buy” page on the project’s website
Connect a wallet such as MetaMask or Trust Wallet
Indicate the crypto you want to exchange or fund the purchase with a credit card
Finalize the transaction

What to watch out for:

Buying meme coins early via a presale can have a higher risk. Presales can be used to fund projects, and projects can often fail to raise funding. Be aware of the risk of rug pulls and pump and dump schemes

Presale and ICO scams are prevalent. The project might have little social support yet, but checking if social accounts and followers are genuine is wise. Is the team genuine? Are they personally promoting? Does on-chain/blockchain wallet research using tools like Etherscan show that others are buying this meme coin? Is the coin or token vetted or audited?

Buying Meme Coins from Cryptocurrency Exchanges and Brokers

Meme coins are usually listed on major cryptocurrency exchanges or offered by brokers once they show signs of becoming popular and credible. Once meme coins are listed on an exchange, their price is usually higher than when buying in a pre-sale or ICO.

To buy from an exchange:

Still complete thorough research.
Open an account or choose a previously used cryptocurrency exchange.
Complete any verification or security steps for an exchange account.
Buy meme coins with existing cryptocurrency balances or fiat currency.
Closely watch the meme coin performance and be ready to sell or set stop-loss orders.

What to watch out for:

Buying Meme coins through decentralized exchanges:

Some meme coins are only listed on decentralized exchanges (DEX) such as Uniswap. This can be by choice, but it can also be because they don’t meet exchange criteria. Buying meme coins on decentralized exchange follows these steps:

Conduct complete research, understanding why the meme is only available on a DEX
Identify a DEX
Connect a Web3 wallet
Search for the meme coin and specify the purchase amount and funding
Finalize the transaction

What to watch out for:

If a meme coin hasn’t qualified to be listed on a centralized exchange or isn’t yet approved, it’s essential to understand why in case this indicates a problem. Extra research may be required when purchasing such a meme coin crypto.

Be especially careful of projects where the developers hold a large proportion of the meme coin, as they will influence liquidity greatly. If they sell coins quickly, the meme coins price could crash.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Meme coins can be bought via an ICO or presale and on exchanges. Meme coin prices can be low at the presale stage, but these purchases carry more risk. Major exchanges are safer, but there is still much risk, and research and due diligence is necessary.

Meme coins are risky and should always be treated as a gamble, with buyers only investing what they can afford to lose. Understanding the risks and potential is critical when buying meme coins. Though high risk, an early purchase of a meme coin that gains traction can lead to healthy returns.