How to Buy Meme Coins: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Why do people buy meme coins?

Meme coins can deliver returns that frequently surpass traditional assets like stocks, real estate, or gold. For example, buying Dogecoin at its yearly low of around $0.0046 USD and selling it at its all-time high of around $0.738 USD in 2021 would have yielded an approximate 15,943% return.

Easy accessibility that appeals to buyers with limited experience. Getting started requires only an internet-connected device, a cryptocurrency digital wallet, and cash as small as just one cent. Unlike stocks, which require a bank account, extensive personal verification, and brokerage registration, acquiring meme coins involves a friction-free setup process.

Extreme volatility attracts traders interested in high-risk market timing and execution. Unpredictable price swings can test trading strategies under pressure much faster than traditional financial assets. These rapid changes may appeal to traders who seek opportunities to practice quick decision-making and risk management.

Community engagement inspires many buyers to purchase and hold meme coins. Many buyers want to support the meme, participate in an online community, or contribute to a shared internet trend, regardless of the coin's financial value. This community-driven appeal is closely connected to the fact that many meme coins originate from internet jokes, viral trends, or online culture.

The risks you need to understand before buying meme coins

Two primary risks to notice before buying meme coins.

Meme coins often lose most or all of their value due to limited technical development and the absence of detailed project plans. Instead, most meme coins rely on existing blockchain networks such as Solana, Ethereum, Base, or BNB Chain.

The large number of new meme coins entering the market increases competition. Without a legitimate team to operate the meme coins, the values of the meme coins typically go to zero. Only those that build a strong community or evolve into utility coins tend to survive. For example, Shiba Inu launched with the slogan “the Dogecoin killer” and a group of die-hard supporters, and then Shiba Inu went on to develop its own decentralized applications such as ShibaSwap and Shibarium.

Rug pulls and pump-and-dumps are other major risks that cause meme coin prices to spike and then crash, using slightly different methods and targeting different outcomes.

A rug pull is a malicious exit scam that allows a project's creators to take investors' funds and abandon the project. This can happen when creators drain liquidity from a liquidity pool, modify the coin's smart contract to prevent investors from selling, or simply disappear with the funds raised from the market.

A pump-and-dump is a form of market manipulation in which the creators spread exaggerated hype, such as hiring bots to post massively on social media or in communities about the potential for high returns, to attract buyers, drive the price up, and then sell the holdings of the creators all at once without anyone noticing.

Ways to buy meme coins

Two main options, each suited to different types of meme coins and levels of operational complexity, which refers to the chance of user error in the buying process.

Option 1: Buy established coins on a centralized exchange (CEX)

This works best for well-known, widely listed meme coins such as Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or Pepe and carries lower operational complexity. The process is relatively simple and usually involves three steps, such as creating an account on a major exchange like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Gemini, Robinhood, or Bitget, adding funds via bank transfer, card, or existing cryptocurrency, and placing a market or limit order.

Because the centralized exchange handles custody and order matching, the experience is straightforward for most users.

Option 2: Use a self-custody wallet and a decentralized exchange (DEX)

This is typically required for newly launched or smaller market-capitalization meme coins that have not yet been listed on centralized exchanges and involves higher operational complexity. The process requires more steps, for example, setting up a non-custodial wallet, acquiring the base currency of the relevant blockchain network, which is a blockchain network’s native coin used to pay for transaction fees known as gas fees and to power the network’s operations, and connecting the wallet to a DEX like Pump. Fun, Raydium, Uniswap, Jupiter, or PancakeSwap, carefully verifying the coin’s official contract address, which is a unique identifier on a blockchain network that points to a specific smart contract, and executing the swap.

While this option gives direct access to the earliest opportunities, it also places full responsibility for security and accuracy on the user.

How to invest in meme coins: Step-by-Step

Step 1: Preparation before buying meme coins

• An internet-connected device, which can be a phone, a tablet, or a laptop.
• Set up a cryptocurrency account to buy meme coins on centralized exchanges like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Gemini, Robinhood, or Bitget, or decentralized exchanges like Pump, Raydium, Uniswap, Jupiter, or PancakeSwap.

• Get a cryptocurrency digital wallet to store meme coins. Digital wallets fall into two categories.

  • A custodial wallet, also known as an exchange wallet, is a wallet in which a third party, a centralized exchange or financial institution, holds and manages the private keys for the user. A private key is a secret alphanumeric code that acts as a master password to prove ownership and authorize transactions for digital assets on a blockchain network.
  • A non-custodial wallet, also known as a self-custodial wallet, gives the user total and direct control over the digital funds using the private keys belonging to the user. Popular non-custodial wallets include MetaMask, Trust Wallet, and Phantom.

• Connect the digital wallet to the exchanges.

  • For centralized exchanges, the user's custodial wallet will automatically link once the user opens an account and completes Know Your Customer or Know Your Client (KYC) verification, which is a mandatory process used by financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges, and regulated businesses to verify the identity of users.
  • For decentralized exchanges, connect the user's non-custodial wallet to the decentralized exchange that the user wants to use.

• Fund the exchange account.

  • Users need to connect a bank account that holds fiat currency to their cryptocurrency exchange account or transfer stablecoins from an external wallet to the exchange wallet. Once the account is funded, users can use the available funds to purchase meme coins.

Step 2: Verify the memecoin’s contract address

Countless new and existing meme coins enter the market every day, and many counterfeit coins share identical names or tickers. To prevent the risk of buying the wrong coin, always verify the contract address before purchase. Use trusted aggregators like CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap to confirm.

Cross-check the contract address using trusted aggregators such as CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap, the project’s official website and verified social channels, and blockchain explorers such as Etherscan, Solscan, or BscScan. You can also verify the coins and trading pair directly through your wallet or DEX, and compare the address across multiple independent sources.

Step 3: Buy your first memecoin

Use fiat currency to purchase the meme coin directly or convert it into stablecoins such as USDC or USDT. Users can purchase stablecoins on a centralized exchange and then transfer them to a decentralized exchange to buy meme coins. This approach is useful when a decentralized exchange does not support direct purchases with fiat currency.

Some meme coins do not have fiat or stablecoin trading pairs. In those situations, users need to convert fiat currency or stablecoins into the native cryptocurrency of the blockchain network that hosts the meme coin before executing a trade.

Top meme coins to watch

Based on current market attention, these are the top meme coins to watch:

• Dogecoin (DOGE): The well-known meme coin, retail payment adoption, backed by regulated exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and global infrastructure.
• Shiba Inu (SHIB): Expanding decentralized finance ecosystem, the ShibaSwap trading platform, and the Shibarium fast network layer.
• Pepe (PEPE): Strong viral meme culture and high trading volume during active market cycles.
• Bonk (BONK): Strong community backing, heavy usage for fast trading, and rewards on the Solana blockchain network
• Pudgy Penguins (PENGU): Successful brand growth, digital collectibles bridging to physical retail toys.

Market attention shifts rapidly, so top price performance gainers from the previous month can easily become top losers the next month.

Monitor emerging meme coin trends using the trending sections of trusted aggregators like CoinGecko, CoinMarketCap, or CryptoRank, or active communities on Reddit and X, also known as Crypto Twitter (CT).

The fomo app offers another practical option to track trending meme coins, follow real-time trades from top participants, and build custom watchlists.

Self-custody vs. exchange-custody: who controls your coins?

The main difference between self-custody and exchange-custody is who holds the private keys and controls your coins.

Self-custody, also known as non-custodial storage, gives users full control over their cryptocurrency. With wallets such as MetaMask, Trust Wallet, or Phantom, users hold and manage their own private keys, meaning no third party can directly restrict, freeze, or seize their funds. However, this control comes with complete responsibility for wallet security. Losing the seed phrase can result in permanent loss of access to the funds. A seed phrase is typically a sequence of 12 to 24 words that serves as a master backup for recovering a cryptocurrency wallet. If the seed phrase is lost and no other recovery method is available, the funds may be permanently inaccessible.

Exchange custody, also known as exchange-held custody, is a centralized exchange that holds and manages the private keys on your behalf. Losing access to your account may be recoverable because the exchange can typically restore access after verifying your identity. However, this arrangement means the exchange maintains control over the assets and may restrict, freeze, or seize funds in certain circumstances.

Neither approach is better. The right choice depends on whether you prioritize full ownership or convenience and recovery support. Many traders keep smaller trading amounts on centralized exchanges while moving larger balances into self-custody wallets for secure storage.

How to buy meme coins on fomo?

Buying meme coins on the fomo app takes four simple steps.

1. Download the fomo app and sign up with your Apple ID or Google account.
2. Add funds using Apple Pay, a debit card, or a cryptocurrency transfer.
3. Browse trending meme coins.
4. Slide to buy the meme coins you want.

The process of buying meme coins requires no wallet setup, seed phrases, or bridging.

Why you should buy meme coins on fomo

The fomo app can help you approach meme coin trading with more context. The fomo app’s real-time trade feed shows buys and sells made by other traders, while the leaderboard ranks top price performers across different time frames. Following selected traders lets you see their activity and performance history, which can support your own research and decision-making.

See how the fomo’s leaderboard and trade feed work to decide whether the platform fits your memecoin trading approach.