Key Takeaways
- As meme coins become more popular, associated scams have become increasingly sophisticated and target potential investors with hype and unrealistic profit promises.
- Common scams include coordinated shilling, MEV bot front running, fake partnerships, social profile hacks, false celebrity-backed meme coins, and classic rug pulls.
- To stay safe, investors must educate themselves to identify scams. The smallest lapse in judgment could lead to the loss of colossal amounts of money.
While meme coins have traditionally stirred controversy, excitement, and a strong sense of FOMO, in 2025, they have reached a crescendo, especially following the involvement of the US’s first family. Since they are so popular, they have attracted scores of investors and, unfortunately, an equal number of scammers. This article identifies the top meme coin scams you should beware of in 2025.
The Rise of Meme Coins in 2025
Meme coins may have been in circulation for over a decade, but the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025 have seen a steep rise in their numbers and popularity. While the tokens may not necessarily have value as a currency, even US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump joined the act. They offered the $TRUMP and $MELANIA coins, respectively, attracting millions of fans and investors into meme coins. Based on pop culture fads, cute animals, and viral internet jokes, the same meme coins that have created a revolutionary financial system have a darker side. Meme coin scams have become increasingly widespread and sophisticated, causing unsuspecting investors substantial monetary losses. Below is a quick look at the most prevalent meme coins scams to avoid in the 2025 Bull Run.
Common Meme Coin Scams to Avoid in 2025
Different meme coin scams have been crafted to create an illusion of legitimacy and deceive investors. The following are the most prevalent ones in 2025 and how you can spot them from a distance:
Coordinated Shilling
Coordinated shilling refers to a meme scam in which groups of traders, mostly crypto whales or bots, deliberately flood social media with false messages exaggerating the profit potential of a particular meme coin. Their aim is to create the impression that the token is in high demand, drive up its price, and then cash out before the masses realize it was all a ruse.
Such crypto cabals took advantage of the 2024 meme coin Bull Run and used social media platforms like Telegram, X, and Discord to drive wild campaigns. After massively pushing the coins using their own multiple social media accounts, creating an illusion that the token’s price would continue to climb, they made massive sell-offs for great profits and left uninformed investors high and dry.
How You Can Spot It
- Repetitive messages promoting a meme coin from a duplicate few social media accounts
- Claims that seem too good to be accurate and often urge urgency in taking action
- Social media posts that give the perception of high engagement without solid evidence of a project’s value
Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) Front-Running
Some miners and developers use Maximal Extractable Value (MEV) bots to exploit mempools to reorder or insert transactions, aiming for maximum profits. Regarding meme coin trading, the bots can quickly identify purchase orders, buy the tokens just before an investor does, and inflate their price. A classic example would be where an investor places an order at $0.01 per token, but the cost quickly spikes to $0.02 because a MEV bot beats to at the game. This scheme is known as front-running and is used by unscrupulous traders to squeeze maximum profit from investors, leading to massive losses when the token’s value drops back to the regular price.
How You Can Spot It
- An unexplained sudden price hike for a token as soon as you submit a transaction
- Unpredictable slippage settings on crypto exchanges
- Strange activity patterns on the blockchain explorers
Fake Celebrity Endorsements and Partnerships
Meme coin scammers always create fake partnerships or claim non-existent endorsements from influencers, celebrities, and well-known business brands. By misrepresenting their credibility, they will almost always lure unsuspecting investors into believing that the project has long-term viability. There have been unscrupulous developers who claim partnerships with leading tech companies and cryptocurrency exchanges during the height of meme coin hype to entice them into investing in their pre-sales. Unfortunately, the said developers will disappear when they collect enough funds from investors.
How you can avoid it:
- Only trust official announcements from all possible social media channels
- Take the extra effort to verify partnership claims from the partners or brands mentioned directly
- Think twice before trusting poorly done or overly polished whitepapers or websites containing generic or unverifiable endorsements and partnership claims.
Social Profile Hack Scam
Every time a new meme coin project is about to launch, there will always be a long list of potential investors waiting for D-Day. Suddenly, you see an announcement regarding the supposed launch on social media sites like X, and thinking it has just happened, you join other traders to buy the token, intending to be among the pioneer investors. However, you soon realize someone hacked the social media site, and the links posted were fake. After pouring in your hard-earned cash, the price of the token dumps, and you’re left with a worthless token. Distinguishing between a hacked account and an unscrupulous development team using the ruse as an excuse to dump a token for profit can be a tricky thing. As a result, it pays to double-check with official channels every time you are in doubt.
How you can avoid it
- Avoid rushing in to buy too early to avoid falling victim to the initial hype.
- Always verify the authenticity of any meme coin contract on every possible social media channel before investing.
Fake Celebrity/Influencer Memecoins
While creating a meme coin can be as simple as ABC when you have the technical know-how, it leaves the door open for malicious actors to join the bandwagon. There have been cases of celebrities and social media influencers dipping their toes in meme coins for not-so-good reasons. The unfortunate result has been investors burning their fingers in the process. Some worthless coins’ values can rise to hundreds of millions of dollars in market capitalization shortly because of their association with a celebrity or influencer. Then, they lose their value almost immediately. There have been reported cases of insider trading relating to such meme coins.
How you can spot it
- A token that shows a massive initial hype without corresponding features should be a red flag.
- Digital wallets holding lopsided amounts of the meme coin very early on
Rug Pulls
Rug Pulls are the most common meme coin scams that keep coming back. Unscrupulous developers will launch a token and build a lot of hype around it. Once they have attracted enough attention and investment, they will withdraw liquidity without warning and render the token valueless. Some developers will waste no effort faking the entire project, beginning with the whitepaper and even building a well-polished website. For example, the Solana blockchain experienced several rug pulls that cost investors millions of dollars in investment.
How you can Spot it
- The most common red flag regarding rug pulls is the developers’ and their teams’ lack of transparency in tokenomics.
- Be on the lookout for developers offering vague information when pushed for more details on aspects of the projects..
- A sudden withdrawal of liquidity from a decentralized exchange
- Functions within the contract that allow developers to mint as many tokens as they wish.
Conclusion
While meme coins bring great opportunities for profitability, they still carry a level of risk and can attract dubious characters intending to defraud uninformed investors. By getting informed about the most common meme coin scams fraudsters will likely unleash on you, you reduce the chances of becoming a victim. As 2025 unfolds, meme coins are attracting almost equally hordes of investors and potential scammers. You must remain vigilant and have a curious mind that questions every opportunity before investing your hard-earned cash.
