The crypto world continues to expand with more and more tokens emerging for every need. There are payment tokens, stablecoins, governance tokens, utility tokens, and of course, meme coins. The crypto world would be incomplete without the fun that meme coins bring. These tokens are often about a joyful spirit, entertainment, and humor. Just as other crypto assets are classified into various types, meme coins have their own unique categories. In March, Li Jin, the co-founder and General Partner at venture capital Variant Fund, debuted the meme coin taxonomy, which categorizes meme coins based on their utility and other characteristics. One of the categories she identified is product-first meme coins. She describes these tokens as meme tokens “closely associated with a product but have no explicit link to the value generated by that product.” In this article, we will dive deeper into product-first meme coins and highlight three prominent ones that are making waves in the market. Check out our top picks! Important Disclaimer: While the below-listed meme coins are selected based on trading activity and popularity, their listing does not constitute investment advice. Carefully evaluate your risk appetite and do your own research on the listed coins before making any investment decisions.

Best Product-first Meme Coins: 3 Picks for 2024

• Wen ($WEN)
• Notcoin ($NOT)
• Unisocks ($SOCKS)

Wen

Wen ($WEN) is a meme coin built on the Solana network. The meme token’s origin trails back to a poem titled “A Love Letter to Wen Bros” by Meow, the founder of a Solana-based project called Jupiter. The poem was converted to an NFT and fractionalized into one trillion tokens called $WEN. The project’s mascot portrays a cat dressed in a spacesuit, exploring the Web3 space. The spacesuit’s usage also magnifies the idea that $WEN’s creators aim for their token to experience exponential growth, reaching for the moon. The Solana-based meme coin powers the WEN DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization supporting the ecosystem. Described as a community-driven token, $WEN was evenly distributed via an airdrop to users in the Solana community in January 2024. Since then, the token has soaked up a market capitalization of over $145 million. As of June 9, there are over 222K of $WEN holders. At the time of writing, $WEN is being traded at $0.0001873, representing a 9.11% increase over the last 24 hours. Wen also has grown its presence on social platforms like X and Telegram. It currently has over 153 followers on X and over 15K subscribers on Telegram.

Notcoin

Notcoin ($NOT) is a meme coin based on The Open Network (TON), a Telegram-affiliated blockchain. The meme token powers a play-to-earn clicker game under the same name. Based on Telegram, the game entails that players tap their screens and perform simple tasks to earn the $NOT token. The game’s simple and addictive mechanism has attracted millions of gamers globally. According to the project’s website, 35 million users have earned $NOT tokens. Notcoin popularized the tap-to-earn gaming model that other projects have adopted. The project also offers integration with other platforms within the TON ecosystem. $NOT has a total supply of 102.7 billion tokens. Supporting the game-centric community, 78% of these tokens have been allocated to early miners and vouchers. The remaining 22% is intended for new users and other initiatives within the project’s ecosystem. Currently, $NOT has a market cap of $1.92B. It is now being traded at $0.01876 with $8.00M in liquidity. $NOT boasts over 1.7 million users on X and over 7.6 million subscribers on Telegram.

Unisocks

Unisocks ($SOCKS) is an NFT project launched by Uniswap Labs in May 2019. Built on the Ethereum network, the project features 500 limited-edition digital socks claimable by users. Unisocks adopts a unique dynamic called a bonding curve that allows early users to earn more than later users. For this to happen, the floor price for the digital socks increases when a new holder buys each of the 500 pieces. On-chain data shows that the first digital socks sold for $12, and later for $42,400 in ETH. $SOCKS powers the Unisocks ecosystem. Pegged to the digital socks’ price, the product-first meme coin is being traded at $24K at the time of writing. It has 3.84K holders who can also get access to the digital socks and redeem the physical ones as well. Despite the existence of a limited number of $SOCKS, the project has captured the attention of thousands of users across social platforms like X and Discord.

Conclusion

Product-first meme coins are gaining pace now with more and more popping up in the crypto space. While these meme coins have their perks, every investor has to do diligent research before investing in any of the highlighted meme tokens.