Gemini Report: Memecoins Aren’t Just Jokes—They’re Crypto’s Gateway Drug

Forget boring old Bitcoin—Dogecoin knockoffs and frog-themed tokens are pulling normies into crypto faster than a leveraged trader chasing a 100x. Gemini’s latest report drops the truth bomb: memecoins aren’t just degenerate gambling, they’re the industry’s most effective onboarding tool.

From ‘Wen Lambo?’ to Wallet Downloads

Retail investors start with Shiba Inu, stay for Ethereum—proving even the dumbest speculative assets can accidentally do something useful. The pattern’s undeniable: viral tokens act as Trojan horses, sneaking crypto adoption past the defenses of traditional finance’s gatekeepers.

Wall Street’s Worst Nightmare

While hedge funds obsess over ‘institutional-grade’ products, a dog with a hat just taught more people about self-custody than three years of CNBC segments. The irony? These joke assets might actually deliver crypto’s promised ‘financial revolution’—assuming traders survive the volatility.

Memecoins: the asset class that shouldn’t work… but does. Now if only we could get them to stop crashing every time Elon Musk tweets.

It’s obviously hard to deny the impact of the US opening up, and that was cited as a big reason for folks across the world who are crypto-curious but not ready to commit to owning any (yet). 

“Nearly a quarter (23%) of non-crypto owners in the US said the launch of Strategic Bitcoin Reserve makes them more confident in the value of cryptocurrency. This sentiment was echoed by respondents in the UK and Singapore, where about one in five (21% and 19%, respectively) non-owners said they were more confident due to President Trump’s Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” the report said. 

But what I found to be the most interesting nugget was actually about memecoins. Before you roll your eyes, hear me out. 

France is the leader for memecoin adoption so far this year. A whopping 67% of French crypto investors own memecoins, which is pretty firmly above the 59% of Singapore investors and 58% of Italians that own memecoins. 

The survey also found that memecoins seem to be working as an onramp for investors, with 94% of folks surveyed reporting that they own both memecoins and other crypto. 

“In the US, 31% of investors who own both memecoins and traditional cryptocurrencies report that they purchased their memecoins first, followed by 28% in Australia and the UK, 23% in Singapore, 22% in Italy, and 19% in France,” the report said.

But for the more buttoned-up investors, ETFs have helped act as an onramp. In the US specifically, Gemini found that two in five US investors surveyed own crypto ETFs. The products have also seen a jump over in Italy, United Kingdom, Australia and Singapore. 

I always caveat these types of reports by cautioning that they’re giving a glimpse into survey results, which means we may not be seeing the full picture for a lot of the momentum we’ve seen. 

However, there’s no denying that the results give us an interesting snapshot of the appetite for crypto at this point. 

It’s also nice to see how global adoption continues, something we’ve been touching on but haven’t had a chance to delve into. Admittedly, right now it’s pretty easy to get lost in the US narratives as they continue to dominate. 

One thing’s for sure, though: Love ‘em or hate ‘em, memecoins have managed to stick, not only as a way to onboard folks but as a way to allow investors to diversify their crypto holdings if they’re feeling, well, adventurous.  

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