While most meme coin traders lose money, platforms enabling token creation and trading are capturing the lion’s share of value, effectively building a financial layer for the attention economy, according to a Galaxy report published on Wednesday.
The meme coin ecosystem has expanded rapidly, but industry data shows that it is the infrastructure like launchpads, automated trading platforms, and community-driven networks, that is generating the most tangible financial outcomes.
Pump.fun, the Solana-based token launchpad, has industrialized token creation, enabling anyone to deploy a tradable token instantly with negligible technical expertise.
Since its January 2024 debut, Pump.fun has facilitated the creation of approximately 12.9 million tokens, collectively representing more than $4.8 billion in fully diluted market cap (FDMC).
Notably, just twelve of these tokens account for over half of the platform’s total value.
“While most meme coin traders lose money, the infrastructure owners capture significant value,” the Galaxy Research report states, highlighting the skewed distribution of returns.
Automated trading platforms are also capitalizing on the hyperactive, mercenary behavior of meme coin traders.
Axiom, which provides instant trade execution, has scaled to millions in monthly revenue by collecting fees from traders who hold tokens for mere seconds.
According to the report, median hold times on Solana meme coins have dropped from 300 seconds to approximately 100 seconds in a single year, reflecting the PvP-driven nature of trading.
Communities and content creators further amplify the ecosystem’s financial layer. Pump.fun’s Project Ascend ties trading fees directly to a token’s market cap, incentivizing early participation and rewarding creators who drive attention.
“Early stream participation is rewarded. Viral incentives are built in. Holders are directly incentivized to share the stream and bring in new attention,” the report notes.
The sector spans multiple blockchains.
Solana dominates in volume and token creation, Ethereum hosts legacy memecoins such as PEPE and MOG, and Base captures niche SocialFi and AI-themed memecoins.
Across these chains, more than 57 million memecoins have been launched, underscoring the scale and significance of the platforms supporting them.
Experts note that while individual tokens often fail, the infrastructure has proven resilient and profitable.
“The existence of these outliers continues to fuel speculation and ‘gambling in the casino,’” the report observes, with platforms capturing fees and network effects far beyond what individual traders experience.