THE MEME coin market saw exponential growth in 2021 and have proven to be high-growth assets that can make a fortune for investors.

These meme-based virtual currencies have soared in popularity thanks to social media hype generated by celebrity tweets, influencer endorsements, and positive community sentiment.

But unfortunately, the meme-inspired market is flooded with thousands of projects, leaving aspiring investors saturated with choices in a sector rife with fraudulent developer teams looking to make a quick buck from pump-and-dump schemes.

To minimize meme investing risk, savvy crypto traders should always do their own research before putting money into the inherently risky space. As a rule of thumb, investors should find meme projects with a reputable team, a long-term strategy for success, and an active community throwing their weight being the venture.

24/7 Crypto looks at some of the leading meme-based currencies with potential to reach record highs in the coming months.

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Shiba Inu (SHIB)

Shiba Inu is one of the most popular canine-themed meme coins in the crypto space. The token spread like wildfire in 2021 and surged 47,000,000 per cent in a few months.

Although the Ethereum-based crypto has struggled with consumer adoption, the future looks positive as Shiba Inu’s development team ramps up efforts to improve its utility.

Shiba Inu was listed on trading platform Robinhood in early April and saw gains of 30 per cent, prompting speculation the move could open doors for a more bullish trend in the near future.

The community also saw firms such as Gucci, AMC Entertainment and Flexa Payment Network add the coin as a payment method.

You can read more about Shiba Inu’s lucrative roadmap for 2022 HERE, as the eco system prepare to release a metaverse and game.

Market experts at CryptoPredictions.com forecast that the token may gain over 150 per cent this year.

Dogecoin (DOGE)

Dogecoin is arguably the king of meme currencies mainly due to its first-mover advantage in the thriving crypto sub-sector.

The project, founded as a joke in 2013, has grown into a community with a $14 billion in market value.

Fuelled by hype generated mainly by Elon Musk and other celebrities, DOGE became the most-searched digital coin in the US last year and closed 2021 up over 3000 per cent.

The developers have ramped up innovations to enhance the DOGE protocol’s capacity to deliver faster sync speeds and lower transaction fees.

What’s more, Dogecoin has recently enjoyed increased commercial adoption.

In May 2021, founder of MyDoge Wallet Bill Lee made history by purchasing $600,000 worth of NFTs related to the BIG3 basketball league, marking the largest commercial transaction in history for the cryptocurrency.

Fashion label Gucci also announced plans to start accepting DOGE payments for its luxury products.

Dogelon Mars (ELON)

Dogelon Mars is one of the potential crypto meme gems with a solid connection to celebrity investor Elon Musk.

The project backers created ELON to keep track of the SpaceX founder’s tweets and piggyback on the famous visionary’s ambitious plan to colonize Mars.

The ERC-20 token has been a hit on social media, onboarding a vibrant community that has seen the crypto skyrocket by 100,000 per cent.

ELON’s strong connection to Musk places it in a prime position to pump whenever the influential entrepreneur expresses his pro-crypto stance on social media.

Now that Elon Musk has made significant headway acquiring Twitter, the meme coin could take on new life online and rise to new all-time highs.

Samoyedcoin (SAMO)

Samoyedcoin is another canine-inspired coin that has been making ground in the crypto sector over the past year.

Built to facilitate near-instant transactions and improve scalability, SAMO has quickly established itself as a lucrative investment with an edge over most emerging meme coins.

Behind the SAMO movement is a community of holders who look to the project’s high burn rate to deliver substantial gains in the future.

The Solana blockchain mascot is on most investors’ radar this year, mainly thanks to a trading volume and price trajectory that is more logically aligned than other meme coin rivals.