This Planet Money episode explores the rise of memecoins, focusing on the platform Pump.Fun which drastically lowered the barrier to entry for creating them. The podcast details the three main groups creating memecoins: cloutless individuals using livestreams (often with bizarre stunts), already-famous people leveraging their existing fame, and well-resourced insiders manipulating the market. A key example is a 13-year-old who made $20,000 by creating and quickly selling three memecoins. The episode concludes by highlighting the inherent risk and speculative nature of memecoin trading, emphasizing that Pump.Fun, like a casino, always profits, while the vast majority of traders lose money.
