Startups and established companies are launching Meme Coins, a trend known as the “Internet Capital Market.”
In traditional capital markets, entities can raise capital by selling stocks, bonds, products, etc. Internet Capital Markets is moving this idea forward by implementing Memecoin, a digitally native fundraising tool.
As a result, established companies such as classic video platform Vine have launched millions of dollars tokens, while startups like podcasting apps have attracted huge market capitalizations.
What is the Internet Capital Market?
Internet capital markets are the term used to raise funds and promote business using digitally native financial products. It is most commonly a form of cryptocurrency.
In most cases, the token has no utility and is a purely speculative asset associated with project hype and effectively functions as a meme coin. This is the main distinction between the internet’s capital and traditional capital markets, where stocks represent the company’s share, and often promise certain privileges and dividend profits.
Companies have first launched this new approach to raising capital by firing through meme coins Solana LaunchPad Pump.Fun. Rival platforms such as the Believe app are becoming more popular as options focus more directly on the internet capital market.
“The Internet Capital Market itself is a strong meme and one of the most important OG metanarrative and use cases of crypto.” Decryption. “In principle, it represents the ability to efficiently and instantly gather liquidity on decentralized crypto rails.”
How did this start?
In January 2025, Rus Yusupov, co-founder of the mobile video app Vine, launched Vine Coin via Pump.Fun. On the first day, the tokens surged to an astounding $498 million market cap as traders cashed out nostalgia for Tiktok’s predecessor.
A few days later, Yusupov posted a waitlist link as he speculated that the app would restart. With Xai buying Vine and Elon Musk hinting at renewal of the app, there was more eyes and attention on vine than ever before. Vine Coin still doesn’t offer any utility, plummeting 92.5% from an all-time high.
Technically, this was not the first company to release Memecoin. The AI Project Wave launched tokens in 2024, and many people used them to fund the project. But the grape coin was the first famous example of branding it as an internet capital market with a wave of projects in early 2025.
This trend has slipped off the radar for several months, but was energised in May 2025 by the emergence of belief as a launchpad.
As a result, according to Dex Screener, the new product discovery tool Dupe saw the token spike at a market capitalization of $79 million, down from 78%. Buddy, an AI social media assistant creator, peaked at $23.5 million and no-code Web3 builder Uber.fun $13.7 million. As of June 2025, the company had reduced its 76% and 99% respectively by 99% from its all-time highs.
Why use the Internet capital market?
Money or marketing is the main reason companies can choose the Internet capital market model.
Most commonly, projects are trying to raise capital and launch meme coins to fund their businesses. This is provided in the form of selling a project-specific token, and simply using the creator’s revenue fee, such as Truth Terminal Creator selling Fartcoin.
This approach is broken by traditional fundraising strategies, which is said by 0xdetweiler, the pseudonym founder of the investment company’s third-standard capital. Decryption. He said companies rely on venture capitalism, which cuts normal investors out of the conversation. As a result, there is usually no opportunity to invest in the target audience of your product.
In many ways, the Internet capital market trend is a repackaging of the movement that provided the first coin to dominate the industry in 2017, says 0xdetweiler.
“Web3 was built so that founders could raise funds from the ship for public (and) innovative products,” he explained. “They gain community, they gain capital and are good for the product market. Going to the market is much faster than traditional Web2 startups.”
However, some projects do not require capital. Instead, Meme Coin strategies are marketing ploys.
For example, Neiry Lab, a research lab in Russia, said Decryption That traders had already secured venture capital funds when they pumped tokens specialized in rat experiments. With that in mind, Labs embraced Memecoin as a marketing tool to help grow the existence of social media.
Iqram Magdon-Ismail, co-founder of Jellyjelly and Venmo, said it collected 10,000 signups on the day Jellyjelly launched Meme Coin. The founder has decisively ruled out selling tokens for fundraising, but has since integrated it into the app as a way to tip creators on a short form podcasting platform.
However, market participants note that many of the projects launched under this strategy are not serious long-term projects worth investing in.
A great team with excellent marketing and steam engines.
We’re back to the ICO bubble, and we call it the Internet Capital Market.
– spidercrypto 🧑🍳🧲 (@spidercrypto0x) May 14, 2025
Luckily, Matthew Nay, senior research analyst at Messari, doesn’t think this is such a bad thing.
“When the market overreacts to this idea, I think it’s healthy,” Nay said. Decryption. “Speculation will increase prices and lead to funding that will allow more capital to enter the market and explore these new ideas.”
Is this all legal?
It is worth noting that the 2017 ICO boom led the US Securities and Exchange Commission to crack down on companies for violating securities laws and earned millions of dollars wins.
Those pointing out the Internet capital market as a repackaging of the ICO model, should companies be worried about riding hype trains?
“Companies considering launching Memecoin, especially those tied to brands and businesses, should seek legal guidance to assess whether the token raises capital or imply investment opportunities.” Decryption.
“This requires fact-specific legal analysis,” explained D’Angelo. “If the token “walking and discussing” to raise capital, it may require you to meet the elements of your investment agreement under the Howey Test and register with the SEC. ”
That said, times have changed since 2017, with US President Donald Trump clearly becoming more open to the crypto-encrypted financial model. He ended up launching his own meme coin.
D’Angelo pointed to the SEC’s February 2025 staff statement regarding Meme Coins. The statement argues that the meme coins “may not be covered” by federal securities laws.
“The central legal question remains. Does tokens function as a purely speculative, community-driven meme?” D’Angelo added, “The answer is important in determining whether securities law applies.”