When we think of crypto millionaires, the image that comes to mind is of brilliant economists who were able to see the future and “buy the dip” ahead of others. That notion is often because many people have yet to understand how cryptocurrencies work.
However, that isn’t always the case, as some individuals become millionaires by just making the right investments at the right time based on the right information.
In recent times, many developers have been creating “useless” coins with no real-world applications to amuse the crypto community. Despite this supposed lack of real-world value, these coins have somehow generated demand, and some lucky individuals have profited from this attention to become meme coin millionaires.
The following are five of them you should absolutely know about.
1. Glauber Contessoto – Dogecoin
Glauber Contessoto is a 33-year-old video editor at a Los Angeles hip-hop media company. There’s not much to this guy except the fact that he takes “go big or go home” quite seriously.
In February 2020, he stumbled across a Dogecoin post on Reddit that highlighted the coin’s potential following Elon Musk’s tweets. A couple of months earlier, he had been saving up from his job salary to buy stocks on Robinhood, a popular crypto trading platform. These stocks were part of Glauber’s effort towards his long-term dream of buying a house where he could make music with his friends. As you might imagine, that isn’t an easy feat, and Glauber was growing impatient.
When Glauber saw this potential, he didn’t analyze it like a real economist would. He considered meme coins to be more than just digital currencies. Per his analysis, the coin had the best branding of all cryptocurrencies because the younger generation could relate better to it than the branding of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other tangible cryptocurrencies.
He piled on Dogecoin by maxing out his credit cards and even borrowing more. When Dogecoin blew up at that time, you can imagine how Glauber felt—his bet paid off.
So, you would expect him to sell his coins and finally buy that house, right?
Instead, he has other plans. He currently holds onto those coins to date and touts himself as the Dogecoin millionaire.
His Dogecoin holdings are, indeed, worth millions of dollars.
2. Tommy and James – Shiba Inu
When two brothers ask major news publications to keep their last names undisclosed for the sake of anonymity, you know they hit it big! How big? About 8 million dollars big! And it all started with an initial $200 investment apiece.
So what prompted the move?
It’s a classic hitting-rock-bottom story. The COVID-19 pandemic really did a number on these two brothers, who made a living from filming weddings. Prior to the pandemic, they filmed close to 40 weddings early but were only able to do about ten that year. So, you can imagine how difficult it might have been.
But then, a friend who happened to be a crypto expert spoke to them about the potential for a certain Shiba Inu coin to experience massive gains in the coming periods. As you might expect, they were skeptical, given their financial situation. However, Tommy later rationalized it as a lotto ticket that would never expire, considering the fact that Shiba Inu was only selling for a fraction of a cent at the time.
But the brothers didn’t only involve themselves; they also talked to their parents, who reluctantly contributed $100.
With the seeds planted, they kept an eye on it while they continued filming weddings. Then Shiba Inu rose to a hundred thousand dollars, and it was game on from then on. It doubled and later went on to a million dollars. At every stage of this rise, the family further invested more money, and at some point, their investments were worth a whopping $9 million.
How about that?
3. IB_Junior – $PEPE
IB_Junior is the username for a Czech crypto trader who’s arguably the luckiest meme coin millionaire on this list. His fortunes came from 2023’s breakout meme coin, $PEPE. This meme coin was launched in April 2023 as a tribute to a popular internet meme nicknamed “Pepe the Frog.”
The world was introduced to Pepe the Frog in the early 2000s when artist Matt Furie published a political comic book titled “Boys Club” in 2005. As uncertainty clouded the crypto market in 2023, the $PEPE coin came out of nowhere, stirring up jokes in the crypto market as a cure for depression with memes.
Despite the fact that $PEPE’s official website referred to the coin as a “Meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return,” this Czech trader went ahead and invested “a small sum.” To their greatest surprise, the coin multiplied by over 1,000x within 24 hours. So, they woke up to the dilemma of selling right away or seeing how it all unfolded.
IB_Junior gave it a few more weeks and ended up reaping a 4000x return on their initial investment when they finally decided to sell four weeks later.
It was worth millions of dollars!
4. A Student Turned Crypto Trader – GM Coin
At this point, these names might sound ridiculous, but that’s because many of these meme coin millionaires prefer to stay anonymous. It’s almost a common thing in the crypto ecosystem.
Anyway, this student makes the list of meme coin millionaires you should know because their story is rather simple and easy. They started with Bitcoin investing by buying and holding the coin for a while until the price increased, but later, they moved on to NFTs, where they experienced some success.
However, it was meme coins that actually made them a millionaire. The mechanics of it all differed fundamentally from the other millionaires on this list because they essentially focused on meme coin investing as a money-making avenue.
The student acknowledges that meme coins have no inherent value but only pump based on investor demands. So what do they do? Buy some meme coins that are getting traction and sell them when their value increases.
They got a major break with a GM coin. GM stands for Good Morning in the crypto world, and someone basically decided to create a coin based on that. This student then studied the project and noticed some potential. As a result, they put in a total of $7,500 into the coin, and voilà, the GM coin increased to $2 million in two days, causing their initial investment to be about $2.5 million.
Easy-peasy.
5. Rob – Shiba Inu
This warehouse manager also chose to identify simply as Rob after making over a million dollars from his Shiba Inu investments within a year. Rob previously earned $68,000 a year as a warehouse manager in 2020. For some reason, he chose to invest $8,000 into Shiba Inu that year when Shiba Inu sold for just $0.0000001 per token. Consequently, he received 800 billion tokens of the coin, making him one of the highest holders.
Miraculously, Shiba Inu rose to an all-time high of $0.000035 per token in 202. In response, Rob swiftly cashed out $500,000 of his entire holdings while leaving the rest in Shiba Inu. He has since quit his job and now takes care of his son while keeping tabs on what is happening in the crypto world.
Conclusion
Anyone can become a millionaire through meme coins. Their value is determined solely by demand forces. Getting large quantities of the right meme coin could prove pivotal to your success.