On January 3, 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto mined the genesis block containing the famous message: "The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks." This marked the birth of decentralized digital money and established Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional financial systems.

Created on December 6, 2013, Dogecoin began as a joke but quickly attracted over 1 million visitors within 30 days. The project pioneered community-driven crypto culture, raising $50,000 for the Jamaican Bobsled Team and establishing the template for all future meme coins.

Launched on July 30, 2015, Ethereum introduced programmable money through smart contracts. The ERC-20 token standard made it simple for anyone to create new cryptocurrencies, laying the foundation for the token explosion that would follow.

Former Qualcomm engineer Anatoly Yakovenko revolutionized blockchain architecture with Proof of History (PoH), creating verifiable timestamps without node communication. This breakthrough would later enable the low-cost, high-speed trading perfect for meme coins.

The r/WallStreetBets GameStop squeeze demonstrated retail coordination power, gaining 3 million subscribers in weeks. When trading platforms restricted meme stocks, retail attention shifted to crypto, bringing "apes" and "diamond hands" terminology into meme coin culture.

Launched December 25, 2022, BONK airdropped 50% of its 100 trillion token supply to Solana users as an antidote to "toxic Alameda tokenomics." The community-owned meme coin generated $20M volume on day one and helped drive SOL's recovery from $8 to $34+.

Launched in November 2023 featuring Achi, a Shiba Inu from Japan wearing a knitted hat, WIF achieved a 2,000x price increase by December. With no utility beyond memetic value, it reached $4.83 and a $4.58B market cap, establishing "The hat stays on" as a rallying cry.

Launched January 19, 2024, pump.fun revolutionized meme coin creation with bonding curves that enable instant trading from $4,000 market cap, automatically graduating successful tokens to Raydium at $100K with $17K liquidity. The platform handled 52.8% of Solana DEX transactions at peak.

The January 17, 2025 TRUMP token launch raised unprecedented ethical concerns about presidential conflicts of interest. With 80% insider control and Trump's potential $20B+ paper wealth, the controversy intensified when Kelsier Ventures was exposed for systematic market manipulation across TRUMP, MELANIA, and LIBRA tokens.