Buy meme coins in Europe: what to know first

How a coin ends up on this page

We do not decide for ourselves what counts as a meme coin. We follow CoinGecko's "Meme" category, which describes these coins as deriving their relevance from memes and gaining momentum through hype as their community grows. Every coin in that category that also meets the rules of our comparison appears here; we do not pick favourites and we do not rank them.

Those rules are the same for every coin: we take the largest coins by market capitalisation that at least two licensed platforms sell for euros, up to 100 coins in total. On 16 October 2026 that produced nine meme coins. Seven have their own page: Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Pepe, Bonk, Floki, Official Trump and Pudgy Penguins. The other two can be priced straight away in the comparison: Pump.fun (PUMP) and SPX6900 (SPX).

Size alone is not enough. MemeCore sits among the largest coins in CoinGecko's meme category, yet when we last refreshed our coin list on 7 October 2026, Bitpanda was the only licensed platform with a euro market for it, so it did not qualify.

Where they trade for euros

Coverage differs a lot between platforms. In our comparison on 16 October 2026, Bitvavo, Kraken and Bitpanda had a euro market for all nine. OKX had eight, Bitstamp six, Bybit EU three (Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe) and Coinbase two (Dogecoin and Shiba Inu). For Crypto.com we compare the euro markets of the Crypto.com Exchange, where Dogecoin was the only one.

Smaller coins often have thinner order books, so a larger order can push the price you pay further from the market price. Our comparison works through each platform's order book for your amount; the fee guides for Bitvavo, Kraken and OKX show the rest of what each platform charges.

Why prices move so violently

The EU's three financial supervisors warn that most crypto can rise and fall quickly over short periods, and that you may lose a lot, or even all, of the money you put in. Meme coins show this especially clearly. Measured in euros, Dogecoin was roughly 88 per cent below its May 2021 peak on 16 October 2026, according to CoinGecko. Pudgy Penguins, which peaked in December 2024, was almost 90 per cent below its own high on the same day.

The supervisors add two warnings that apply strongly here. Markets can dry up, so you may not be able to sell at the price or the moment you want. And promotion on social media can be confusing or deliberately misleading, partly because influencers may be paid to advertise a coin.

What MiCA does and does not cover

MiCA leaves crypto-assets without an identifiable issuer outside its rules on offers and white papers (recital 22). In an answer published by ESMA in February 2026, the European Commission confirmed that a trading platform therefore does not have to publish a white paper for such a coin. The platform still has to assess whether each coin is suitable before admitting it, and work out whether an issuer can be identified after all (Article 76).

ESMA's register nonetheless holds white papers for many meme coins, filed by a mix of parties. For Dogecoin, Pepe and Official Trump, they include documents from a German data firm, Crypto Risk Metrics GmbH, and from LCX AG, a platform in Liechtenstein. For Official Trump, Pudgy Penguins and Pump.fun, the register also lists a white paper in the name of a company notified through Malta's regulator. Every such document must state on its first page that no regulator has approved it (Article 6).

One rule covers everyone, whatever the coin. Article 91 prohibits market manipulation, including spreading information online that gives false or misleading signals about a price. The supervisors' scam factsheet describes the two schemes most often seen around new tokens: the pump and dump, where a price is talked up before the promoters sell, and the rug pull, where a project's founders disappear with the money.

Before you withdraw: network and contract address

Many meme coins live on more than one blockchain. According to CoinGecko, Bonk's main version runs on Solana, with separate versions on Ethereum, BNB Chain and several other networks, each at its own contract address. When you withdraw from a platform, pick a network your wallet supports for that version. Our reviews of Phantom and MetaMask, and the wallet overview, show which networks and coins each wallet handles.

Anyone can launch a token with the same name and logo as a well-known meme coin. Before adding one to a wallet, compare the contract address with the one on the project's official site or a trusted data source. Connecting a wallet to an app usually means approving a smart contract. If something goes wrong, the supervisors' factsheet advises revoking suspicious approvals straight away, because they can let a scammer spend your tokens; many wallets and blockchain explorers have a tool to review them.

Tax and reporting

Under DAC8, crypto platforms report their customers' transactions from 2026 onwards, meme coins included, and the data reaches the tax authority of the country where each customer lives. Tax rules themselves are set nationally; our DAC8 guide explains what is reported.

To compare what a meme coin costs on each licensed platform, start with the comparison for Dogecoin and switch coins in the list.