When it comes to high-risk, high-reward investments, cryptocurrencies are on the top of the list, even more so if you are trading meme coins, appropriately named for its less serious and more volatile nature. While the crypto market has collectively enjoyed an upward trajectory in 2021, the recent steep drop in crypto prices were a harsh reality check for crypto’s most enthusiastic investors.

The first meme coin was launched in 2013 as an experiment. Fast forward almost a decade, the category has grown to over 250 meme coins in active circulation. As an investor, that can be both a blessing and curse. You can diversify your portfolio and distribute your risk by choosing multiple meme coins. On the other hand, the broad range of meme coin options may induce decision paralysis amongst investors. Here are the top three best meme coins you should consider investing in 2022.

DOGE

Launched in 2013, Dogecoin didn’t make headlines until about 2019, when its price moved astronomically. Dogecoin was initially launched as a joke by its creator, Jackson Palmer, and was meant to be a more fun and hip alternative to its more established counterparts, including Bitcoin and Ethereum. While DOGE’s rally has been in part due to its fast-growing community of supporters and investors, perhaps an additional catalyst that helped pushed its value and popularity was Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. Musk’s activity on social media, particularly his tweets on Twitter about DOGE, has fueled public interest.

SHIB

Perhaps a younger sibling to DOGE is the Shiba Inu coin, more commonly known as SHIB. Developed and launched in 2020 by an anonymous developer who goes by the name Ryoshi, SHIB is a cheaper alternative to DOGE. And since its 2020 rollout, SHIB has gained significant market share and traction, with a number of crypto exchanges listing SHIB on their platform and traditional brick-and-mortar companies also starting to accept SHIB as payment. The meme coin also boasts a handful of financial backers, including Bigger Entertainment, which has helped decrease the coin’s supply through significant contributions.

ELON

ELON, which is short for Dogelon Mars, is another meme coin that is becoming increasingly popular amongst crypto traders. While Dogelon Mars is based on TSLA’s CEO, Elon Musk, the coin’s launch and development has no ties to the iconic visionary and now one of crypto’s biggest advocates. That said, the ELON development team does share the same values that Musk has for interplanetary expansion, more specifically the colonization of Mars. They’ve integrated this into their brand by marketing ELON coins as a form of interplanetary currency.

These are only some of the best meme coins to invest in for 2022. Other promising meme coin investments include LOWB, ARV, KITTY, and DOGEDASH. Note that while these coins are enjoying price surges and benefiting from new projects in the industry, including DAOs and NFTs, investing in meme coins involves a great deal of risk that should be factored into your investing strategy lest incur significant capital losses.