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The 24 Best Movies on Amazon Prime Right Now
In Recent years, Netflix and Apple TV+ have been duking it out to have the most prestigious film offerings, but some of the best movies are on Amazon Prime Video. The streamer was one of the first to go around picking up film festival darlings and other lovable favorites, and those movies are all still there in the library, so if they flew under your radar the first time, now is the perfect time to catch up.
Our picks for the best movies on Amazon Prime are below. All the films in our guide are included in your Prime subscription—no renting here. Once you’ve watched your fill, check out our lists for the best shows on Netflix and best movies on Disney+ if you’re looking for something else to watch. We also have a guide to the best shows on Amazon, if that’s what you’re in the mood for.
Knives Out
The debut outing of Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) finds the master detective investigating the suspicious death of famed crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). It’s a case complicated by the deceased’s expansive, dysfunctional family, all of whom appear to have a motive for killing their supposedly-beloved patriarch. Boasting a murderers’ row of acting talent, including Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, LaKeith Stanfield, and Ana de Armas as Thrombey’s attentive nurse Marta—director Rian Johnson’s Knives Out remains a masterful modern updating of the classic whodunit, packed full of meta twists that almost single-handedly reenergized the genre.
Air
Sure, nowadays Michael Jordan is a bona fide sports god, and Nike Air Jordans are still arguably the cool sneaker—but that wasn’t the case back in 1984. Jordan was a rookie, and Nike was about to close down its basketball shoe division. Enter Sonny Vaccaro (Matt Damon), a talent scout for the footwear maker who’s spotted a rising star in North Carolina who could turn everything around—he just needs to convince everyone else that Jordan is worth betting the company on. We all know how that panned out, so thankfully Air is more than a two-hour advert for gym shoes. Damon, Jason Bateman, Chris Tucker, and director Ben Affleck all deliver strong performances—only to be utterly eclipsed by Viola Davis in a magnetic and powerful, if somewhat under-utilized, turn as matriarch Deloris Jordan—while Alex Convery’s script keeps the drama on the people and personalities involved, rather than the boardroom. In an age of franchises and endless blockbusters, Air is the sort of character-focused film that rarely gets made anymore, and is all the more enjoyable for it.
American Fiction
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) is a successful professor of literature, but a struggling author, his books constantly rejected for not being “Black enough.” After seeing fellow novelist Sintara Golden (Issa Rae) lauded for her pandering, stereotypical work, Monk pseudonymously pens a novel filled with every lazy trope and cliché he can imagine to lampoon the situation—but is horrified when it becomes an instant success. As a massive advance turns into a multimillion-dollar movie deal, Monk spirals as everyone from the public to his own family seems to love the deliberately offensive work. Based on Percival Everett’s novel Erasure, American Fiction is a darkly satirical work with a wicked sense of humor—an all-too-rare modern comedy with something to say, fronted by one of the finest performances of Wright’s career.
Heads of State
Grumpy British prime minister Sam Clarke (Idris Elba) and action-movie star turned US President Will Derringer (John Cena) can’t stand each other—so teaming up to survive after Air Force One is shot down over the Belarusian wilderness is going to put a real strain on the Special Relationship. Luckily for viewers, though, it also makes for one of the most hilarious and brilliantly choreographed action comedies in years. Priyanka Chopra Jonas is astounding as hard-nosed senior MI6 agent Noel Bisset, out to protect the combative world leaders from each other as much as a mounting terrorist threat, but it’s the spiky chemistry between the leads that really carries the film. Cena is so perfectly obnoxious throughout that you can’t help but feel Elba might actually hate him. A throwback of an action flick in the best way.
Deep Cover
When London police detective Billings (Sean Bean) hits a brick wall infiltrating criminal organizations, he turns to the only people he can trust: struggling improv actors. This ludicrous concept is played for maximum laughs by Bryce Dallas Howard as Kat, a comedian desperate for her big break, and Orlando Bloom as the intractably method-acting Marlon. But it’s Ted Lasso‘s Nick Mohammed who steals every scene as meek and awkward Hugh—an IT nerd who can’t act but “yes, ands … ” every increasingly farcical scenario the trio find themselves in. A bizarre blend of slapstick and Guy Ritchie-esque grit, Deep Cover fully commits.
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
One of the absolute wildest films you’ve probably never seen, 1984’s The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai is … almost impossible to describe. Centered on Peter Weller’s Dr. Buckaroo Banzai—a super-genius physicist, skilled neurosurgeon, high-flying test pilot, and beloved rock star—the film follows his battle with the evil Dr. Emilio Lizardo (John Lithgow) over the advanced “oscillation overthruster” that allows travel between dimensions. It’s so much stranger than that though. Expect alien invaders, identical twins of long-lost lovers, Orville Welles, and mid-1980s nuclear war paranoia, and that’s just scratching the surface. The highest of high concept sci-fi flicks, it absolutely bombed on release (despite a phenomenal cast including Jeff Goldblum and Christopher Lloyd) but has since more than earned its standing as a cult favorite. Even Weller himself can’t explain the film, but it is undeniably an experience.
Conclave
Arriving on Prime Video with divine timing, this parable of the election of a new pope makes for powerful viewing. When the pope passes, Cardinal Thomas Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) starts the process of hosting the papal conclave to choose his successor—but given that the supreme pontiff is one of the most powerful positions on Earth, the election makes for anything but dry Catholic procedure. As the choice narrows to four candidates, and no one is allowed in or out until a new pope is elected, tension mounts while power plays, blackmail, and long-buried secrets rock the Holy See. Based on the novel by Robert Harris and directed by Edward Berger (2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front), Conclave is a meticulously researched and exquisitely shot drama, driven by magnetic performances from a cast including Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini.
Evangelion 3.0+1.0: Thrice Upon a Time
Fair warning: As the culmination of 15 years of work for creator and director Hideaki Anno, and serving as a follow-up to his classic 1995 TV anime Neon Genesis Evangelion, this is hardly what you’d call a jumping on point for the notoriously complex mecha franchise. (Thankfully, Prime Video has the whole movie saga available, starting with Evangelion 1.11.) Nevertheless, snagging the international rights for this long-awaited film from Japan’s Studio Khara was a genuine coup for Amazon. Thrice Upon a Time brings to a close the decades-long tale of traumatized teenage robot pilots forced to fight biblically accurate angels—and worse, the twisted machinations of lead character Shinji’s abusive father, Gendo. With bewilderingly beautiful animation, plenty of emotional clout, and an ending that surprised even longtime fans, this is a textbook example of how to send a series out with a bang.
Challengers
Directed by Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name), Challengers follows the complicated three-way relationship between tennis aces Tashi (Zendaya), Patrick (Josh O’Connor), and Art (Mike Faist). Told nonlinearly, it volleys between the trio’s disaffected present and their more optimistic, exciting past. It’s an energetic and inventively shot sports movie, but the real match tension is in how the promise of Grand Slam glory (and no shortage of raging hormones—it is a Guadagnino film, after all) in the trio’s youth lead to choices that ricochet into the present. Tashi has been forced to abandon the court after a horrific injury, her now-husband Art is stuck in a competitive rut, and Patrick hustles low-stakes games to get by—but none of them have really moved on.
My Old Ass
The unstoppable rise of Aubrey Plaza continues in this smart, modern take on the coming-of-age dramedy. Written and directed by The Fallout’s Megan Park, My Old Ass follows 18-year old Elliott (Maisy Stella) who, on the cusp of college and major life changes, celebrates her birthday by taking mushrooms with her friends. Mid-trip, she meets … Elliott, age 39 (Plaza). It’s when she’s sobered up that things get really trippy, though. Elliott starts receiving text messages from the future—warning her to avoid a boy named Chad. Equal parts hopeful and melancholic, and with powerful performances from both actors playing an Elliott, this film beautifully captures the messy, joyful potential of youth and the nagging, wistful “what ifs?” that come with age. A delight however old you are.
Brittany Runs a Marathon
When Brittany (Jillian Bell) is told by her doctor to lose weight, she uses it as a reason to take control of her life. She starts by putting on a pair of trainers and challenging herself to run one block, which quickly escalates into deciding to run the New York City Marathon. First-time director Paul Downs Colaizzo based the story on the experiences of his friend, and highlights not only the benefits of running but also the pain. This film shows that no matter how bad things get, you can still get back up.
The Idea of You
The best rom-coms tend to succeed thanks to how unrealistic they are—the improbable meet-cute, the heightened emotions, the exaggerated gestures of affection, the dizzying spin of falling head over heels for someone. It’s something The Idea of You perfectly nails as it charts the relationship between successful gallery owner Solène Marchand (Anne Hathaway) and global music superstar Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitzine)—who also happens to be 16 years her junior. It could so easily have been cheap scandal fodder—and that’s how it’s played in-universe when the paparazzi get wind of Hayes’ relationship with the “older woman”—but as the pair embark on a globe-trotting romance, the charismatic leads serve up enough genuine chemistry to sweep the audience up in the whirlwind of it all. It’s ultimately less “will they, won’t they?” and more “should they, shouldn’t they?” thanks to a well-handled awareness of the age gap (already narrowed from the source novel by Robinne Lee), but for fans of the genre, it’s a delight.
Saltburn
Oxford student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) is having trouble fitting in at the prestigious British university—until he befriends the popular Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi). Handsome, rich, and born to the landed gentry, Felix brings the awkward, socially invisible Oliver into his circle, eventually inviting him to spend summer at the family estate, Saltburn. But as Oliver works his way into the family’s graces, his obsession with Felix takes increasingly dark and deranged turns. Oscillating between black comedy and psychological thriller, writer and director Emerald Fennel (Promising Young Woman) frames the film in 4:3 aspect ratio for a tighter, almost voyeuristic viewing experience that makes its frequently unsettling moments even more uncomfortable. Having attracted plenty of debate since its 2023 release—not least for how it questionably navigates its themes of class and social inclusion—Saltburn was one of the year’s most divisive films, but one that demands your attention.
The Burial
Courtroom dramas are rarely laugh riots, but this tale of funeral home director Jeremiah O’Keefe (Tommy Lee Jones) and his flashy lawyer Willie Gary (Jamie Foxx) taking on a major player in America’s “death care” system brings a dark sense of humor to already grim proceedings. This is no comedy though. Based on true events, director Maggie Betts’ (The Novitiate) latest drama retells a real-life legal case that exposed massive inequality in funereal care and the way Black communities were being regularly overcharged. Foxx and Jones are in top form throughout, but it’s Jurnee Smollett as Mame Downes, Gary’s rival attorney who threatens to outpace him at every turn, whose performance threatens to steal the whole movie. For a film about death, The Burial proves warmly life-affirming.
A Million Miles Away
Charting the life of José Hernández, this biopic—based on Hernández’s own book—mixes the aspirational with the inspirational as it follows its central figure’s rise from, in his own words, migrant farm worker to the first Mexican-American astronaut. Michael Peña is in fine form as Hernández, painting a picture of a man almost myopically driven to reach space, no matter the cost, while Rosa Salazar impresses as his wife Adela, refusing to fade into the background even as she puts her own dreams on pause for José to chase the stars. In lesser hands, this could all be cloying—a twee tale of hard work and achieving the American Dream, with a dash of NASA promo material on the side, but director Alejandra Márquez Abella has her lens as focused on the small beauties of life here on Earth as the splendor and sheer potential of space. A rare delight.
Red, White, and Royal Blue
Look, this is clearly a “best film” by a highly specific metric—and that metric is “gloriously cheesy trash.” Adapted from Casey McQuinston’s best-selling novel, this intercontinental rom-com charts the relationship between First Son Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez) and Prince Henry (Nicholas Galitzine), the “spare” to the British throne, going from rivals through to grudging respect, and ultimately groundbreaking romance. It’s often ludicrous, including an inciting incident seeing the pair falling into a wedding cake, a tabloid-worthy tryst in a hotel room, and political intrigue surrounding Alex’s mother, President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman, vamping scenes with a bizarre “Texan” accent), but it’s all just irresistibly wholesome and upbeat. Red, White, and Royal Blue is the movie equivalent of pizza—not good for you, but still delicious.
Shin Masked Rider
If you’re sick of cookie-cutter Hollywood superhero movies, then this ground-up reboot of one of Japan’s most beloved heroes deserves your attention. Helmed by Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Shin Godzilla, Shin Ultraman—“shin” meaning “new” or “true” in Japanese), this revamps the 1971 TV series Kamen Rider. Like that show, it follows motorcyclist Takeshi Hongo (Sosuke Ikematsu). Kidnapped by the terrorist organization S.H.O.C.K.E.R. and forcibly converted into a powerful cyborg, Hongo escapes before being reprogrammed as an agent of the group, instead using his newfound powers to take down its forces. However, unlike the original, Anno’s approach taps into the body horror of the core concept, while also challenging his characters—and audience—to hang onto their intrinsic humanity in the face of a world trying to dehumanize them. It’s more violent than you’d probably expect, often showing the grisly outcome of regular people getting punched by superpowered cyborgs and monsters, but never gratuitous. While those with some understanding of the source material will get more out of Shin Masked Rider, it’s an exciting outing for anyone looking for something a bit fresher from their hero movies.
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Kazakh” TV reporter (even if he speaks Hebrew) travels back to the US, 14 years after his last feature-long escapade. This time Baron Cohen has brought his (Bulgarian-speaking) teenage daughter along, with the mission of giving her “as a gift” to some powerful American politicians—initially Mike Pence, then Rudy Giuliani. In classic Boratic fashion, the mockumentary follows the wacky duo on a cavalcade across Trump’s America, filming candid performances by unsuspecting characters ranging from QAnon believers to Republican activists to prim debutantes, all the way to Giuliani himself. Even the coronavirus pandemic, which struck America as the film was being shot, is subverted as a comedic plot point. Baron Cohen delivers, with the expected repertoire of shock gags and deadpanned verbal enormities, and he manages to land some punches at the expense of bigots. In contrast to its 2006 predecessor, many of the pranks and stunts here seem more aimed at eliciting the audience’s nervous laughter than at exposing America’s heart of darkness, but it remains a worthy—and funny—watch.
Nanny
Aisha (Anna Diop) is a Senegalese woman working as a nanny for a rich couple in New York City, hoping to earn enough to bring her son and cousin to join her in America. However, her future is at the mercy of her employers, who seem content to leave Aisha to raise their daughter, Rose, while often withholding her pay. As the stress of the power imbalance weighs on her, Aisha begins having strange dreams of drowning, worsened by her fears of abandoning her own child. The feature debut of director Nikyatu Jusu, Nanny contrasts the horror of the immigrant experience in modern America with something darker, while swapping the expected tropes of hope and opportunity for a palpable sadness for culture and community left behind. Nanny takes a slow-burn, psychological approach to its scares, but Diop is phenomenal throughout, and the meticulous pacing and gorgeous cinematography means every frame lingers.
Coming 2 America
Relying on nostalgia to carry new entries in long-dormant series can be risky business, but Eddie Murphy’s return to the role of Prince—now King—Akeem of Zamunda more than three decades after 1988’s Coming to America shows how to do it right. Drawn back to the US in search of a son he never knew he had, Akeem—and the audience—gets to reunite with familiar faces from the first film, before director Craig Brewer (Hustle and Flow) reverses the formula and tests the American characters with a trip to Zamunda. With a sharper, smarter, and more globally aware script than the original, Coming 2 America defies the odds to be a comedy sequel that stands up to the reputation of its predecessor.
Thirteen Lives
Director Ron Howard’s latest gathers a top-notch cast—including Viggo Mortensen, Colin Farrell, and Joel Edgerton—for a dramatization of the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue, where a Thai junior soccer team and their assistant coach were trapped in the flooded cave system. As an international effort mounts to save the children, the challenges of navigating miles of underwater caverns become ever more dangerous, and Howard masterfully captures every perilously claustrophobic moment of it. A nail-bitingly tense movie with some ingeniously shot aquatic scenes, Thirteen Lives is a testament to one of the most difficult rescues ever performed.
One Night in Miami …
Based on the play of same name, One Night in Miami follows four icons of culture, music, and sports—Malcolm X, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke, and Muhammad Ali—at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, a converging and pivotal point in their lives and careers. Meeting in a motel room in the wake of Ali’s—then still Cassius Clay—heavyweight victory over Sonny Liston in 1964, the four men discuss their roles in the movement and society as a whole, all while the audience knows the weight of history is bearing down on them. The close confines of much of the film reflect its theatrical roots, but this feature directorial debut from Regina King perfectly portrays the larger-than-life personalities of its cast. Kingsley Ben-Adir is on fire as Malcolm X, with Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., and Eli Goree—as Brown, Cooke, and Ali—all utterly magnetic.
The Report
Produced by Amazon, The Report is an engrossing depiction of the US Senate’s investigation into the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation” program—how it came to be, who knew about it, and how the CIA massaged the facts to support its efficacy. Adam Driver stars as Daniel Jones, the lead investigator who plowed an increasingly lonely path to the truth, battling against political resistance and CIA interference all the way. Driver is, as is his habit these days, superb, and the film’s 82 percent “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes is well earned.
Sound of Metal
Punk-rock drummer and recovering addict Ruben starts experiencing hearing loss, and it threatens to upend his entire life. Faced with an impossible choice between giving up his hearing or giving up his career, Ruben begins to spiral, until his girlfriend Lou checks him into a rehab center for the deaf, forcing him to confront his own behavior as much as the future he faces. Riz Ahmed is in spectacular form as the troubled Ruben, while Olivia Cooke’s turn as Lou, who suffers with her own demons, including self-harm, is riveting. Fittingly enough, Sound of Metal also features incredibly nuanced use of sound—and its absence—as director Darius Marder crafts one of the finest dramas in recent years.
After-Christmas deals are an excellent way to redeem any gift cards or cash you got for Christmas. You can purchase something you actually want, and you can do it for less money than usual. I’ve scoured the Internet for truly good after-Christmas deals on the gear that we’ve hand-tested on the WIRED Reviews team. Many of these sales will end this weekend, so keep that in mind while you’re shopping. Find all the highlights below.
For more inspiration, check out some of our recently updated buying guides, including the Best Office Chairs, the Best Cheap Phones, and the Best Space Heaters.
WIRED Featured Deals:
Anker Laptop Power Bank for $88 ($47 off)
We love this beefy power bank. Its 25,000-mAh capacity is more than enough for fully charging your iPhone between 4 and 6 times, and it can deliver up to 165 watts to two devices meaning that you can charge your laptop, gaming console, or anything else you fancy. The built-in USB-C cable doubles as a carrying loop. There’s also a nifty display that’ll give you at-a-glance information on remaining battery, temperature, charging speeds, and more. It has pass-through charging support and only takes about two hours to fully recharge. This deal price matches what we saw on Black Friday.
Google Pixel 10 for $599 ($200 off)
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
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Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, and Pixel 10 Pro XL
There was an on-page coupon (PIXEL10) that had the best price we’ve tracked for any of the phones in the Google Pixel 10 lineup. That coupon is not available as of Saturday morning, but it may be back—clip it if you see it. This is still a good deal on the smartest Android phones you can buy, with fantastic cameras, snappy processors, gorgeous displays, and more AI integration than the average person needs. Check out our dedicated buying guide to figure out which Google Pixel 10 is right for you. If you’re in the market for an upgrade, now is a good time to buy considering that we’ve never seen any phone in this flagship lineup sell for less.
Bruvi BV-01 Brewer Bundle for $228 ($120 off)—Clip the Coupon
Photograph: Louryn Strampe
I’ve tested a lot of pod coffee makers, and the Bruvi BV-01 is my favorite. This deal price is the best we see outside of special events like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The brewer is cute and looks great on a counter, with a large reservoir, an intuitive touchscreen display, and a built-in wastebin that collects used pods for you. The best part are the proprietary B-Pods, which are designed to biodegrade in a landfill. The bundle gets you the machine plus an assortment of bestselling coffee and espresso pods to get you started.
Fitbit Charge 6 for $100 ($60 off)
The Fitbit Charge 6 has been at the top of our fitness tracker buying guide since we first tested it. It’s attractive, affordable, accessible, and on sale for a match of the best deal we’ve seen. It’ll play well with iOS and Android, and it has a solid suite of features that’ll cover almost anyone’s needs—including skin temperature, heart rate readings, ECGs, activity and workout tracking, and more. The battery lasts for at least a week on a single charge. This deal comes with a six-month subscription to Fitbit Premium, which normally costs $10 per month.
Hydro Flask Standard Mouth Water Bottle for $30 ($10 off)
Photograph: Dick’s Sporting Goods
Hydro Flask
Standard Mouth Water Bottle
This budget-friendly deal gets you a steal on the best reusable water bottle. Hydro Flask bottles are durable, portable, and easy to cover in all the stickers you’ve been hoarding. The handle is flexible, the bottle is leakproof, and every component is dishwasher safe (though you may want to opt for hand-washing if you do end up plastering it in stickers). A few different colors are on sale at this price.
Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 for $200 ($50 off)
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If hitting the gym is one of your New Year’s resolutions for 2026, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 are worth considering. They’re the best workout headphones we’ve tested thanks to their comfortable and ergonomic fit, noise cancelation, spatial audio, a heart rate monitor, and the fact that they play well with both iOS and Android phones. The sound is solid, the battery life is good, and they’re water-resistant. This deal price comes within $20 of the best we’ve seen. Every color—orange, lavender, grey, and black—is on sale.
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The most immediately striking difference is that Hyperkin’s product swaps the typical Xbox approach of asymmetric thumbsticks for the PlayStation’s horizontal layout. It also separates the D-pad (it’s one piece inside the pad, but splits its cardinal directions so each appears to be its own button), while the ABXY face buttons are spaced slightly further apart. Where the DualSense’s touchpad would sit, we have the Xbox home, menu, view, and share buttons, all blended in rather smartly. An LED ring around the home button just about echoes the lights running the periphery of the DualSense’s touchpad, although it’s really more of an inversion of the regular Xbox controller, where the home button itself lights up.
The Competitor’s thumbsticks come equipped with thumbcaps that mirror the PS5’s, an outer ring with a convex central point, but a pair of Xbox-standard concave caps are included. These easily pop on and off, and can be mixed and matched, if you were so (strangely) inclined.
There are two areas where this departs from both the standard Xbox and PlayStation controllers in terms of inputs. The first is the presence of two programmable rear buttons, M1 and M2. By default, these duplicate the input of the A and B buttons, but holding down the Mode button between them lets you remap them. There are also physical button locks to prevent their use entirely. The other is that while the Competitor boasts a 3.5-mm headphone jack like Microsoft’s official pad, it adds a built-in audio mute button, hidden in the black between the thumbsticks—a nice little upgrade.
Oddly Familiar
In use, the Competitor feels … well, a lot like a PS5 pad. The slightly wider grip fits in the hand comfortably, all inputs are accessible, and those symmetrical thumbsticks sit nicely in reach for all but the smallest hands. A microtextured underside provides a solid grip that, when coupled with its 232-gram weight, makes the Competitor feel particularly suited to longer play periods. It’s all very familiar if you’re already a multiformat gamer, to the extent that it sometimes slightly threw my muscle memory off, reaching a thumb out to do a PlayStation touchpad function and finding only the Xbox system buttons.
Photograph: Matt Kamen
When US president Donald Trump launched his own meme cryptocurrency on January 17, days before his return to the White House, I was halfway up a Swiss alp, attending a crypto conference in the town of St. Moritz.
Memecoins, which typically have no purpose beyond financial speculation, were having a moment. The previous year, millions of new memecoins had flooded the market; a few, like Fartcoin, had rocketed to billion-dollar valuations. Pump.Fun, a platform for launching and trading memecoins, had become one of the fastest-growing crypto launchpad businesses ever. Now, the soon-to-be president was getting in on the act.
Over lunch on the second day of the conference, beneath the ornate stucco ceiling and golden chandeliers of the venue’s dining hall, I located a table designated for a conversation about memecoins. Whereas other tables were half full, the memecoin workshop was oversubscribed; latecomers pulled up chairs to create two full rows.
The discussion was led by Nagendra Bharatula, founder of investment firm G-20 Group. Bharatula had recently coauthored a paper arguing that memecoins, despite their juvenile spirit, had a place in professional investors’ portfolios. In the six months prior, a basket of 25 “bluechip memecoins”—an oxymoron if ever there was one—had outperformed bitcoin by 150 percent, he pointed out. Some of the attendees murmured their approval.
Since then, the shine has come off the memecoin market. The paper value of Trump’s coin, which climbed to a peak of $14 billion two days after its launch, has cratered to roughly $1 billion. Hundreds of thousands of small investors lost their shirts. Pump.Fun’s daily revenue, a proxy for the overall appetite for memecoin trading, is barely more than a tenth of what it was in January. The memecoin gold rush has spawned a raft of litigation.
Next up: the stablecoin. If memecoins are symbolic of reckless abandon and unflinching profiteering in cryptoland, stablecoins are a symbol of the industry’s search for purpose and respectability. Designed to hold a steady $1 valuation, stablecoins are pitched by proponents as a faster and cheaper way to make everyday payments and international money transfers.
In a year in which the US has declared itself open for crypto business, where previously crypto firms feared regulatory backlash under the Biden administration, stablecoins have supplanted memecoins as the coin à la mode—and punctured the mainstream.
Though stablecoins have been around since 2014, they have predominantly been used by crypto traders as a safe harbor during bouts of market volatility, not by regular people. The concept has also faced resistance from regulators skeptical of a new form of money; Diem, a stablecoin venture incubated at Meta, famously shuttered in 2022 in the face of broad-based opposition.
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