In 2021 some friend in school invested 20$ each in meme coins, they made insane amount of money, few died on them and they lose money, but the lost was not much because they invested 20$ in each projects, I made some profits from defi projects and gaming projects but they made a lot more than I do, if you know how to gamble with the risk you can get lucky and make good money.
This is what usually happens with these meme coins that if you take out profits timely you can have your risk reward return but if you stick with them in long run you intend to loose money for sure because they don't have any utility so what will trigger the demand for them in future.
Your friends didn't cash out when they made insane amount of money? They have invested $20 in each meme coin at that time or any specific one only as there were lot of them pumping in the market with fake hype.But it's not clear whether they made profit or loss in the end?