With Bitcoin nearing its all-time high of $69,000, the frenzy and expectation of token holders is spilling over to higher-risk cryptocurrencies. During the past week, meme-coins have been grabbing unprecedented attention, breaking records in all metrics, including price, market capitalization and trading volume. The frenzy has even caused trading volume on Solana to surpass that of Ethereum in the past 24 hours.
Leading the rally is the Ethereum-based frog-inspired Pepecoin (PEPE), which is currently at an all-time high of $0.00000745. PEPE, whose team members were accused of a potential rug pull shortly after the currency launched in April 2023, became the 42nd largest cryptocurrency after its market capitalization doubled from $1.5 to $3 billion over the weekend.
However, frogs are not the only creatures achieving new highs in the current meme-coin fever. The Solana-based dog-inspired Bonk (BONK) also broke its all-time record price at $0.00004547 and is trading at 189% higher than it was a week ago.
In terms of trading volume, Pepe currently ranks 9th with Bonk in 12th, but Shiba Inu (SHIBA) and Dogecoin (DOGE) take the lead. In the last 24 hours, the two best-known names in the meme-token arena have been the 5th and 6th most traded crypto assets. Both dog-inspired and Ethereum-based, SHIBA and DOGE saw weekly price increases of 239% and 90%, respectively.
Doge's week might have been quite modest compared to other meme-tokens when it comes to price, but with a market cap of $26 billion, the OG meme-coin beats all others. In second place, SHIBA has a market cap of almost $20 billion, followed by PEPE and Bonk, each valued at around $3 billion.
Also on the podium of meme-tokens that have attracted the most attention in recent days is Floki (FLOKI). Named after Elon Musk's pet Shiba Inu in 2021, Floki's price has increased by almost 300% during the past week and is currently the 5th largest meme-coin project with a market cap of $1.5 billion.
Dogwifhat (WIF), a Solana-based meme-coin launched in December, has also seen its price soar as Bitcoin surpassed the $65,000 mark. After a weekly price rise of over 200%, the value of the project is now sitting at $1.4 billion. Binance announced the listing of this cute doggy, so we will probably observe more ups and downs.
As the high season for risk in the crypto markets sends meme-coins prices through the roof, every project is up for speculation. HarryPotterObamaPacMan8Inu is a meme-coin launched in August 2023 that had lived in the dark until this latest frenzy started. Presenting a literal 'white paper' as its white paper, the token is a classic meme-coin, offering no utility, with a highly volatile price that is totally dependent on the whims of the market. In the past week, its price grew by 800%.
Some meme-tokens are even trying to overcome their meme-based roots. DOGE, which has been around since 2013, has evolved from an in-joke to a blockchain with its own Dapps and ordinal inscriptions. FLOKI's development team is working towards creating an exclusive token and last week suggested that the DAO burn 2% of the current supply.
While some projects might try to be more than speculative tokens, meme-coins as an asset class are perceived as lacking any real value, meaning that the same market that has flocked to them during the past week could just as quickly turn its back on them. In the process, the market could produce some phenomenal victories and many black-hole losses.
