Crypto boom sees old and new meme coins flying
Each day, Coinrule will run through the state of the digital assets market for Blockbeat, your home for news, analysis, opinion and commentary on blockchain and digital assets.
The bull market wheels are seriously turning. Bitcoin crossed $60,000, altcoins are flying and meme season has started.
The total crypto market cap is now over $2 trillion for the first time in almost 2 years. Coinbase also jumped this week from 422nd to 277th top downloaded apps in the App Store – signalling increasing retail interest.
A good way to measure bull market progress are memes coins.
They are a big part of crypto culture. Memes convey ideas and information in a humorous format – leading to a higher chance of people remembering them.
This is especially relevant when dealing with nascent and complex protocols.
To attract new users, the protocol’s advantages and unique selling points must be made more understandable.
Memes are a perfect way of doing this.
Often, the token is the meme. Memes can also become cult-like, with followers buying more as soon as a popular figure, such as Elon Musk, joins the ranks.
Last cycle saw Dogecoin (DOGE), crypto’s original meme token, reach nearly $100 billion. $100 billion is the current market cap of BP or Airbnb. However, participants in the crypto sphere often see market caps themselves as a meme.
Dogwifhat (WIF), a meme token of literally a dog wearing a hat, is up over 100% this week and has become a top 5 meme token.
Every cycle seems to have one or two standout memes. Last cycle, dog-themed tokens were the category of choice. Shiba Inu (SHIB) reached the upper echelons of the highest-valued tokens alongside Doge – hitting over $40 billion market cap at one point. This trend is continuing with Dogwifhat and other coins.
This week also saw the resurgence of one of the internet’s original memes. Pepe The Frog (PEPE). This week Pepe has been on a tear, rising over 100% and above a $1 billion market cap. Sometimes, there is some obscure catalyst that ignites meme token runs. Today, it is Leap Day.
The fact Pepe was being “priced in” for anticipation of Leap Day is a meme in itself. Welcome to a Crypto Bull Market.