The Profit Trader

I’m seeing meme coins rally hard at the start of 2026, with $DOGE and $PEPE leading the move as traders rotate into higher-beta assets while bitcoin remains stuck in a tight range and post-holiday liquidity stays thin.

But....👇

Dogecoin is up roughly 11% in the last 24 hours, while PEPE has surged around 17%, after briefly pushing as high as 25% intraday. That kind of price action is already reviving talk of a potential “meme season” as speculative appetite returns to the market.
Meme coin activity is accelerating
This move isn’t limited to one or two tokens. CoinGecko data shows the GMCI Meme Index sitting around a $33.8 billion market cap with nearly $5.9 billion in daily volume, pointing to broad participation across the sector. Dog-themed coins are flashing green across the board. SHIB is up about 8%, BONK on Solana has gained close to 11%, and FLOKI is up nearly 10% on the day.
Smaller-cap meme coins are moving even faster. $MOG is up roughly 14% on the day and almost 37% over the past week, while POPCAT has added around 9%, extending weekly gains beyond 17%.
Momentum is spilling into memes
From what I’m tracking, PEPE’s breakout acted as a key momentum trigger. It looks like capital is rotating out of larger assets and into meme coins as liquidity slowly returns and traders look for volatility.
This follows a familiar pattern. Once directional conviction starts building, capital tends to move from majors into higher-volatility tokens as risk tolerance increases.
Why meme coins are outperforming right now
Bitcoin has remained range-bound, and liquidity conditions are still uneven after the holidays. In that environment, traders often express risk-on views through the highest-beta assets instead of waiting for a macro catalyst.
Meme coins benefit because they:
Move faster than large-cap assetsHave deep derivatives liquidity on major exchangesAttract momentum-driven traders who aren’t dependent on fundamentals
That mix can amplify short-term price action even without broader market confirmation.
This rally is still fragile
I don’t see this as confirmation of a sustained meme-led cycle yet. Historically, meme rallies are powerful in the short term but structurally fragile.
Once positioning gets crowded, spot demand dries up, or bitcoin weakens, these coins can unwind quickly. The same leverage that drives explosive upside can force sharp downside de-risking. Because of that, I treat meme coins more as a gauge of speculative appetite than a long-term trend signal.
What I’m watching next
One framework I keep an eye on is a meme-season-style index that tracks how many major meme coins are outperforming bitcoin. Sustained strength there would suggest a real rotation into higher-risk segments, not just isolated pumps.
For now, price action tells me traders are willing to take selective risk. The next signal is whether gains continue to broaden across the meme space, or fade as quickly as they appeared.

Geopolitical shocks don’t stay local.

They reshape capital flows.
The U.S. strike on Venezuela is one of those moments.
Here’s how it matters for crypto 👇

1️⃣ Bitcoin ($BTC ): Geopolitics = Narrative Fuel

When sanctions, sovereignty risk, and capital controls rise, Bitcoin’s value proposition gets louder.
Permissionless
Borderless,Censorship-resistant,Short-term volatility is expected,Medium-term, BTC often benefits as a hedge against political risk.

2️⃣ Crypto Market: Volatility First, Rotation Later

Initial reaction is usually risk-off:
Altcoins drop harder than BTCBTC dominance risesStablecoin demand increases like $USDC and USDTThen capital rotates back—favoring infrastructure and real utility over speculation.
3️⃣ BNB: Utility vs Regulation
BNB sits at the intersection of:
Exchange activityRegulatory pressureMarket volatilityHigher volatility boosts trading activity (positive).Geopolitical tension increases regulatory scrutiny (negative).
Result: BNB may lag BTC short-term but outperform weaker altcoins if usage stays strong.
The Bigger Signal

Every major geopolitical enforcement action reinforces one idea:
👉 Neutral financial infrastructure wins.
Bitcoin first.Crypto infrastructure next.Speculation last.
This isn’t just a price story ~ It’s a relevance story.

The bubble debate around AI stocks mirrors conversations we heard about crypto in 2017 and 2021. But here's what matters: infrastructure providers win during transformative shifts.

Following the Infrastructure Money
When AI companies project half a trillion dollars in chip revenue visibility, that's not speculation it's contracted demand. Compare this to Binance processing billions in daily trading volume even during crypto winters. Both represent genuine infrastructure needs, regardless of market sentiment.
The parallel is instructive. During crypto booms, everyone focused on Bitcoin prices while exchanges like Binance built essential infrastructure. Today, everyone debates AI valuations while chip makers build the computing foundation everything else requires.

Three Shifts Driving Decade Long Growth
We're seeing simultaneous platform transitions: legacy computing infrastructure needs replacement for AI workloads, generative AI is moving from experiment to production, and physical AI applications haven't even begun scaling.
This mirrors crypto's evolution—from speculation to DeFi to institutional adoption. Each phase required more infrastructure, not less.

What The Numbers Actually Tell Us
User bases jumping from 300 million to 800 million USD in one year. Revenue projections expanding from $1 billion to potentially $26 billion annually. Market forecasts suggesting 25 fold growth within a decade. These aren't bubble metrics they're adoption curves.
Binance and BNB's journey from startup to processing trillions in annual volume took similar exponential leaps. Infrastructure demand scales with adoption, not hype cycles.

The Real Question
Ask not whether AI or crypto is overvalued. Ask which companies control critical infrastructure chokepoints.
We're early in a twenty year transformation. The companies providing essential infrastructure for AI computing, like those providing infrastructure for digital assets, are positioned for sustained growth regardless of short term sentiment.
The bubble concerns will persist. But transformative technology requires transformative infrastructure. That's not speculation. That's how paradigm shifts work.