Dogecoin (DOGE) is the pioneer of the meme token sector. It was released back in 2014, and the popular meme of a Shiba Inu dog named Kabosu was used as the logo. The creators of this cryptocurrency warned that it did not make any sense, and almost immediately abandoned their brainchild, selling all the tokens. However, Dogecoin's popularity continued to grow, it gained a huge community, and as a result, billionaire Elon Musk himself drew attention to the project.
Dogecoin became the progenitor of many “dog” tokens. For example, the Shiba Inu coin (SHIB) is in second place in terms of capitalization among all meme cryptocurrencies. It was created with the goal of one day surpassing DOGE in market valuation. At a certain point, the project succeeded, after which Dogecoin regained its leadership.
Other currently popular meme tokens that reference Dogecoin include coins using the Shiba Inu dog logos dogwifhat (WIF), Bonk (BONK) and Floki (FLOKI). The first token refers to a dog wearing a hat, the second token refers to the “bonk” meme, which depicts a Shiba Inu named Chims hitting another dog in the head with a bat. The third token has a name with a reference to Elon Musk’s puppy named Floki.
The total market capitalization of the above “dog” tokens alone, as of July 2024, exceeds $33.7 billion, and the daily trading volumes of each of these cryptocurrencies range from $154 million to $407 million.
Another popular meme token that has found its way among the many Shiba Inu logos is Pepe (PEPE). It was launched in the spring of 2023 and immediately began to gain popularity, so within the first day after the launch of trading the price increased by 900%. It took the asset less than three weeks for its market capitalization to exceed $1.6 billion. At the same time, as of July 2024, it is $4.7 billion, and in terms of daily trading volumes, Pepe is ahead of even Dogecoin - $494 million versus $407 million.
Which memcoins are considered the most promising right now?
Meme tokens are subject to high price fluctuations. Their quotes are manipulative, since a significant part of the coins is in the hands of a narrow circle of people who can control their value and even collapse it overnight.
Therefore, experts generally do not analyze the field of meme tokens. The largest assets by capitalization, discussed above, are more susceptible to the influence of general price movements of the market, including Bitcoin. At the same time, assets with low market valuations are extremely unpredictable.
If we talk about new projects, then it is impossible to know in advance which one will succeed. Over a thousand meme tokens appeared on the Solana blockchain every day, most of them did not show any growth and remained useless.
What affects the price of memcoins?
As with other assets, the price of meme tokens depends on supply and demand. Also, due to the highly manipulative nature of this asset class, it is worth noting that the price of memcoins is largely influenced by their creators, since they remain the largest holders.
After the developers of a memcoin have raised its price to a certain level, they can sell their assets, thereby putting pressure on the rate and causing it to collapse. This happens regularly. For example, in June, the BEER token team sold its tokens worth $15 million, causing the quotes to collapse.
Also, the value of the meme token may fall after a hacker attack. In May, an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the NORMIE smart contract, causing the price of the altcoin to plummet by 99%.
If we talk about the growth of quotes, it often occurs as a result of the hype around the project. Large volumes of purchases in conditions of an initially small capitalization of the token lead to a multiple increase in its value. However, you need to take into account that in the case of some fraudulent tokens, developers disable the sale function. Therefore, users who purchase an asset during a rally cannot take profits, but simply lose the money spent on the purchase.
Should you invest in memcoins now?
As we wrote above, memcoins are an extremely opaque area with seemingly high returns. Many users lose money when trying to invest in these projects. Therefore, when deciding to invest in a particular meme token, it is necessary to understand the risks of complete loss of all invested funds.
