Markets
Meme Cryptocurrencies Surpass Bitcoin
Top line
The first half of 2024 will likely be remembered in the digital asset world for the beginning Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs), but several lesser-known cryptocurrencies have stolen the spotlight.
Shiba Inus have been the face of the 2024 crypto rally.
NurPhoto via Getty Images
Highlights
The market value of all cryptocurrencies increased by $661 billion in the first six months of the year, according to CoinGecko, with bitcoin, by far the world’s most valuable crypto token, accounting for $409 billion of that gain.
Bitcoin’s 48% surge as institutional investors flocked to the asset was outpaced by several “meme coins,” tokens with little intrinsic value and whose prices tend to fluctuate wildly as traders often congregating on social media move in and out of coins.
Dogwifhat, an aptly named token whose logo is a Shiba Inu in a knitted hat, is the most profitable of the 70 or so coins with a market cap above $1 billion, gaining about 1,300%, while Pepe, a token named after the often meme frog partner with right-wing fringe circles, is the next best performer in the first half with a gain of nearly 800%, according to CoinMarketCap.
Floki, a coin named after the Shiba Inu dog owned by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and a coin known simply as Shiba Inu, are up 418% and 67%, respectively, outperforming bitcoin by the same amount.
Shiba Inus (the dog, not the coin) are undoubtedly the mascots of the meme coin boom, but the most famous dog-based token, dogecoin, gained a comparatively meager 35%.
Several tokens that fall outside the meme coin umbrella also saw rallies that outpaced bitcoin, including ether (up 51%), the Ethereum network token that could be approved for bitcoin-like ETFs. as soon as this summer, and Binance Coin (up 81%), the coin often abbreviated as BNB that is issued by the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and owned primarily by Binance’s embattled billionaire founder Changpeng Zhao.
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Top 10 Best Performing Cryptocurrencies (Market Cap Over $1 Billion)
- Dogwifhat: Up 1,306%, $2.1B Market Cap
- Pepe: Up 815%, $5 billion market cap
- Alliance for Artificial Superintelligence: Up 545%, Market Cap $3.6 Billion
- Floki: Up 392%, $1.6 billion market cap
- JasmyCoin: Up 343%, Market Cap $1.4 Billion
- Arweave: Up 188%, $1.8B Market Cap
- Core: Up 152%, $1.2 billion market cap
- Toncoin: Up 135%, Market Cap $18.8 Billion
- Bitget: Up 100%, Market Cap $1.6 Billion
- Bonk: Up 90%, $1.5 billion market cap
What is a meme coin?
There is no hard and fast rule as to what constitutes a meme piece, but it is generally considered a cryptocurrency linked to a viral internet joke and whose price moves even more dramatically than this already volatile asset class. Notably, these coins generally do not have much utility beyond a speculative investment, unlike bitcoin, for example, which a few considered a modern alternative to gold for its ability to store value regardless of inflation or central bank activity. All cryptocurrencies other than bitcoin are refers to like altcoins (alternative currencies), many of which are not meme currencies. Investing in memes is not exclusive to crypto, as the stock market has seen a surge in social media-driven momentum trading in recent years with shares of companies like GameStop and AMC.
Crucial Quote
“Meme coins can capture public interest today and disappear tomorrow,” warned BankRate analyst James Royal. CNBC“If demand dries up, you’re left with worthless digital assets and a good story,” Royal added.
Key context
First created in 2009, bitcoin and the broader cryptocurrency market saw a surge in popularity and value during the COVID-19 pandemic, rising from a low of nearly $4,100 in March 2020 to a peak of nearly $69,000 in November 2021. The industry then endured the brutal “crypto winter” of 2022, marked by a series of high-profile bankruptcies, including that of Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX, which sent bitcoin below $16,000 in late 2022. The cryptocurrency market then rebounded as overall market conditions improved and investors became excited about bitcoin spot ETFs, which brought in about $15 billion in new capital in their first five months of existence, according to Bernstein’s analysis. Bitcoin peaked at $73,768 in March. It is now trading about 15% below that peak, but continues to outperform the S&P 500 stock index year-to-date.
Surprising fact
Despite the rise in value of several other cryptocurrencies, bitcoin reached its most dominant level since the first half of 2021 this year, according to According to CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin accounts for more than 55% of the overall market value of the global cryptocurrency market, up from 40% at the end of 2022.