New data from market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock shows that the market capitalization of memecoins has reached the highest level since 2021.
In a new article, IntoTheBlock’s head of research, Lucas Outumuro, says say that the total value of meme assets nearly tripled to $56 billion in the first quarter of 2024.
“Demand for memecoins this quarter reached the highest level since 2021. Despite interest rates remaining high and no stimulus checks being sent, the appetite for seemingly useless crypto assets is very high.
It is unclear whether this is because the economy is overheating, or perhaps just because of growing financial nihilism, but memecoins have become the hottest topic in crypto in recent months.”
According to the crypto analytics firm, some of the winning meme assets include Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), and Shiba Inu (SHIB). IntoTheBlock notes that DOGE posted a 100% gain in the first quarter, while SHIB rose 2.5x and PEPE gained almost 5x.
However, the biggest winner according to IntoTheBlock is dogwifhat (WIF), a Solana (SOL)-based memecoin.
“Memecoins have performed well in lower-fee ecosystems, with Solana recording several days of higher trading volumes than Ethereum this quarter. More than just a dog coin, the main meme coin in Solana, WIF boasts a dog ‘in a hat’ and a rampant community behind its 20x annual return.
Finally, the company notes that the capital rotation of meme assets has made its way to Ethereum (ETH) as a result of last month’s Dencun upgrade, which lowered gas rates.
“More recently, the meme frenzy has made its way back to Ethereum, mainly on top of Coinbase’s Base Layer-2 network. This has been made possible because gas prices have fallen by more than 10x since the Dencun upgrade.”
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