- Memecoins flourished in 2024, with a market cap of $50.8 billion and high returns.
- VanEck’s Memecoin Index reflected on the speculative nature of memecoins.
In 2024, although Bitcoin [BTC] took center stage with the approval and halving of the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF), it is impossible to ignore the memecoin mania.
According to Coin geckoAt the time of writing, the market cap for memecoins was $50.8 billion.
They were reportedly by far the most profitable crypto story with returns averaging over 1300% for the top tokens.
Controversies surrounding memecoins
However, amid this optimistic growth, the controversies surrounding memecoins cannot be ignored.
Memecoin trader Ansem noted the same thing in a recent one conversation with the podcast ‘Unchained’, said:
“I think it’s more of an attention thing, and an Internet thing, than really thinking about teams that are developing products.”
Adding to the fray, Kelxyz, a memecoin trader in the same conversation, noted:
“With crypto and the ability to tokenize everything, fund everything, it makes sense that memecoins would ultimately capture a lot of that attention flow and in turn, some of that value.”
This highlighted that memecoins showed both growth and controversy, with high market capitalization and returns contrasting with questions of value and purpose.
Everything about VanEck’s memecoin index
The memecoin craze was further confirmed by VanEck’s move into the memecoin market.
Throwing light on the same, Matthew SigelVanEck’s Head of Digital Assets went to X (formerly Twitter) and noted:
“VanEck’s @MarketVector launches $MEMECOIN index, top 6 assets, 30% cap.”
Source: MarketVector
He even gave a word of warning, adding:
“These coins are for entertainment purposes”
However, seeing the potential for the memecoin asset class, an X user @vrij_elektron0 said,
“And so it begins. TradFi’s introduction of the ‘memecoin asset class’ to the world.”
Future prospects of Memecoin
Ansem defied the memecoin controversies by highlighting their substantial gains and exceeding the associated losses. He claimed,
“Looking at the price is valid because anything that people can speculate on, whether it’s stocks, crypto, altcoins, Bitcoin, Ethereum… people can buy the top and lose money. So that’s not real specifically for memecoins.”