New data from market intelligence platform IntoTheBlock reveals that the market cap of memecoins has hit its highest level since 2021.
In a new article, IntoTheBlock’s head of research, Lucas Outumuro, says that the aggregate value of meme assets has nearly tripled in Q1 of 2024 to $56 billion.
“Demand for memecoins hit the highest since 2021 this quarter. Despite interest rates remaining high and no ’stimmy checks’ being sent out, appetite for seemingly useless crypto-assets has been very strong.
It’s unclear whether this is due to the economy getting overheated, or perhaps just growing financial nihilism, but memecoins have become the main subject in crypto over the last few months.”
According to the crypto analytics firm, some of the winning meme assets are Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). IntoTheBlock notes that DOGE witnessed 100% gains in Q1 while SHIB went up by 2.5x and PEPE printed nearly 5x gains.
However, the biggest winner, according to IntoTheBlock, is dogwifhat (WIF), Solana (SOL)-based memecoin.
“Memecoins have thrived in lower fee ecosystems, with Solana recording multiple days with larger trading volumes than Ethereum this quarter. More than just a dog coin, the leading meme coin in Solana, WIF boasts a dog with ‘wif a hat’ and a rampant community behind its 20x yearly returns.”
Lastly, the firm notes that the meme asset capital rotation has made its way to Ethereum (ETH) due to last month’s Dencun upgrade, which lowered gas fees.
“More recently, the meme frenzy has found its way back to Ethereum, mainly on top of Coinbase’s Base layer-2 network. This has been facilitated by gas fees dropping by more than 10x since the Dencun upgrade.”
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