Ten occasions as many memecoins had been launched in April 2024 in comparison with April 2023. However on Ethereum, most are nonetheless buying and selling PEPE.
Memecoins launched on low-cost blockchains like Solana, Base, and Blast have dominated the sector in current months. However on Ethereum, one veteran memecoin continues to pique merchants’ curiosity.
In keeping with a Dune dashboard, PEPE transaction volumes had been $84 million within the final 14 days, exceeding by greater than 500% not solely its closest competitor, GROK (with $14 million), however most different memecoins on Ethereum. In truth, the highest 10 memecoins by transaction quantity all fluctuated between $3.7 million and $14 million, with PEPE within the high spot by far.
These numbers inform an fascinating story.
Whereas degen merchants have been flocking to Solana, Base, and Blast for the shiniest – and generally most outrageous – new memecoin, Ethereum merchants proceed to wager on one of many extra established tokens. Even when it means paying extra in fuel charges than they might on different networks, showcasing that so-called “blue chip” tokens nonetheless have endurance.
Memecoins Go Parabolic
Launching new memecoins appears to be the secret in 2024.
In keeping with onchain analyst Crypto Koryo, new memecoins listed on CoinMarketCap reached 138 in April, registering an almost tenfold enhance from the identical month final 12 months, when 18 memecoins had been listed.
However Koryo factors out that the quantity is probably going even larger: “CMC captures lower than 10% of all tokens so actual numbers are a lot larger,” he wrote.
The analyst additionally revealed that Solana is now dwelling to the most important variety of memecoins, though Coinbase’s Layer-2, Base, has been having fun with appreciable curiosity from merchants.
Memecoins have develop into a staple of the crypto trade in current months, with personal funds now establishing a memecoin funding technique.
BitMex founder Arthur Hayes just lately defined that his household workplace, Maelstrom, is deploying capital focusing on Ordinals and the broader memecoin sector.
In truth, Hayes personally bought a Bitcoin Ordinals NFT undertaking that celebrates the enduring magic web cash meme that toured the Bitcoin world in 2013 – and has since develop into an emblem of the blossoming Ordinals ecosystem.
Regardless of some criticizing the alleged stupidity of shopping for memecoins, others are fast to level out that the technique has nuance.
“Established memecoins similar to Pepe, Doge, Shiba inu, and so on are simply crypto with excessive beta so the 25% [in response to a poll that placed a hypothetical million-dollar investment strategy in PEPE] isn’t as silly as many individuals may assume,” posted crypto investor Tyler Reynolds.
