Since 2022, the total market capitalization of memcoins, expressed as a percentage of Total 3 (the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies minus Bitcoin, Ethereum and stablecoins), has almost tripled, increasing from 4 to 11% in 2024, it says review meme cryptocurrency market from Binance Research, writes RBC Crypto.
Ratio of market share of memcoins among altcoins from Total 3. Source: Binance Research
The capitalization of Total 3 at 18:00 Moscow time on November 5 is about $604 billion, according to data TradingView. Based on these figures, the total market value of memcoins today could reach $66.4 billion.
But the study notes that this ratio of the share of memcoins among all altcoins is still lower than in 2021, when at the peak the capitalization of the two leading coins in the category, Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), exceeded $80 billion and $39 billion, respectively. Currently, DOGE’s market value is $25 billion, and SHIB’s is about $10 billion.
According to analysts, capital is now flowing into new memcoins faster than ever. The capitalization of the dogwifhat (WIF) cryptocurrency, launched at the end of 2023, went from $0 to $1 billion in 104 days, for SHIB this path took 279 days, and for DOGE it took eight years.
New memecoins are being created faster than ever, the researchers write. They estimate that more than 75% of memcoins were created within the last year.
Analysts call “financial nihilism” of investors one of the reasons for the increased interest in such risky assets. Following the inflation caused by helicopter money during the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional assets such as real estate are no longer good havens for capital as they themselves become subject to inflation, the study says.
This is leading to a loss of faith among investors in traditional financial systems, especially among young people: Millennials and Generation Z make up 94% of buyers (18-40 years old) of crypto exchanges, the report says.
The rapid growth rate and speculation make memcoins an investment vehicle with a high potential for huge profits, the study says. But the report’s authors warn that these coins’ heavy dependence on market sentiment and lack of fundamental value make them an extremely risky asset class with a high risk of loss.
Researchers also note that the survival rate of memcoins remains surprisingly low. According to the review, 97% of memcoins have already disappeared – their trading volume is close to zero.
At the same time as memecoins continue to rise, another entertainment category of cryptocurrencies – tokens of popular clicker games from Telegram – are showing an overall decline. Hamster Kombat (HMSTR), Notcoin (NOT) and Dogs (DOGS) are down about 70-80% since their 2024 launches.
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Source: Cryptocurrency
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