Memecoins in 2024: Who is Leading the Charge?
Which Memecoin Is Leading the Charge? Credit - Hameem Sarwar
Key Takeaways
- A basket of memecoins has outperformed other categories since the start of 2024.
- Newer memecoins such as WIF and FLOKI have been leading the charge.
- Will the positive trend continue in the second quarter of 2024?
Despite their limited utility, it is no secret that memecoins have been extremely popular with cryptocurrency investors, drawing enthusiasm even from X (formerly Twitter) CEO Elon Musk. In 2024, memecoins have been the strongest narrative in the cryptocurrency market, significantly outperforming various other categories.
Because of this increase, some memecoins have already reached or are very close to reaching new all-time highs. Since older Memecoins such as DOGE and SHIB have lagged behind, the question remains as to which coin is leading the current cycle.
What Is the Scale of the Memecoin Outperformance?
For the analysis, the memecoin basket (white) consists of the six largest coins based on their market cap. The are (in order): DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, FLOKI, WIF and BONK. All six are well inside the top 100 coins ranked by market capitalization, with DOGE being inside the top 10.
Since the start of 2024, this basket of memecoins has increased by an impressive 835%. The increase has dwarfed those of various other categories in the market. The other categories consist of the top five cryptocurrencies for the AI (yellow), Layer-1 (Purple), DeFi (Orange) and Ethereum Betas (blue).
The AI basket is second with an increase of 143%, followed by Layer-1 at $71%, DeFi at 37% and Ethereum Betas at 18%. The fact that ETH Betas have been the worst performer is especially compelling since the Dencun upgrade on March 13 is expected to significantly reduce the transaction fees for these networks.
Interestingly, the Memecoin basket had an only 50% increase until February 23 (red line). Then, a massive increase began that outpaced all other baskets. So, a closer look at the movement for each of the coins in this basket is needed to determine who is leading the charge.
Who Is Leading the Memecoin Charge?
In order to determine who is leading the charge, the movement since November 2023 is analyzed. BONK (red) is revealed as the leader, since it started its bullish market cycle in December 2023. In February 2024, it started its second upward movement.
While WIF is also in the second portion of its increase (purple), the other four started their first upward movements in February 2024. Interestingly, WIF and BONK are the only ones in the Solana blockchain out of the six. This leads to the possibility that the Solana blockchain will be home to the biggest Memecoin increases, similarly to Ethereum in 2020/2021.
Another realization is that DOGE and SHIB have significantly underperformed all the others. This might have occurred because they are now large caps, or otherwise because new market participants have left them behind and are focused on new memecoins. Compared to the previous cycle, it seems that PEPE and FLOKI are the DOGE and SHIB of the current cycle.
Old Coins Are Left Behind
To conclude, the current Memecoin cycle has been led by BONK and followed by WIF, both in the Solana blockchain. In the Ethereum blockchain, PEPE and FLOKI have been leading the charge, while DOGE and SHIB are lagging behind.
Meme Coins on Solana, Avalanche Surge as WIF, BONK, COQ Put Ethereum Coins to Shame
