By
Steve Muchoki
May 9th, 2024
PEPE was up +70% in the past 24 hours, extending weekly and monthly gains to +400% and 700%, respectively.
Memecoins took center stage in the past few days as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) took a short breather. Interestingly, the frog-theme meme, Pepe (PEPE), outperformed its legacy peers – Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Dogecoin (DOGE). PEPE was up +70% in the past 24 hours, extending weekly and monthly gains to +400% and +700%, respectively.
The on-chain data intelligence platform, Santiment, noted that the memecoin frenzy saw trading volumes surge to 3000% in the past week. Over the same period, social dominance for SHIB, FLOKI, PEPE, and BONK recorded remarkable upticks.
📈 #Memecoins, particularly those that have been trending over the past week, have skyrocketed in trading volume due to surging prices and increased crowd interest. On average, $SHIB, $PEPE, $FLOKI, and $BONK has seen volume rise +3,000% in the past week. https://t.co/MMHxbMotu0 pic.twitter.com/AiIaEbgGIz
— Santiment (@santimentfeed) March 4, 2024
The memecoin mania has spilled to the new week. At the time of writing, overall memecoin trading volume hit $16B in the past 24 hours, as a total market cap in the subsector crossed $50B, per CoinGecko data.
Based on daily performance, SHIB and DOGE were up +30% and +25% compared to PEPE’s +70% at press time. It underscored PEPE’s exemplary performance against the tier-1 peers.
Additionally, PEPE’s bullish bets surged, as shown by the opened contracts on the Futures markets. According to Coinglass, PEPE’s Open Interest (OI) rate was up 74% in the past 24 hours, crossing +$100M for the first time. Over the same period, open interest rates for DOGE and SHIB were up 40% and 25%, respectively.
What Pepe and Meme Coin Rally Means for the Crypto Market
There have been calls for alt season during the ongoing bull market. However, there seem to be delays as Bitcoin dominance remains above 50%. A drop in BTC dominance is deemed a signal of capital rotation from top coins to altcoins.
However, the recent meme coin rally is perceived as a quick flip for returns beyond major tokens. The above opinion was held by Nick Ruck of ContentFi Labs in a recent interview with CoinDesk.
In the meantime, Bitcoin touched $65K during the mid-morning Asian trading session on March 4. The new yearly highs come barely before New York trading sessions opened. If the New York session extends the bullish sentiment alongside BTC ETFs hype, BTC dominance could stay above 50%. However, how meme coins will perform should BTC extend its upward trajectory remains to be seen.