Each day, Coinrule will run through the state of the digital assets market for Blockbeat, your home for news, analysis, opinion and commentary on blockchain and digital assets
While all eyes are on Bitcoin and the question when, not if, it will break its All-Time-High price, another group of tokens has taken the market by storm: Memecoins. Doge was the frontrunner. In the last Crypto cycle, Shiba Inu Coin briefly crossed $40 billion in market cap. That is higher than, for example, Lloyds Banking Group. The trend is reflected in traditional markets with ‘meme stocks’ like GameStop. But the ease with which anyone can launch a token on fast and cheap Blockchains like Solana means that this new cycle has already seen an explosion of a new generation of meme coins. Dogwifhat crossed $2 billion in market cap and is now listed on Binance and Robinhood. Many others are following suit.
Nothing upsets the traditional investor more about Crypto than the rise of Memecoins. Many of them do not see any value in Bitcoin, let alone in the Doge and his friends. That is shortsighted, however. At their best, Memecoins can be a fun way for communities to form. At their worst, they are the sports betting and online gambling equivalent for the internet age. They are the promise of unheard of riches from a small investment. Either way though, as silly as Memecoins may be, they are also products of the times. In a world of ever growing cynicism about the ‘true’ value of things, Memes are a natural response.
Many of today’s young investors made their first markets experience during the 2008 financial crisis. Was it not a meme in itself that insurances, so-called Credit Default Swaps, issued by banks to each other, would magically cover the bank’s large credit exposure to subprime mortgage portfolios? Have subsequent Zero-Interest-Rate-Policies not driven a boom of any and all asset classes including art and oldtimer cars whilst pricing out younger generations from housing? On their most metaphysical level, Memecoins are a modern-day protest vote against a financial system. A system that had gone crazy long before Doge reached a multi-billion market cap.
Love it or hate it; for now Memecoins are not only here to stay but will likely continue to explode. At least until the next bear market sends all our favourite memes back to hibernation.
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