Author: Nancy, PANews
"Where are we going to pump today?"
The endless stream of MEME coins, players enthusiastically dig for potential "large MC memecoin", in some MEME groups, players share the CA (contract address) of the MEME coins they just bought, the newly launched MEME platforms have reduced the difficulty of issuing coins, KOLs continue to drive various MEME projects to dominate the screen, PANews has also written an article to analyze the reasons why MEME is currently "crushing" mainstream coins.
Although only a few survivors can successfully emerge from the thousands of new MEME launched every day, how to grasp the potential stocks among the successful MEME? Is the rise of the leading MEME a coincidence, and what characteristics are worth noting? To this end, this article by PANews has sorted out the recent 12 popular MEME coins with the highest market capitalization on Ethereum and Solana, as well as their market performance (the selected targets are the highest market capitalization projects of the same name on each chain, as of October 18).
Over 70% of MEME coins have become popular this year, and the vast majority of the astonishing returns require holding for at least five months
According to CoinGecko data, as of October 18, the MEME sector's market capitalization has already exceeded $61 billion, setting a new historical high. Among them, 10 MEME coins have squeezed into the Top 100 of the cryptocurrency market, in addition to the old players like Doge, SHIB and PEPE, there are also new stars like WIF, BONK and POPCAT.
The 12 popular MEME coins selected by PANews all appeared after 2023, and the vast majority of them are popular projects this year, accounting for more than 70%. In terms of market size, these projects have a total market capitalization of over $5.54 billion, accounting for nearly 9.1% of the overall MEME market capitalization, among which POPCAT, Neiro, MOG, SPX and SPX have the largest market scale. This is enough to see the market participation of MEME.
From the time when the tokens of these MEME projects reached their all-time highs, the average time required is 162.7 days, including BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu), MOG, SPX and GIGA, which took the longest time, almost at least a year or even more, indicating that MEME with a certain cycle verification are more easily recognized by the community. MOODENG, GOAT and Daram all surged strongly to their highs in less than a month, the shortest being only a few days, of course, this is directly related to the current community heat.
From the changes in the number of holding addresses after the coin price reached a new high, the average increase is 39.3%. Among these MEME coins, APU and MOODENG's address numbers increased by 135.7% and 119.9% respectively, far ahead. In comparison, the growth rates of BITCOIN, POPCAT and Neiro were not obvious, only 5.3%, 3.2% and 1.5% respectively, which may be closely related to factors such as listing on mainstream exchanges, accumulating a sufficient user base in the early stage, and the timing of price increases.
Not only that, these MEME have basically brought amazing returns. From the statistical data, the average maximum return rate of the 12 MEME exceeds 37,000 times. After excluding the extreme value of GIGA's 245,000 times, the average maximum increase of the other MEME coins is 18,000 times, among which BITCOIN, SPX, MOODENG and GOAT are more eye-catching, while Daram and POPCAT are relatively lagging behind. Of course, these returns are based on backtesting of market capitalization data, and players who can eat all the gains basically do not exist, but there are still some players who have obtained thousands or even tens of thousands of times in floating profits. PANews has previously analyzed the on-chain paths of GOAT and MOODENG where smart money made huge profits.
Most of them have experienced significant pullbacks, with the average holding value reaching tens of thousands of dollars
When measuring the risk control ability of coin prices, the maximum drawdown rate is undoubtedly one of the commonly used indicators, and it is also a test of the psychological endurance of the holders. From the data, excluding GOAT and Daram which have just become popular and are still in an upward channel, the other MEME coins have experienced varying degrees of pullbacks from their historical highs, with an average maximum drawdown rate of about 49.1%. Among them, MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG have the largest declines, reaching 87.7%, 87.5%, 71.1% and 65.4% respectively, meaning that their holders will face the risk of significant losses if they buy at the highs. In comparison, the maximum drawdown rates of GIGA, FWOG, POPCAT and Neiro are far below the average.
In addition, in terms of the number of days required to recover the drawdown, these projects need an average of about 23.9 days. Among them, the MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG mentioned earlier, which have the highest drawdown rates, also require more recovery cycles, with some even taking hundreds of days, while GIGA, BITCOIN, FWOG, POPCAT, SPX and Neiro only take single-digit days. The length of the price adjustment cycle will also affect the confidence of the holders, the longer the cycle.
Furthermore, in terms of the holding value of these 12 projects, excluding the TOP10 holding addresses, the current average holding value is close to $9,837.6 (calculated based on the coin price on October 18). Among them, SPX, MOG, POPCAT, Neiro and BITCOIN have the highest holding values, reaching $26,560, $17,504, $16,337, $15,120 and $11,297 respectively, while Daram, GIGA, GOAT and MOODENG are below the average, all below $5,000. If we look at the proportion of holding value and the highest increase multiple, POPCAT, Daram, FWOG and Neiro holders have invested more, while GOAT, MOODENG and GIGA have invested less.
Analyzing the multiple logics behind the rise of MEME
From simple internet memes to cultural narratives worth billions of dollars, the success of the above MEME projects has brought the following insights:
Withstand the test of time and establish a strong community consensus
HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu
Time is always an important tool to test the value, and projects that have gone through longer cycles are often more recognized by the market. Take BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu) as an example, it is an abstract MEME that combines elements such as Harry Potter, Obama and Sonic, which attracted attention due to its surge in 2023, and then its price experienced ups and downs for nearly a year until it started to rise continuously this year. During this period, the holders of BITCOIN also continued to increase, realizing a nearly 88.2% increase in one year. SPX (SPX6900) is also a MEME of abstract expressionism launched in 2023, with the story of an anime girl surpassing the market capitalization of the S&P 500. From the price trend, SPX has also experienced a long period of sluggishness until this September, and according to the on-chain analyst Ai Yí, the Dev and its associated addresses have not interacted with the project for a long time, and SPX has been completely handed over to the community.
Take POPCAT as another example, the MEME has a market capitalization of over $1.3 billion without listing on top exchanges, which is backed by a strong community. Although POPCAT's gains are not as high as other MEME, it has more than 77,000 holding addresses, which is the most among the above projects.
Leverage the wealth effect to enhance attractiveness
For many MEME players, the continuous decline of value coins makes them no longer "bought", and the MEME field has become one of the means for the community to resist the VCs. The higher wealth effect is undoubtedly the simplest and most brutal way for MEME to attract capital and pull in new users, especially for small-scale users who can leverage relatively low costs to unlock huge potential returns.
GigaChad
For example, GIGA (GigaChad), which is used to commemorate the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov, has surged up to 245,000 times since its launch, far exceeding the other MEME projects mentioned above; MOG (Mog Coin) is the first emoji culture coin, and has surged over 16,000 times since its launch, and is close to recovering all the declines after experiencing a significant correction. At the same time, MOG has also gained more and more supporters as the price has risen, and the number of holding addresses has shown a steady growth trend.
The celebrity effect with self-propagating power
MEME can also be understood as the realization of the attention economy. As a scarce economic resource, the stronger the ability of a project to attract attention, the greater the consensus and the greater the potential for growth. Among them, the celebrity effect often has both attractiveness and propagation power, and has also been an important factor in the past success of MEME.
Apustaja
For example, APU (Apustaja) is one of the widely used frog emoticons on the Internet, similar to the PEPE image, and also has a relatively strong cultural foundation. MOODENG is backed by the internet celebrity animal Moo Deng, with huge influence and traffic support. According to a survey by the crypto KOL Rasmr, MOODENG is currently the most popular MEME coin among the general public on the street. But such MEME are often affected by changes in the underlying supporting value, such as MOODENG, which saw a significant market value decline after the Moo Deng hype sentiment cooled down.
Seize user mindshare by leveraging the first-mover advantage
"Being the first is a shortcut to entering the mind." In many MEME narratives, novel narratives are often more likely to attract players. For example, GOAT (Goatseus Maximus) is the first MEME coin promoted by an AI agent, and with the reputation of a16z, this MEME became an overnight sensation, achieving a market value of over $300 million in just over a week, with a peak increase of over 24,000 times. Daram, on the other hand, combines the nature of BRC20 and MEME, and has opened up the channel for MEME asset issuance, with its market size reaching a peak of over $50 million within one week of its launch.
