Although only a small number of MEME coins launched daily can successfully take off, how can we identify the potential large MC MEME coins among the successful ones? Is the rise of leading MEME coins a coincidence, and what characteristics are worth noting? In this article, PANews has sorted out the 12 most popular MEME coins with relatively high market caps on Ethereum and Solana, as well as their market performance.
- Author: Nancy, PANews
"Which CA are we rushing to today?"
The endless MEME coins, players are eager to dig out potential "large MC MEME coins", in some MEME groups, players share the CA (contract address) of the MEME coins they just bought, the emerging MEME launch platforms have lowered the difficulty of issuing coins, KOLs continue to drive various MEME projects to dominate the market, PANews has also written an article to analyze the reasons why MEME is currently "crushing" mainstream coins.
Although only a small number of MEME coins launched daily can successfully take off, how can we identify the potential large MC MEME coins among the successful ones? Is the rise of leading MEME coins a coincidence, and what characteristics are worth noting? For this purpose, this article by PANews has compiled the 12 most popular MEME coins with relatively high market caps on Ethereum and Solana, as well as their market performance (the selected targets are the highest market cap projects of the same name in each chain, as of October 18).
Table of Contents
ToggleOver 70% of MEME coins became popular this year, the surprising returns behind them often require holding for at least five months
According to CoinGecko data, as of October 18, the MEME sector market cap has exceeded $61 billion, setting a new historical high. Among them, 10 MEME coins have entered the Top 100 of the crypto market, in addition to veteran 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 projects that became popular this year, accounting for over 70%. In terms of market size, these projects have a combined market cap of over $5.54 billion, accounting for nearly 9.1% of the overall MEME market cap, with POPCAT, Neiro, MOG, SPX, and SPX having the largest market size. This is enough to see the market participation of MEME.
From the time when the token of each MEME project reached its all-time high, the average time required is 162.7 days. Projects like BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu), MOG, SPX, and GIGA took relatively longer, almost at least a year or more, indicating that MEME coins that have undergone a certain cycle of verification are more likely to gain community recognition. MOODENG, GOAT, and Daram all saw a strong surge to their highs in less than a month, with the shortest being just 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 saw address growth of 135.7% and 119.9% respectively, far ahead of the rest. In comparison, the growth rates of projects like BITCOIN, POPCAT, and Neiro were not significant, at 5.3%, 3.2%, and 1.5% respectively, which may be closely related to factors such as being listed on mainstream exchanges, having accumulated a sufficient user base in the early stage, and the timing of price increases.
Not only that, these MEME have basically brought in an amazing return rate. From the statistics, the average maximum return rate of 12 MEME exceeds 37,000 times. After excluding the extreme value of GIGA reaching 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 prominent, while Daram and POPCAT have lagged behind. Of course, these returns are based on backtesting of market cap data, and players who can capture all the gains basically do not exist, but some players have still achieved gains of thousands or even tens of thousands of times. PANews has previously published articles analyzing the profitable smart money paths on GOAT and MOODENG.
Most of them have experienced significant retracements, 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 psychology 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 retracement from their historical highs, with an average maximum retracement of about 49.1%. Among them, MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG have the largest declines, at 87.7%, 87.5%, 71.1% and 65.4% respectively, which means that their holders will face the risk of significant losses if they buy at the highs. In comparison, the maximum retracement of GIGA, FWOG, POPCAT and Neiro is far below the average.
Furthermore, in terms of the number of days required to recover the retracement, these projects need an average of about 23.9 days. Among them, the recovery cycles of MICHI, APU, MOG and MOODENG, which had the highest retracement rates, are also longer, with some taking more than a hundred days, while GIGA, BITCOIN, FWOG, POPCAT, SPX and Neiro only took single-digit days. The length of the price adjustment cycle will also affect the confidence of the holders, the longer the cycle.
In addition, in terms of the holding value of these 12 projects, excluding the top 10 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, at $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, the investment cost of POPCAT, Daram, FWOG and Neiro holders is relatively higher, while GOAT, MOODENG and GIGA is relatively lower.
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
Time is always an important tool for testing value, and projects that span longer cycles are often more recognized by the market. Take BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu) as an example, this is an abstract MEME that combines elements of Harry Potter, Obama and Sonic, which gained attention in 2023 due to its surge, and then its price experienced ups and downs for a full year until it began to rise steadily in September this year. During this period, the number of BITCOIN holders has also been rising, with a gain of nearly 88.2% in one year. SPX (SPX6900) is also an abstract MEME launched in 2023, with a story of an anime girl surpassing the market cap of the S&P 500. From the price trend, SPX has also experienced a long period of sluggishness until September this year, and according to the on-chain analyst Ai Yi, the Dev of SPX 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, this MEME has already exceeded a market cap of $1.3 billion without even being listed on major exchanges, backed by a strong community. Although POPCAT's gains are not as high as other MEME, it already 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 continued decline in the value of value coins has made 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 the huge potential returns with relatively low costs.
For example, GIGA (GigaChad) is used to commemorate the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov, and has reached a maximum increase of 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 more than 16,000 times since its launch, and is close to recovering all the declines after experiencing a significant retracement. At the same time, the number of MOG holders has also shown a stable growth trend as the price has risen.
Celebrity effect with self-propagating power
MEME can also be understood as the monetization of the attention economy. As a scarce economic resource, the stronger the project's ability to attract attention, the more consensus it will have, and the greater its potential for growth. Among them, the celebrity effect often has both attractiveness and propagation power, which has been an important factor in the past success of MEME.
For example, APU (Apustaja) is one of the more 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 crypto KOL Rasmr, MOODENG is currently the most popular MEME coin among the general public. However, this type of MEME is often affected by changes in the supporting value, such as MOODENG's market value plummeting after the Moo Deng fever cooled down.
Leverage the first-mover effect to occupy user mindshare
"Being first is the 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 quickly became popular, reaching a market cap of over $300 million in just over a week, with a maximum increase of over 24,000 times; Daram combines the nature of BRC20 and MEME, and has opened up the channel for MEME asset issuance, allowing its market size to reach a maximum of over $50 million in just one week after its launch.
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