Editor's Note: This article analyzes that the market capitalization of the Memecoin market has exceeded $120 billion, exceeding the scale of DeFi and other fields, and it is necessary to pay attention to its development and trends. The article reviews the evolution from Doge to Shiba, Pepe and other metanarratives, as well as the outstanding tokens in each quarter, and also discusses the potential of the rise of different categories and market changes such as Internet culture and Perception AI. The author believes that the Memecoin market will continue to evolve, and the new metanarratives will bring huge opportunities, and predicts that the dominance of dog-related coins will be weakened, and more animal tokens and innovative tokenization methods may appear in the future.
The following is the original content (edited for easier reading):
Memecoin Market Map: An Asset Class with a Total Market Cap of $120 Billion
Over the past year, Memecoins have been one of the best-performing sectors in the cryptocurrency space, with the total market cap of Memecoins now far exceeding $100 billion, larger than the combined scale of DeFi, DePIN, gaming and metaverse. Given that this asset class has become so large and diversified, we attempt to map the market to identify potential opportunities.
We analyzed the best-performing tokens in each quarter of the year, and the results confirmed our hypothesis: Memecoins have dominated the leaderboard every quarter.
The best-performing tokens in Q1 include POPCAT, WIF, MOG and MYRO.
The best-performing tokens in Q2 include PONKE, SPX, TURBO, GIGA, WOJAK, BRETT and MOG.
The best-performing tokens in Q3 include SPX, GIGA, FUD and MUMU.
When attempting to apply analytical methods to Memecoins, you will quickly find that understanding "metanarratives" is crucial. This phenomenon exists across the entire cryptocurrency space, but is particularly pronounced in Memecoins. Here is an extended timeline highlighting the more significant metanarrative shifts or origins.
Prior to 2021, the market was dominated by Doge. Then Shiba Inu was launched, becoming the first real challenger to Doge. People naturally flocked to it, hoping to replicate Doge's success. This desire to find the "next..." created the metanarrative. Shib's success spawned a large number of Meme coins related to dogs or Elon in 2021, forming the first true Memecoin metanarrative.
In 2023, Pepe took the lead, bringing a large number of Meme coins related to frogs and the "boys club". Then in 2023, the rise of Bonk and Wif established Solana as the dominant Memecoin chain, ultimately driving the development of pump.fun.
This process reached a broad Memecoin frenzy in Q1, spawning the formation of new metanarratives almost weekly or even daily. After reaching a local high in March, the summer market cooled down. The Memecoin community and network effect analysis framework proposed by MustStopMurad quickly gained popularity, driving a large influx of funds into "cult coins" like SPX6900. Recently, with BTC finally breaking through, we've seen new frenzies around the metanarratives of GOAT around the Truth Terminal, the cute hippopotamus MOODENG, and the late PEANUT.
Nowadays, with too many metanarratives to track, we've tried to categorize the market.
It can be seen that dog-related coins are still the dominant sector of Memecoins, mainly driven by Doge. When we started compiling this data a few weeks ago, the "Perception AI" category was almost non-existent, and the "Martyr" category was completely absent (in tribute to the OG Harambe), demonstrating the rapid evolution of this asset class.
Unsurprisingly, the dominance of dog-related coins has been declining since the launch of Pepe.
This trend may continue, as new metanarratives constantly emerge, pushing different sectors into the spotlight. Observing the changes in the weights of these different categories over time can reveal some interesting trends.
In 2023, when there was not much new capital in the market, Crypto Culture tokens (like bitcoin) saw some growth. But towards the end of that year, as some new capital flowed in, Crypto Culture was gradually replaced by a wider range of Internet Culture tokens (like giga, npc, etc.).
As we mentioned earlier, the rapid rise of goat and peanut is also surprising. It may still be too early to transform them from metanarratives into new categories, although there are now many Meme coins related to AI worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Earlier this year, celebrity tokens and political Meme coins also experienced some growth, but then faded. In the long run, the Memecoin market may become a microcosm of the crypto market, with Doge similar to BTC. Some "cult coin" communities may never sell these tokens, and they are expected to exist in the long term, but most Memecoins are likely to be short-lived, similar to the 2021 NFT craze.
Nevertheless, participating in new metanarratives early on undoubtedly presents huge opportunities.
The fastest-growing categories are expected to remain Internet Culture and Perception AI, with Internet Culture tokens already widely recognized and having a deep cultural foundation, giving them an inherent advantage over most other categories. Perception AI, combining the most exciting technology with the most volatile asset class, is likely to continue to dominate the Memecoin market.
For undeveloped areas, new animal categories always have the potential to enter the market - surprisingly, there are currently almost no tokens related to zoo animals (tigers, giraffes, zebras, etc.) in the market. As for completely new content, existing fan bases (superheroes, sports, etc.) may be tokenized in innovative ways.
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