**Over 70% of MEME coins have become popular this year, with the amazing returns mostly requiring at least five months of holding**
According to CoinGecko data, as of October 18, the MEME sector's market cap has exceeded $61 billion, setting a new historical high. Among them, 10 MEME coins have squeezed into the Top 100 of the crypto market, including not only old players like Doge, SHIB and PEPE, but also newcomers like WIF, BONK and POPCAT.
The 12 popular MEME coins selected in this article all appeared after 2023, and the vast majority of them are projects that became popular this year, accounting for more than 70%. In terms of market size, these projects have a total 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 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. This includes BITCOIN (HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu), MOG, SPX and GIGA, which took the longest time, almost at least a year or 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, 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's address numbers increased by 135.7% and 119.9% respectively, far ahead. In comparison, the growth rates of projects like BITCOIN, POPCAT and Neiro were not obvious, at only 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 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 have relatively 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 obtained gains of thousands or even tens of thousands of times.
**Most have experienced significant pullbacks, with 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 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 pullback 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, at 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, GIGA, FWOG, POPCAT and Neiro have maximum drawdown rates far below the average.
In addition, in terms of the number of days 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 the longest recovery periods, 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 holders, the longer the cycle.
Furthermore, 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 maximum increase multiples, 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 brings 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 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 of Harry Potter, Obama and Sonic, which gained attention in 2023 due to its surge, 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 cap of the S&P 500. From the price trend, SPX has also experienced a long period of sluggishness until this year in September, and according to the on-chain analyst Ai Yi, 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, this MEME has a market cap of over $1.3 billion even without being listed on top exchanges, thanks to 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 funds and bring in new users, especially for small-scale users who can leverage relatively low costs to unlock huge potential returns.
For example, GIGA (GigaChad), which is used to commemorate the legendary figure Ernest Khalimov, has surged as high as 245,000 times since its launch, far exceeding the other MEME projects mentioned above. MOG (Mog Coin), the first emoji culture coin, has risen more than 16,000 times since its launch, and is close to recovering all its losses after experiencing a significant pullback. At the same time, MOG has also gained more and more supporters as its price has risen, with a steady increase in the number of holding addresses.
**Celebrity effect with inherent propagation 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 gain, and the greater its potential growth space. 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 widely used frog emoticons on the Internet, similar to the PEPE image, and also has a relatively strong cultural foundation. MOODENG, on the other hand, is backed by the internet celebrity animal Moo Deng, with huge influence and traffic support. According to a survey by the encrypted KOLRasmr, MOODENG is currently the most popular MEME coin among the general public on the street. However, such MEME are often affected by changes in the underlying support value, such as MOODENG, which experienced a significant market value decline after the Moo Deng craze cooled down.
Seize user mindshare with the first-mover advantage
"Being the first is a shortcut to entering the mind." In many MEME narratives, novel narratives often attract more players. For example, GOAT (Goatseus Maximus) is the first MEME coin promoted by an AI agent, and with the reputation of a16z, the MEME quickly became popular, reaching 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 MEME asset issuance channel, with its market size reaching a peak of over $50 million within a week of its launch.
