After the "Trump effect" swept through the cryptocurrency market, driving the price of BTC close to $90,000, the "Musk effect" has also arrived with a bang. As the former "DOGE godfather", the most driven is naturally the "Meme No. 1 coin" - DOGE. According to Coingecko data, DOGE's market capitalization has skyrocketed in just two days, quickly surpassing XRP and USDC, and is currently ranked sixth in the cryptocurrency market with a market capitalization of over $63 billion.
The "Meme No. 1 Coin": The Meme Coin King Spanning 4 Major Cycles
As we mentioned in our previous article "A 3-Minute Overview of the History of Meme Coins: Past and Future":
The prototype of DOGE, Kabosu, began to be widely disseminated on the globally renowned online forums 4chan and Reddit in the summer of 2013. Riding on this cultural wave, Jackson Palmer and Billy Markus released Dogecoin (i.e. DOGE) on the Bitcointalk forum on December 8, 2013 - it was the first cryptocurrency based on an internet Meme.
The success of Dogecoin has brought about a new class of coins that are unconventional, humorous, and satirical, using features such as celebrities (like Kanye West, Max Keiser) , animals (like Pandacoin) or attempting to appeal to specific groups as Memes. These were all launched on the "Alternative Cryptocurrency" sub-forum of Bitcointalk using the Proof-of-Work (PoW) mechanism. "Specifications" have become less important, while "Meme" has become more important.
From its launch in 2013 to the passing of the DOGE prototype Kabosu the Shiba Inu in May this year, spanning nearly 4 cryptocurrency cycles (note: with a 4-year boundary, divided into 2012-2015, 2016-2019, 2020-2023, 2024 ~), DOGE has always been an indispensable part of the cryptocurrency market. In particular, it has become the oldest Meme coin in the current cycle known as the "Meme Coin SuperCycle", and is also the only Meme coin among the top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, with its historical status and market performance equally important.
First, DOGE is the "Synonym" of Meme Coins
Without a doubt, if there is a Meme coin project with the widest dissemination, greatest impact, and highest recognition, it is DOGE. This is not only due to its long history and the positive support of the currently hot "Trump fan leader" Musk, but also due to its highly viral propagation and extremely low entry threshold "primitive Meme" - the Shiba Inu Kabosu. As the saying goes: "Who would refuse an adorable dog?" One of the golden principles of the advertising industry, the "3B principle", is Beast - animals, and this is a shining case of DOGE.
In other words, when new market participants enter, the best choice facing countless newcomers is DOGE. This can be seen from the recent surge in Google searches for Bitcoin - if Bitcoin is the first flag that can be seen when entering the cryptocurrency, then DOGE is the "key" to entering the cryptocurrency world.
Second, DOGE is the "Ceiling" of Meme Coins
From the perspective of the "ceiling" of Meme coins, DOGE's market capitalization once reached around $88.8 billion (according to Coingecko data, occurring in early May 2021), and its price once soared to about $0.73. Compared to other cryptocurrency projects with market capitalizations in the hundreds of billions or even trillions of dollars, DOGE can be called a "miracle in the industry".
And with the advent of the new cryptocurrency cycle, buoyed by the good news of Trump's election as the new US president and Musk's participation in Trump's government to participate in political and economic decision-making, DOGE's subsequent development momentum is expected to break through its previous high, with a market capitalization of $100 billion within reach, at which point it will once again become the "most eye-catching Meme coin" in the cryptocurrency.
Similarly, DOGE has also set a great example for the currently highly active Meme coin projects in the market such as PEPE, FLOKI, and BONK - "Meme coins can also compete with a host of value coins and VC coins without falling behind", which is crucial for cryptocurrency players, especially new entrants, who are in urgent need of building confidence and even faith in Meme coins.
Third, DOGE is the "Vane" of Meme Coins
The reason why DOGE is seen as the vane of Meme coins is that it has recently become the "leader" of the Meme coin rebound -
On October 31, on the eve of the US election, Musk posted that "our system is inverted, making it difficult for high-quality talent to legally enter the US, while criminals can easily enter the US illegally. Why is illegal entry easier than legal entry? Trump and DOGE will solve this problem." (Note from Odaily Planet Daily: DOGE can refer to the Meme coin DOGE, as well as the government efficiency department D.O.G.E. that Musk has mentioned several times before.)
On November 2, Robinhood Crypto EU announced that Robinhood Crypto now supports DOGE token transfers, as well as deposits and withdrawals.
On November 6, the dust settled on the US election, and Trump, whom Musk had generously assisted, successfully won the US election. A certain smart money quickly increased its holdings by 6.01 million Ethereum Meme coin DOGE, with a floating profit of $2.045 million; at the same time, DOGE broke through $0.2 USDT that day, with a 24-hour increase of 19.18%, and has continued to rise since then, with its market capitalization soaring from the previous $16 billion to nearly $64 billion now, a four-fold increase in just one month.No wonder Bloomberg exclaimed: "Trump's election has sparked a speculative frenzy in the crypto market, with DOGE up about 50% in the last 5 days, outperforming BTC".
At the same time, a host of dog-themed Meme coins, including DOGE, have been riding the wave.
Furthermore, as we mentioned in our article "The Whole Nation is Celebrating, but the Market Cap Ratio is Only 2.5%, How Much Room is Left for the Meme Coin Market?": "When DOGE reached its market capitalization peak, the price of Bitcoin was only around $57,361; the overall cryptocurrency market capitalization was only about $2.3 trillion.....In the future, in the atmosphere of nationwide frenzy, 1-3 Meme coin projects with a market capitalization of $100 billion are entirely possible, and the overall market capitalization of the Meme coin sector may even break through $300-500 billion."
The Future of Meme Coins: Sailing to the Stars with the Tide of the Market
Looking at the past performance, although Meme coins are now surging, the Meme coin super cycle that belongs more to cryptocurrency players is still in a state of preparation, and this is naturally inseparable from the many driving forces that have a huge impact on the market - policy benefits, capital flows, information dissemination, and actual use cases.
- In terms of policy support, the arrival of Trump will help shape an "encryption-friendly government". In the short term, the "Trump effect" will directly stimulate the Bitcoin price to break new highs, while in the long run, its most important value lies in the creation and stable operation of an "encryption-friendly government". According to a report by Galaxy, "various exemption measures favorable to the crypto industry are likely to be introduced soon under the Trump administration." Standard Chartered Bank also stated in its research report that the Republican Party's landslide victory will enable the new government to implement positive policies for the digital asset sector, which could cause the total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies to swell to $10 trillion by the end of 2026.
- In terms of capital flows, there is continuous inflow of funds into Bitcoin spot ETFs, with BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF IBIT surpassing its gold ETF IAU in just 10 months; and with the continued stimulus of the Fed's interest rate cuts, it is believed that more funds will flow into the crypto market, boosting the Meme coin sector including Doge as well as the overall crypto market capitalization.
- In terms of information dissemination, as the "Doge godfather", Musk naturally has a halo effect, able to continuously create and generate high global attention. At the same time, traditional search engine channels like Google, as well as emerging AI application platforms like Grok and ChatGPT, will provide convenient sources and channels for the continuous production and dissemination of Meme coin-related information.
- In terms of actual use cases, on the one hand, the charitable donation use cases of Meme coins have gained more and more attention and adoption, with the ups and downs of the Meme coin MOODENG named after the viral TikTok hippo, and the series of ridiculous events where the project "asked Vitalik not to dump the market anymore, we'll do charity ourselves", also providing a vivid annotation for the "actual value" of Meme coins; on the other hand, with the continued breakthrough of Meme coins, similar use cases like Tesla supporting Doge token payments will further develop. In addition, the development of the Solana ecosystem Meme coin sector is also worth close attention - previously, the Solana ecosystem Meme coin project WEN spent a considerable amount to acquire the cat-themed account @ShouldHaveCat with over 4.03 million followers on the X platform; another Meme coin MEW has also recently surpassed a $1 billion market cap, hitting a new high.
Summary
Finally, coming back to Doge, the owner of its prototype Kabosu has also recently adopted another Shiba Inu dog named Neiro, who has also stirred up the Meme coin sector and attracted high attention in the cryptocurrency industry due to the "case sensitivity dispute"; as for Doge, its attention group is not only in the cryptocurrency industry, but also closely related to "traffic centers" like Musk.
And after Trump takes office as the US President, Tesla and SpaceX under Musk are expected to receive more government orders and a series of policy benefits, at which time Doge may truly embark on its "space journey", leading a group of Meme successors to the distant stars and seas.
