TL;DR
- Meme coins, especially cat and dog-themed ones, are the top performers in the crypto market, with a market cap of $55 billion and an 84% increase in a week.
- Solana, a low-fee blockchain platform, has become a new haven for meme coins, attracting coins inspired by celebrities and politicians, and reaching $2 billion in DEX volume.
- Ethereum and Arbitrum, the leading blockchain networks by DEX volume, have also seen significant growth in trading activity, with over $4.7 billion and $2.1 billion respectively.
As the crypto market is booming, memecoins have emerged as the top performers, surpassing even the hottest AI tokens. Industry sectors such as Layer 2s, which are essential for making blockchain more accessible and scalable, and the combination of crypto and artificial intelligence, were predicted to be the most successful
Other innovative areas like restaking, modular blockchains, and DePIN projects were also considered strong candidates. However, against all odds, it is the coins inspired by cats, dogs, memes, and fractionalized NFTs that are dominating the market.
The cat coin sector, which includes tokens such as Taylor Swift’s Cat, Banana Cat, and Pop Cat, has witnessed remarkable growth, with Taylor Swift’s Cat token skyrocketing 25 times in a week. Despite its modest market cap of $730 million, the cat coin sector is part of the larger meme category, which has become a formidable player in the crypto space.
Meme coins, which have a whopping market cap of $55 billion, have outperformed other sectors such as liquid staking, Layer 2s, and gaming tokens in terms of value. Among meme coins, dog-themed coins are the most popular, with Doge, the pioneer of meme coins, leading the pack with a market cap of over $20 billion.
Solana’s Surge: A New Haven for Meme Coins
The entire sector has seen a massive 84% increase in the last week. Some of the top performers are SHIB, PEPE, BONK, WIF, FLOKI, and POPCAT, which have all more than doubled their value, adding billions of dollars to their market caps. Other notable risers are MYRO and MOG.
Meme coins, which are tokens based on humorous or satirical images of celebrities and politicians, have found a new home on Solana, a blockchain platform that offers low transaction fees. The platform has witnessed a surge of new coins inspired by the likes of Joe Biden and Donald Trump. The sensational tale of a trader who turned $260 into almost $500,000 with ‘Jeo Boden’ triggered the launch of coins such as ‘Doland Tremp’ and ‘Olen Mosk.’
The DEX volume on Solana, a blockchain platform known for its low transaction fees, surpassed $2 billion on March 5, as per DeFiLlama, with Solana’s DEX market share rising from less than 2% to about 15% in six months. Solana is now the third biggest blockchain network by DEX volume, following Ethereum (ETH) and Arbitrum.
Ethereum, which has the most extensive DeFi ecosystem, recorded around $4.7 billion in trading volume in the last 24 hours, with a 54% increase over the week. Meanwhile, Arbitrum DEXes had $2.1 billion in daily trading volume, up by 85% in a week.
