With Bitcoin up above $68,000, meme coins like Woman Yelling At Cat, Settled EthXY Token and Phili Inu spiked double digits.

According to CoinMarketCap, the global crypto market has slowly recovered from last week’s slump. The crypto market cap has jumped to $2.34 trillion from last weekend’s $2.17 trillion.

Bitcoin (BTC) is hovering above $68,000, and Ethereum (ETH) is trading around the $2,600 level. But in the last few hours, the market seems to be cooling down, with signs of a potential reversal.

Despite this uncertainty, these three meme coins are up by double digits.

Woman Yelling At Cat pumps 80%

The latest data from CoinGecko shows an interesting price trajectory for a Taylor Armstrong-inspired meme coin.

Woman Yelling At Cat (WYAC), which gets its name from a meme that spoofs an episode of “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” surged from a 24-hour low of $0.02504 to a high of $0.05288.

The exact reason for the price surge is unclear. And yet, WYAC’s popularity is growing on social media, including X.

See the chart below.

However, the surge seems to have cooled down now. The WYAC coin now has a market cap of $45.5 million. Interestingly, the meme coin touched an all-time high on Oct. 17.

This recent surge has earned the meme coin its position as the largest gainer on CoinGecko’s list. On-chain data portal Alphanomics also shared that WYAC is one of the top five biggest price gainers in the last 30 days, with a 6200% surge.

SEXY and PHIL soar

After perusing the list of CoinGecko’s top gainers on Saturday, it’s clear Settled EthXY Token (SEXY) and Phili Inu (PHIL) are up by double digits.

SEXY is up by almost 80% from its 24-hour low of $0.2408. The meme coin has also retraced after pumping as high as $0.5241.

SEXY first launched in August 2023 on the Ethereum blockchain.

Third on the gainers list is PHIL with a 54% pump. The meme coin — featured on the 46th edition of the SHIB Magazine — is also up by over 130% in the last 30 days, with its price now hovering around the $0.04 level.

The rise in these not-so-popular meme coins comes as Popcat’s (POPCAT) relaxed price movement. The cat-themed Solana (SOL) meme coin is down by over 3% in the last 24 hours and 15% in the last seven days.

However, POPCAT has shown similar pullbacks following major pumps in the past. But the current trajectory of the meme coin remains unclear.

Ethereum, the second-biggest cryptocurrency, has lagged behind Bitcoin this year amid slow growth of its exchange-traded funds and competition from other layer-1 and layer-2 blockchains.

Ethereum (ETH) has rallied by less than 20% in 2024, while Bitcoin (BTC) has risen by over 50%. 

Technicals point to more Ether weakness in the coming months. On the weekly chart, the coin formed a double-top chart pattern around $4,000. It dropped below the neckline of this pattern at $2,824 in July, confirming the bearish breakout.

Ethereum has also formed a death cross pattern as the 200-day and 50-day Hull Moving Averages made a bearish crossover. The HMA reduces lag by using weighted moving averages to smooth out price data.

The last time Ethereum formed a death cross on the weekly chart was in March 2022, and the coin dropped by over 70% after that.

Ether has also formed a bearish pennant chart pattern, which is characterized by a long vertical line followed by a symmetrical triangle. Typically, an asset experiences a bearish breakout when the two lines of the triangle converge.

Additionally, this consolidation is happening at the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level. Therefore, there are increasing chances that the coin will have a strong bearish breakout in the near term, with the next target to watch being $2,111, its lowest point on Aug. 5.

Ethereum’s weak fundamentals

In addition to weak technicals, Ethereum is also battling significant fundamental challenges. First, Ether ETFs have not seen strong inflows a few months after launch.

According to SoSoValue, these funds have had cumulative outflows of over $530 million, primarily due to the Grayscale Ethereum Fund. In contrast, Bitcoin ETFs have crossed the $20 billion inflow level, pointing to higher demand from institutional investors.

Ethereum is also seeing intense competition in areas it used to dominate like DeFi and NFTs. Data by DeFi Llama shows that Solana has crossed Ethereum in terms of DEX volume in the last seven days. It handled $10.87 billion compared to Ethereum’s $9.69 billion. 

If the trend continues, Solana may surpass Ethereum this month. Solana has handled $23.9 billion so far, compared to Ethereum’s $24 billion.

This performance is largely driven by the popularity of Solana (SOL) meme coins like Dogwifhat, Bonk, and Popcat have become popular among traders. All Solana meme coins have gained over $10 billion in market cap.

Additionally, some high-profile Ethereum whales, including Vitalik Buterin and the Ethereum Foundation, have sold thousands of coins recently.

Solana has surged ahead of Ethereum in weekly on-chain trading volumes, driven by a remarkable uptick in meme coin activity that now accounts for 40% of its trading landscape.

The crypto landscape is shifting, with Solana recently eclipsing Ethereum in weekly on-chain trading volume. A recent report from Wintermute shows that Solana’s (SOL) trading volume jumped 50% to $51 billion, while Ethereum (ETH) reached $46 billion, reflecting the ongoing recovery of the crypto sector from recent lows.