Meme coins ranked among the most popular crypto narratives of 2024, creating a divide between crypto tokens. Bitcoin stands out among top crypto tokens with 125% year-to-date gains, and the meme coin category, or the “other tokens”, hit a key milestone, crossing a market capitalization of $100 billion. 

Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE), the top three meme coins, have erased between 11% and 13% of their value in the past week. Bitcoin consolidates close to $95,000, nearly 12% below its all-time high of $108,353. 

Bitcoin vs meme coins, most popular narrative of 2024

Meme coins captured the attention of most crypto traders and emerged as a popular narrative this year. A CoinGecko report updated on Monday notes that the meme coin narrative captured a combined 30.67% of global investor interest. 

The report highlights that almost a third of crypto narrative interest this year was focused on speculative gains from meme coins. Traders placed a lower emphasis on fundamentals and turned their attention and capital towards dog and cat-related meme coins, pop culture references and internet personality-themed meme tokens.

Meme coins have enjoyed a 6% year-on-year increase in interest from crypto market participants. While Bitcoin garnered institutional attention and capital allocation following the approval of Spot BTC ETFs in the US, four meme coin-based trends ranked among the top 20 narratives in crypto. 

Solana (SOL), Base, Artificial intelligence and cat-themed meme coins garnered between 14% and 8% of interest among crypto narratives. 

With meme coins cementing their place as a trending token category and trending this cycle, catalysts like institutional allocation and ETF approval could pave the way for further gains for holders. 

Base, Solana, XRP memes dominate over blue-chip memes in speculative gains 

In the first week of December, XRP-based meme coins yielded gains for holders amidst rising relevance and demand for the XRP Ledger and its native token XRP. Similarly, Solana and Base-based meme coins have secured a rank in the top 20 cryptocurrency narratives of the year, dominating the popularity of blue-chip meme coins. 

Dogecoin, SHIB and PEPE are typically considered blue-chip memes, with a market capitalization between $7 and $46 billion, as seen on CoinGecko. The top 3 tokens in the meme coin category observed a spike in active addresses and activity from traders within the first two weeks of December. 

In the last seven days, the top 3 tokens have erased double-digit value, according to CoinGecko data. Several other meme tokens have accumulated double-digit losses, barring Pudgy Penguins (PENGU). 

Institutional meme coin holdings tripled this year 

The wave of meme coin adoption drove institutions to tripe their holdings in the category. From February to March 2024, institutional investors’ spot holdings of memecoins climbed from $62.5 million to $204.8 million. 

This marks a 226% surge, a significant spike in interest in the memecoin market, according to Bybit’s report on institutional investment in meme coins.

In the Bybit report, Eugene Cheung, Head of Institutions of Bybit, is quoted as saying:

“Our report ‘Beyond the Hype’ shows that institutional and retail investors are actively leveraging the opportunities presented by the memecoin market. The strategic agility of institutions and the dynamic management by retail investors reflect a sophisticated engagement with these assets. We invite everyone to delve into the full report to understand these important dynamics better.”

Dogecoin ETF likely in 2025?

Rising institutional adoption has raised questions about the likelihood of approval from the U.S. financial regulator, the Securities and Exchange Commission, for meme coin ETFs. Nate Geraci, President of ETFStore expressed shock that an issuer has yet to file for a Dogecoin ETF, both in and outside of the U.S.

Geraci believes the only possible downside of such a filing would be that it would mark a futile attempt and end up as a marketing expense for an issuer. The President of the ETFStore commented on the “DOGE” ticker since it is the ticker for the largest meme coin and would likely hold the highest relevance and demand among issuers in the future, 

As the SEC greenlights the Bitcoin-Ethereum hybrid ETF, DOGE traders have hopes for a Dogecoin ETF approval in 2025. 

Bitcoin and meme coin divide runs deep

Ruslan Lienkha, Chief of markets at YouHodler told Crypto.news in an exclusive interview:

“Dogecoin’s recent performance appears primarily speculative, driven by its association with Elon Musk, rather than any underlying fundamentals, as it still lacks substantial real-world use cases. However, a potential utility could develop in the future.”

Lienkha comments on what divides Dogecoin and similar meme coins from Bitcoin. While Bitcoin has gained acceptance as “digital gold” and hedge against the devaluation of a fiat currency, Dogecoin and the like are considered speculative tokens. 

The Bitcoin and meme coin divide runs deep and could influence the approval of a meme coin ETF, further investment from institutional investors and retail participation in the category in the second leg of the bull market. 

Typically, a drawdown in Bitcoin ushers a steeper and market-wide correction, wiping recent gains from meme coins and hitting the market capitalization of the category negatively. The correlation with Bitcoin could continue to drag down meme coins, and in every instance, the largest crypto crashes or reacts to a market-moving event during this cycle. 

Cryptocurrencies, including Movement, Bitget Token and Zcash, celebrated massive gains as Santa’s gifts showed in significant price rallies on Dec. 25.

With Bitcoin (BTC) reclaiming some footing after trading to near $92,000 on Dec. 23, the gains to above $98k also cascaded to some altcoins.

Buoyed by various factors and catalysts, some alts recorded more than 30% spikes.

Among the top coins, Movement (MOVE), Bitget Token (BGB) and Zcash (ZEC) surged by more than 31%, 18% and 9% respectively.

The altcoins led the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market cap. Gains for most altcoins saw the overall market cap hold above $3.5 trillion — despite a 2% dip in 24 hours.

Crypto’s daily trading volume stood at $156 billion, BTC dominance at 54.5% and the crypto greed & fear index at 62. This latter metric points to overall sentiment remaining bullish amid a potential return to greater risk appetite.

Bitcoin bull and mastermind of the MicroStrategy plan Michael Saylor shared his optimism.

Sentiment from the head of a Wall Street giant signals good news for the cryptocurrency economy. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon has said that the investment banking major would evaluate trading cryptocurrencies should US regulations permit the bank to do so.

“At the moment, as a regulated banking institution, we’re not allowed to own a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin as a principal,” he said at a Reuters Next conference, held on Tuesday, 10 December.

“We give our clients advice around a variety of these technologies and these issues, and will continue to do that. But for the moment our ability to act in these markets is extremely limited from a regulatory perspective.”

Interestingly, Goldman Sachs disclosed in its recent US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) 13F filing that the company holds more than $700M in eight Bitcoin ETFs, as of September 20, 2024.

So, it would appear that at long last, corporate attitudes to crypto are finally changing. Even US President-elect Donald Trump has positioned himself as a champion of cryptocurrency. The launch of a strategic national crypto stockpile was among the promises made by Trump in the run-up to the 2024 election. Removing Gary Gensler – the nemesis of crypto companies due to his aggressive approach to crypto regulation – from his position as SEC Chairman was another.

A Green Light for Ripple’s Stablecoin Means Meme Coins Pump

The big news for the cryptocurrency economy keeps on rolling, as Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently announced that its $RLUSD stablecoin has been approved by the New York Department of Financial Services to go live. Pegged to the US dollar at a 1:1 ratio, $RLUSD will be supported by a combination of US dollar reserves, short-term US Treasury securities, and other liquid assets, mirroring Tether’s approach to backing. $RLUSD is set to be launched on the XRP ledger in Ethereum.

In all, the latest developments are great news for the economy, cryptocurrency holders, and the likes of Best Wallet. Powered by Best Wallet’s $BEST token – currently in presale with an impressive $3.34M already raised – Best Wallet plans to capture 40% of the crypto wallet market share by end-2026.

Best Wallet is mobile-first, fully non-custodial app supports thousands of cryptocurrencies, including the best meme coins, across 50 major blockchains. But it’s that non-custodial aspect that sets Best Wallet apart.

Most crypto wallets are controlled by centralized companies or exchanges, whereas Best Wallet gives users full control over their wallet. And that’s in addition to reduced transaction fees, early access to presales, and airdrops. It’s also the first crypto wallet to use Fireblocks’ MPC-CMP wallet technology, which adds high security, zero counterparty risk, and multi-blockchain support.

All things considered, we believe $BEST is worthwhile looking into. Investors have just under two days to secure $BEST at its current price of $0.23075 before the next price increase. Bear in mind, though, this article does not constitute financial advice, and it’s always important to DYOR.