Memecoin Market Dulls After Friday’s Plunge

The memecoin market has lost its shine following a significant drop this Friday. This day will be remembered as a tough one for investors in major cryptocurrencies and altcoins. Specifically, the memecoin market is among the hardest hit by the recent Bitcoin decline.

Except for a few exceptions, the majority of major meme coins experienced sharp declines, some even double digits. As of the time of writing, the market capitalization of this sector stands at $40.2 billion. This is considerably lower compared to the recent peak of around $60 billion.

Top tokens in this submarket, like Shiba Inu, are facing a particularly tough time. The dog-themed coin suffered a drop of over 14% in the last 7 days. According to CoinMarketCap, this token now has a price of $0.00001461, threatening to erase all gains made in 2024.

It’s important to note that this coin spent much of 2023 in a stagnant position below $0.000010. If the current bearish trend intensifies, it is likely the coin could return to that low.

Memecoin Market Under Pressure
This Friday, the trustee overseeing the rehabilitation of the defunct Mt. Gox exchange confirmed the start of repayments to victims of the 2014 hack. The immediate reaction from the crypto sector investors was panic. Early in the day, there was a strong nervous sell-off, driving Bitcoin’s price to February lows.

As expected, the reaction from altcoins and the memecoin market was also negative, but on a much larger scale. This is a typical response from meme coins, given their market capitalization is smaller than Bitcoin’s. Consequently, large inflows or outflows can cause more significant percentage movements in their prices.

Despite the sharp drops in meme token prices, there were instances of positive movements. For example, the token Dogwifhat (WIF) showed a gain of +3.6% in the last 24 hours, while also maintaining positive numbers over the week. Popcat also experienced notable growth in 24 hours, with an increase of +12.6%.

As observed, while the memecoin market is losing ground, some of its tokens are still doing well. This indicates that some investors chose not to exit with their capital amid the current drop but instead shifted their investments to certain meme coins.