Additional Insights
Ethereum-based meme coin PEPE surged over 150% in the last week of February 2024 to lead a meme coin frenzy as fear-of-missing-out (FOMO) trading kicked in after bellwether Bitcoin (BTC) neared all-time highs.
In this article, we talk about the PEPE token price, analyze the ongoing meme coin frenzy, understand why people invest in meme coins, and ask experts how to find the “next DOGE.”
Key Takeaways
- PEPE outperforms older rivals DOGE, SHIB, and BONK.
- 2023-created meme coins like Solana’s WIF and Donald Trump-themed TRUMP posted outsized gains.
- Whales began taking PEPE profits as one whale converted their position from PEPE to SHIB.
- Social forces and attempts to find the next 100x meme coin fuel the market frenzy.
- Crypto expert Anndy Lian shares methodology to “find the next DOGE.”
The Latest Price Analysis: PEPE Outperforms Popular DOGE and SHIB
On February 28, 2024, the PEPE crypto price rose to $0.00000362, its highest since May 2023. Pepe the Frog-inspired meme coin regained its billion-dollar market cap for the first time since its debut. Only Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Bonk (BONK) had a higher market cap than PEPE at the time of writing.
This week, PEPE has become the top performer among the biggest meme coin names. The three dog-themed meme coins DOGE, SHIB, and BONK posted gains of 50%, 45%, and 74% in the last seven days, respectively – as of February 29, 2024 – only to be trumped by PEPE, which rose over 150% in the same period.
PEPE is a newer meme coin compared to DOGE and SHIB. PEPE debuted less than 12 months ago, in late April 2023, while DOGE is over ten years old, and SHIB came to prominence in the 2020-2021 bull cycle.
The freshness of PEPE certainly plays a part in its outperformance against the old dogs. Supporting this thesis is the explosion in the price of meme coins that debuted in 2023 and 2024.
Take Solana’s new meme coin darling, for example. Dogwifhat (WIF) is one of the hottest new cryptos in town, which has gained nearly 400% since its December 2023 debut and over 150% in the last seven days as of February 29, 2024.
Another 2023-launched meme coin that has outperformed its peers is a Donald Trump-themed crypto called MAGA (TRUMP). The TRUMP meme coin has ballooned nearly 3,000% since the start of 2024.
However, there were warning signs that PEPE price movement was getting overheated. Blockchain analytics firm Lookonchain revealed that a whale sold all of their 1.9 trillion PEPE tokens on Binance for a cool $3.49 million profit on February 29, 2024. The whale later changed his position from PEPE to SHIB – the latter has been underperforming PEPE.
Meme Coin Frenzy Takes Over 2024 Crypto Bull Run
In this section, we explain meme coin investing through the following points:
1. Meme Coin Degens Do Not Care About Utility or Fundamentals
For an outsider, the price movement of meme coins tends to make zero sense. Fundamental analysts are often baffled by the large sums of money invested in these crypto tokens with zero utility.
Non-crypto-natives should understand that crypto degens rarely look for utility or strong fundamentals. They want to find the next Dogecoin to possibly 10x-100x their crypto investment, well knowing the high volatility and risks involved.
2. Crypto Traders Seek Outperformance in Bull Markets
Battle-hardened crypto natives tend to invest in cryptocurrencies through bear markets, making them well-prepared to take hefty profits early when bull markets return. In search of market outperformance, experienced traders have shown a tendency to shift funds out of large market cap coins like BTC, which tend to lead crypto bull runs, to smaller market cap tokens that follow.
As quoted in Techopedia’s Bitcoin bull run 2024 article, crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital said in a report:
“While one of the highest sources of alpha has historically come from a perfectly timed rotation from Bitcoin into altcoins as phase 2 commences, that relationship won’t necessarily always hold true, nor is timing that rotation perfectly a reality for any trader.”
The meme coin frenzy that we are witnessing at the moment is an indicator that traders are now looking to altcoins for “alpha” as Bitcoin nears all-time highs.
Social forces play an incredibly important role in driving meme coin price gains. Meme coins are inspired by internet memes, jokes, and satire. They bank on community participation, humor, and virality to attract followers and investors.
Elon Musk’s ‘comeback’ in the game could add flames to the meme coin frenzy.
Top meme coins like DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE have loyal followers who enjoy sparkling conversations about their beloved meme coins on social media platforms like Discord and X.
This vibrant social buzz tends to attract newcomers, many of whom end up swapping their fiat for meme coins.
Anndy Lian, an intergovernmental blockchain expert, told Techopedia: “Meme coins can create a sense of community and belonging among their fans, who often use memes and jokes to communicate and promote their favorite coins.”
“Social forces play a crucial role in meme coin investing, as they can generate demand, influence sentiment, and create network effects for these coins.”
Finding the Next Dogecoin
New meme coins may come and go, but none has been able to usurp the king of meme coins – DOGE. The Elon Musk-endorsed token is the ninth biggest crypto in the world with a market cap of over $18.64 billion. At the time of writing, Dogecoin price stood at $0.13, having returned a whopping 23,200% since its debut in December 2013, CoinMarketCap data showed.
In this section, we talk to crypto expert Anndy Lian on how to find the next DOGE.
“Investors should look at the next DOGE in a “fun” manner. Personally, I hunt for them on X (formerly known as Twitter). This is the same place where I spotted $RATS, $FLOKI, $WIF, $GROK, and many more.”
Investors should look for the following traits when evaluating the potential of meme coins:
- Catchy and memorable name, logo, and theme, based on a popular or trending meme.
- Strong and engaged community that is active on social media, sharing memes, jokes, and news about their coin.
- Supportive and influential network of core community/team members or celebrity endorsements (e.g., Musk and DOGE) that can boost a coin’s visibility and credibility.
- Clear and fair tokenomics.
The Bottom Line
Meme coin is an interesting sector to uncover. The best place to discover and analyze the social fever created by meme coins is on X. There, you will find opinions about meme coins from incredibly passionate community members as well as rational crypto traders.
However, we want to highlight that meme coins are highly volatile and risky cryptocurrencies. Most meme coin projects enjoy a short period of fame and may become irrelevant after the market loses interest in them.
Source: https://www.techopedia.com/pepe-leads-meme-coin-frenzy-as-investors-search-for-the-next-dogecoin
Anndy Lian is an early blockchain adopter and experienced serial entrepreneur who is known for his work in the government sector. He is a best selling book author- “NFT: From Zero to Hero” and “Blockchain Revolution 2030”.
Currently, he is appointed as the Chief Digital Advisor at Mongolia Productivity Organization, championing national digitization. Prior to his current appointments, he was the Chairman of BigONE Exchange, a global top 30 ranked crypto spot exchange and was also the Advisory Board Member for Hyundai DAC, the blockchain arm of South Korea’s largest car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Group. Lian played a pivotal role as the Blockchain Advisor for Asian Productivity Organisation (APO), an intergovernmental organization committed to improving productivity in the Asia-Pacific region.
An avid supporter of incubating start-ups, Anndy has also been a private investor for the past eight years. With a growth investment mindset, Anndy strategically demonstrates this in the companies he chooses to be involved with. He believes that what he is doing through blockchain technology currently will revolutionise and redefine traditional businesses. He also believes that the blockchain industry has to be “redecentralised”.