Memecoin Sector Captures 11% of Market, Reaching $127B Market Cap

The Memecoin-boom of 2024 has been dominating the crypto-sector and if it wasn’t for the approval of Spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) not much notable would have been to report in 2024.

Related: Ethereum ETFs Surge with Robust Inflows, Signalling Market Turnaround

Well, ok, that’s an exaggeration, plenty was and is happening. Crypto adoption is increasing with soaring DeFi use, Gensler is soon out of the picture, tokenisation is taking off and Trump gave the market a push that sent Bitcoin flying past US$100k – so, yes, lots has happened, but memecoins were present throughout.

Memecoins DO Have Value After All It Seems

And interestingly, memecoins have captured a combined market share of 11% with a collective US$127.6 billion (AU$198.6 billion) as per CoinMarketCap. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies currently stands at US$3.6 trillion (AU$5.6 trillion).

If you exclude Ethereum and Bitcoin from the equation – and they’re arguably in their own league – that’s 10.7% of the altcoin market cap, and still 3% if BTC and ETH are added to the total cap.

Such high numbers and such a large share of the market is unusual, especially so early on in a bull market, vice president of product management at CEX.IO, Alexandr Kerya, told CoinDesk.

In previous cycles, memecoins typically experienced their largest capital rotation toward the end of the post-halving bull run. However, this cycle stands out due to the significant rise in memecoin influence occurring well before the halving, and persisting even during bitcoin’s consolidation mid-year.

Alexandr Kerya, CEX.IO

And while memecoins don’t have any underlying value, Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko believes they do serve a purpose. Solana has had some issues with outages in the past, but it seems the flurry of memecoin activity happening on the Solana platform means it has become a battle-tested network.

At the Emergence conference in Prague, Yakovenko commented:

As with NFTs, we’re blessed to solve a whole bunch of engineering problems with memecoins. It just makes the network and all the systems more robust.

Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana Co-Founder

Will D.O.G.E Be Good for DOGE?

Despite the slow-down of Bitcoin after reaching the US$100k milestone, the memecoin sector enjoys enormous gains, with Mog Coin (MOG) and GmeStop (GME) taking off with 46% and 55% respectively.

GME’s rally seems in part caused by Keith Gill aka Roaring Kitty posting after a three-month absence.

Related: US Congressman’s $30K Investment in Ski Mask Dog Sparks Memecoin Rally

Meanwhile, the grandfather of all memecoins, Dogecoin (DOGE), sits comfortably at seventh spot on the market cap rank with US$63.9 billion (AU$99.4 billion).

DOGE gained 5% in the past 24 hours and is up by 351% this year. However, at US$0.43 (AU$0.66), Dogecoin still has a bit of a slog ahead of it to reach the all-time high of US$0.73 (AU$1.13) set in May 2021.

It remains to be seen if Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E efficiency department can effectively clean up the US government’s operations and how much the original memecoin could benefit from the increased attention it is likely to get.