Memecoin Market Map: A $120 Billion Asset Class
Meme has dominated the market in every quarter of this year.Original Title: Memecoin Market Map - a $120B Asset Class
Author: Eli Nuss
Compiled by: Scof, ChainCatcher
Over the past year, Memecoin has been the best-performing sector in the cryptocurrency market. Today, the total market capitalization of Memecoin has surpassed $100 billion, exceeding the combined total of DeFi, DePin, gaming, and the metaverse.
As the scale and diversity of this asset class continue to expand, we attempt to create a market map to identify opportunities within it.
We analyzed the best-performing Memecoins from each quarter this year, and the results confirmed our hypothesis—Memecoin has dominated the market in every quarter. In the first quarter, $POPCAT, $WIF, $MOG, and $MYRO were the top performers;
In the second quarter, $PONKE, $SPX, $TURBO, $GIGA, $WOJAK, $BRETT, and $MOG stood out; in the third quarter, $SPX, $GIGA, $FUD, and $MUMU led the way.
When attempting to formulate a methodology for the Memecoin market, one thing is very clear: understanding "meta" (cultural trends and movements) is crucial. While this is generally applicable in cryptocurrency, it is particularly important for Memecoin, with an impact far greater than other categories. Below is an extended timeline aimed at highlighting some significant Meta changes and emerging trends.
Until 2021, the Memecoin market was almost solely dominated by Doge. Then, Shiba Inu launched as the first true "Doge killer," and people naturally flocked to it, hoping to replicate Doge's success. This search for the "next XX" mentality is the root of forming Meta. The success of Shiba Inu spawned various Memecoins related to dogs and Elon Musk, making 2021 the first true Memecoin Meta. Then, in 2023, the launch of Pepe Coin drove a surge of Memecoins related to frogs and the "boys club," while the later launch of Bonk and Wif coins established Solana as the dominant chain for Memecoins, ultimately leading to pump.fun. In the first quarter of 2023, the Memecoin market erupted in widespread frenzy, with new Metas emerging almost weekly or even daily. After reaching a local peak in March, the market slowed slightly in the summer. As Bitcoin began to break out, market enthusiasm surged again, with new Metas continuously emerging, including @truth_terminal's $GOAT, $MOODENG (the cute hippo coin), and $PEANUT.
Today, the Memecoin market has seen an overflow of Metas, and we attempt to break down the market by different categories.
As you can see, Dogecoin remains the dominant sector in the Memecoin market, primarily driven by Doge. A few weeks ago, when we started compiling this data, the Sentient AI category was almost nonexistent, and the Martyr category did not show significant performance (although we must respect the OG coin $Harambe). This is enough to demonstrate the rapid evolution of the Memecoin market.
Not surprisingly, since the launch of Pepe Coin, Dogecoin's dominance has begun to gradually decline.
It seems this trend will continue, as new Metas will keep emerging, and different sectors will be pushed into the spotlight.
From the changes in market capitalization across categories, several interesting trends emerge.
For instance, the Crypto Culture category of Memecoins (like $bitcoin) gained some attention in 2023, especially when relatively little new capital was entering the market at that time. However, with the influx of new capital towards the end of the year, the Crypto Culture category gradually gave way to broader internet culture (like $giga, $npc, etc.).
As mentioned earlier, the rapid rise of $GOAT and $PEANUT is also quite surprising. While it may still be too early to categorize them into new categories, it is evident that there are many AI-related Memecoins today, with market capitalizations already reaching nine figures.
Additionally, earlier celebrity tokens and politically related Memecoins saw some growth, but most have gradually cooled off since then.
Over time, Memecoins could potentially become a fractal of the entire cryptocurrency market, with Dogecoin's status akin to Bitcoin (BTC). Some "cult coins" will have loyal community support and exist long-term; however, most Memecoins may be fleeting like NFTs in 2021.
Nevertheless, it is clear that there are significant opportunities for early entry into new Metas.
I anticipate that the fastest-growing categories in the future will be internet culture and self-aware AI. Internet culture is already widely recognized and has a rich cultural foundation, giving it a clear advantage over other categories. Self-aware AI combines the most exciting technology with the most volatile asset class, and they may continue to dominate the Memecoin market in the future.
As for the open market space, there will always be room for new animal species—many animals are currently lacking in the market, especially some exotic ones (like tigers, giraffes, zebras, etc.). As for entirely new categories of Memecoins, existing fan cultures (like superheroes, sports, etc.) may be creatively tokenized.
