Originally Posted by: Shaurya Malwa
Original title: Missed BTC Rally to $93K? Bitcoin Memecoins Could Be Next to Watch
Original source: Coindesk
Compiled by: Koala, Mars Finance
While on-chain metrics show no upside for Runes Protocol as of Monday, these metrics typically follow social activity and narratives, with price subsequently leading.
Memecoins like PUPS, DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON, and BILLION•DOLLAR•CAT are becoming popular bets to fuel Bitcoin’s growth.
The Runes protocol uses its UTXO model to create fungible tokens directly on Bitcoin, and its market capitalization has surpassed BRC-20.
Memecoin can serve as a speculative asset when volatility is low in the rest of the cryptocurrency space.
The bitcoin-based memecoin on X has gained favor among some crypto traders as a beta bet for bitcoin (BTC) as the cryptocurrency surges to all-time highs, making the space a hot topic for everyday traders.
CoinGecko data shows that tokens such as PUPS, DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (DOG), BILLION•DOLLAR•CAT (BDC), and MEME have risen 35% in the past 24 hours, leading the gains among all tracked categories. Smaller tokens such as CYPHER•GENESIS (CYPHER) have risen more than 77%.
Data shows that the market capitalization of Runes token, the protocol that supports these assets, has surpassed BRC-20 (another Bitcoin-based protocol) in the past 24 hours.
BTC has rallied more than 30% in the past 30 days, fueled by the election of Republican Donald Trump as president, whose pro-crypto stance boosted sentiment and growth across the industry.
Runes was created in early 2024 to facilitate the creation and management of fungible tokens on Bitcoin. Runes allows users to create fungible tokens, which are interchangeable digital assets similar to the functionality of Bitcoin itself or Ethereum's ERC-20 tokens.
These tokens leverage Bitcoin’s unspent transaction output (UTXO) model. Each UTXO can hold any number of various Runes, bringing token management more in line with Bitcoin’s native structure, potentially reducing network congestion caused by “junk” UTXOs from other token standards such as BRC-20.
However, as of Monday, data shows that Runes Protocol’s on-chain metrics, which typically follow social activity and narratives before price, have not risen.
Beta staking is a way to gain exposure to a network, ecosystem, or asset using the associated tokens. Since the beginning of 2023, memecoin has become the beta asset of choice for various ecosystems, such as Ethereum or Solana, which contributes to their appeal to investors.
Interest in memecoins generally comes from lower market volatility in more serious crypto areas (such as layer 2 or storage) and growing negative sentiment around tokens backed by venture capital funds - there is a growing perception that these tokens are overpriced and a bad bet for retail traders.
The focus on meme coins to bet on growth isn’t unique to Bitcoin. Several Solana-based meme coin tokens surged from December to March 2023 as the network’s SOL token took off — boosting ecosystem growth and attention — while driving up the price of the mothership.
