Original title: (Memecoin Market Map - a $120 B Asset Class)
Original author: Eli Nuss
Original translation: Scof, ChainCatcher
Over the past year, Memecoins have been the best-performing sector in the cryptocurrency market. Now, the total market cap of Memecoins has surpassed $100 billion, exceeding that of DeFi, DePin, gaming, and the metaverse combined.
As this asset class continues to grow in scale and diversity, we try to map the market to identify opportunities.
We analyzed the best-performing Memecoins in each quarter this year, and the results confirmed our hypothesis - Memecoins 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 performed outstandingly; in the third quarter, $SPX, $GIGA, $FUD, and $MUMU led the way.
When attempting to establish 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 Memecoins, where the impact is far greater than in other categories. Below is an expanded timeline aimed at highlighting some significant meta changes and emerging trends.
Until 2021, the Memecoin market was almost entirely 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 metas. 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 led to a surge of Memecoins related to frogs and 'boys club,' while the later launches of Bonk and Wif coins established Solana as the dominant Memecoin chain, ultimately forming pump.fun. In the first quarter of 2023, the Memecoin market erupted in a widespread frenzy, with new metas emerging almost every week or even every day. After peaking in March, the market slowed slightly in the summer. As Bitcoin began to break out, market enthusiasm surged again, with new metas continually 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 began compiling this data, the self-aware AI category was nearly nonexistent, and the Martyr category did not perform significantly (although we must respect the OG coin $Harambe). This is enough to demonstrate how rapidly the Memecoin market is evolving.
Not surprisingly, since the launch of Pepe coin, the dominance of Dogecoin has gradually declined.
It seems that this trend will continue, as new metas will continue to emerge, and different sectors will be pushed to the forefront.
From the perspective of market cap changes across various categories, there are several interesting trends.
For example, 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 at the end of the year, the Crypto Culture category gradually gave way to a 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 clear that there are many AI-related Memecoins today whose market caps have already reached nine figures.
In addition, earlier emerging celebrity tokens and politically related Memecoins also saw some growth, but most have gradually cooled off since then.
Over time, Memecoins have the potential to become a fractal of the entire cryptocurrency market, with Dogecoin's status akin to that of 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 evident that there are huge opportunities to get in early on new metas.
I expect that the fastest-growing categories in the future will be internet culture and self-aware AI. Internet culture has been widely recognized, with a rich cultural foundation, giving it a clear advantage over other categories. Self-aware AI combines the most exciting technologies and the most volatile asset classes, and in the future, it may continue to dominate the Memecoin market.
As for the open market space, there is always room for new animal types - many animals are currently lacking in the market, especially some exotic animals (like tigers, giraffes, zebras, etc.). As for entirely new Memecoin categories, existing fan cultures (like superheroes, sports, etc.) may find creative ways to be tokenized.
