The memecoin sector leads in this past week’s market gains amid wider bullish momentum.
The GMMEME index, which tracks key memecoins such as PEPE, SHIB, and DOGE, has surged over 90% in November. For reference, other indexes, such as the GM30 and GML1 indices, have gone up by an average of just 36% during the same time.
Within the GMMEME index, PEPE, BONK and WIF outperformed, with weekly gains of over 70%, 100% and 32%, respectively. This follows the listings of major memecoins like PEPE and WIF on Coinbase and Robinhood, prompting their prices to surge amid speculative inflows from a new demographic on these platforms.
Within the overall memecoin sector that includes tokens outside the GMMEME index, MOODENG and PNUT were also standout performers, having gone up by 47% and a staggering 1,500%, respectively.
PNUT, a memecoin inspired by the viral P’Nut the squirrel, added $1.68 billion to its valuation in this past week alone, following a listing on Binance’s spot market as well as the squirrel itself being mentioned and acknowledged multiple times by Elon Musk on X.
The rapid pace and scale of these memecoin listings are unprecedented, signaling a shift in strategy by major centralized exchanges and platforms.
This trend could be tied to the recent U.S. presidential election, where Donald Trump’s victory has rekindled optimism for a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment.
Trump’s expected leniency toward the industry contrasts sharply with the restrictive stance of the current administration and has likely encouraged platforms to accelerate the onboarding of high-demand, speculative tokens.
While memecoins often face criticism for their lack of utility, retail investors’ current preference towards them over utility tokens is clearly displayed by the trading volumes they generate, making memecoins not only a crucial part of the overall industry now but also a lucrative goldmine for exchanges to list.
This is an excerpt from The Block's Data & Insights newsletter. Dig into the numbers making up the industry's most thought-provoking trends.
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