According to Bloomberg, memecoins such as Pepe, Dogwifhat, BONK, and SHIB are reaching record highs as retail investors re-enter the cryptocurrency market. Data tracker CoinGecko shows that these speculative cryptocurrencies have been racking up fresh highs almost daily. Most memecoins trade around a dollar or less, and traders use futures on 1,000 tokens per contract to help magnify price moves. Futures products for BONK and SHIB are logging billions of dollars in trading volume on exchanges like Binace, according to Fredrick Collins, CEO and founder of crypto data platform Velo Data.

Retail investors are buying cheap coins due to the large crypto run-up from the Bitcoin ETFs, said Jordi Alexander, founder of digital-asset trading firm Selini Capital. PEPE, WIF, and other newcomers are being positioned as the next big opportunity in the memecoin market. Some advocates argue that this time is different from previous memecoin rallies, partly because of a change in the Bitcoin code known as the halving. Ayesha Kiani, COO at crypto hedge fund MNNC Group, believes that the market still has to go through the halving, which is normally the peak.

Halving refers to a planned reduction in the rewards Bitcoin miners receive and occurs once every four years or so. In the past, some analysts argued that halvings benefit Bitcoin's price. Ben Yorke, vice president of crypto exchange WOO X, said that investors are now focusing on the community-driven narrative, which is a hallmark of memecoins and decentralization in general.