Meme Coin Institutional Holdings Surge Since January, Led by DOGE, SHIB, PEPE

Institutional investors on cryptocurrency exchange Bybit increased their allocations to memecoins from $63 million at the start of the year to $300 million in April.

*Institutional allocations to memecoins have surged more than 300% this year, reaching a high of nearly $300 million in April.

*Bybit said the influx highlights the growing interest of professional investors in the sector.

*Dogecoin and Shiba Inu favored for their liquidity, BONK is the most popular new memecoin.

Institutional allocations to memecoins have climbed more than 300% this year, peaking at nearly $300 million in April, according to cryptocurrency exchange Bybit.

The influx suggests the sector is gaining new favor among professional investors, Bybit said in a report on Wednesday. Popular choices among institutional investors are Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), mainly because they have ample spot market liquidity. Holdings are tracked only on Bybit and do not include holdings on other exchanges.

Solana meme token BONK has become the most popular of the new meme tokens that have come to the fore this year, attracting more than $75 million in institutional bets.

Institutional Allocation of Memecoins

Holdings fell by nearly half in May to $125 million as these institutions took profits.

During this period, stablecoin holdings fell from $1.7 billion to $1.4 billion, while exposure to Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and memecoins increased.

As of May 1, DOGE had the largest share of memecoins held by both retail and institutional investors. Institutions allocated a larger percentage of funds to DOGE: 36%, compared to 24.5% for retail investors.

“This shows that while both groups consider DOGE to be the leading asset in the memecoin space, institutions prefer it, likely due to its higher liquidity and relative stability,” Bybit said.

“Both groups also enjoy Ethereum-based memecoins (PEPE) and (SHIB), with retail users holding 20.95% and 14.61%, respectively, while institutional users hold 22.23% and 10.39%, respectively.”