Memecoins
Shiba Inu (SHIB), Pepe (PEPE), and this Trump-themed memecoin have outpaced Bitcoin this week
May 17, 2024 11:30 am | 3 minute read
So far, 2024 has undeniably been the year memecoin. Countless new tokens have been released, and a handful of them have touted gains in the thousands of percentage points. Plus, the hype doesn’t seem to be dying down. Tokens continue to rise, and in this case, some are outperforming the broader cryptocurrency market.
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Shiba Inu (SHIB), Pepper (PEPPER)AND MAGA Coin (TRUMP) they all performed better than bitcoin last week. These memecoins do little to add real value to investors and instead focus on backing their memes. Surprisingly, this resulted in a tremendous amount of attention and purchasing activity.
Shiba Inu is one of the oldest memecoins still afloat as of 2024. Launched in August 2020, the token quickly skyrocketed when it received the attention of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin. This week, the price increased by more than 7%, bringing its market capitalization to more than $14 billion.
Launched on the Ethereum blockchain just over a year ago, PEPE is a memecoin based on the infamous Pepe meme from the early 2000s, which features a crudely drawn frog. The token has climbed the crypto charts and currently sits among the top 25 tokens by market capitalization, boasting a total of over $4 billion. This week, the price of PEPE has increased by more than 17%.
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A slightly less known, but equally interesting memecoin is MAGA Coin (TRUMP). This token, created in August 2023, combines the community and low-utility aspects of memecoins with former President Donald Trump’s avid supporters. The token has performed very well in 2024 and is up nearly 70% this week.
Bitcoin also moved higher this week on the back of weak inflation data on Tuesday and comments from Trump himself about wanting to help the adoption of cryptocurrencies.
The consumer price index report was better than expected, with inflation showing a 0.3% month-on-month increase in April, lower than the 0.4% expected.
Additionally, Trump spoke at an NFT event, saying: If you like cryptocurrencies in any form, and they come in many different forms, you would be better off voting for Trump.”
Together, these events helped push bitcoin from $60,000 to above $66,000 this week. Overall, bitcoin is up just over 6% this week. This means that each of the above memecoins outperformed bitcoin, which performed exceptionally well.
For comparison, the S&P 500 Index is up about 2% this week, and the Nasdaq 100 is up just over 2.5%.
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