Solana ecosystem is currently outperforming competitors such as Ethereum, Avalanche, and BNB Chain in terms of network activity, growth, and adoption, all thanks to the memecoin craze sweeping the crypto markets. Throughout the past month, the Solana ecosystem has seen the launch of thousands of new memecoins with billions of dollars in transaction volume.
The Memecoin Process and the Crypto Industry
During this period, a few new memecoins made headlines and many projects reached new market highs within days, while others caused user unrest and even made headlines for racism. Memecoin projects are cryptocurrencies named after internet memes and, aside from being a pop culture reference, have no practical application. These cryptocurrencies are often supported by a strong online community.
Memecoins are not a new concept and caught mainstream attention as projects like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw price increases during the last bull cycle. However, this pales in comparison to the current memecoin frenzy that started in the Solana ecosystem and has now spread to many others, including Coinbase’s Layer-2 platform Base, Binance‘s BNB Smart Chain network, and more.
During the last bull cycle, memecoin projects reached new highs over an extended period and were primarily fueled by a strong online community. Dogecoin received significant support from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who added DOGE payments to Tesla’s product store. However, in the current cycle, memecoin projects are emerging at unprecedented rates, and tokens just a few hours old have achieved millions in transaction volume and billions in market value.
What’s Happening in the Memecoin Space?
CoinGecko’s report published in April stated that memecoin projects were the most profitable crypto sector in the first quarter of 2024, with the top tokens providing an average return of 1,312.6% in market value. Notable gains included BRETT with a 7,727.6% increase. Dogwifhat (WIF) rose by 2,721.2% over the quarter, while Book of Meme (BOME) briefly surged over 40,000% in the days following its launch.
BOME was launched on March 14 by artist Darkfarms1 with a market value of approximately 4 million dollars. In the days following its launch, it reached a market value of 1.45 billion dollars. Within a week, the token was supported by many major exchanges, including Binance, Bybit, and KuCoin. Dogwifhat, launched in November 2023, was among the top 50 cryptocurrencies by market value in the first quarter of 2024 with approximately 50 billion dollars. Bitget’s chief research analyst Ryan Lee shared the following comments:
“The most significant factor contributing to the rise of these memecoin projects was their typical pricing in ETH and SOL on decentralized exchange platforms and the projects’ presence in the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems. The upward trend in Ethereum and Solana prices is leading to an increase in memecoin prices.”
