Dogwifhat and President Biden and Trump’s politically inspired brands also see price spikes
The back symbol Solana, a layer 1 blockchain that competes with the Ethereum blockchain, has been going through the trouble after falling from a high of around $260 in late 2021 to a low of around $8 in early 2023. But like any good movie with a redemption arc characters, Solana has one too.
The cryptocurrency surpassed $160 on Wednesday, marking its highest price since January 2022. It is the fourth largest cryptocurrency (excluding stablecoins) by market capitalization behind bitcoin, ether and BNB, with this series, and is up 44.8% month-to-month and about 676% year-to-date, according to CoinMarketCap data.
The blockchain behind the token is known for the NFT market, which is the second largest sales volume of all time at $5.2 billion, as well as its decentralized financial (DeFi) ecosystem and more recently, the ability for developers to generate memecoins on its chain faster than I can write this article. So it’s no surprise that the growth and traction in its blockchain carries over to its token.
Since mid-December, a number of Shiba Inu dog-themed tokens on the Solana blockchain, such as Bonk and dogwifhat, have taken off. The two tokens, which look to capitalize on the popularity of the original dog-based memecoin, Dogecoin, are up 150% and 600% per month, respectively. The dogwifhat community too self-financed approximately $700,000 in less than four days to get the token displayed on the exterior of the new Las Vegas ball — and people paid in USDC, the second-largest stablecoin, not dollars, to do so.
And don’t worry, cat lovers: kitty-themed coupons like Popcat are also showing insane profits. For context, Popcat’s price increased by 3,205% in the month.
Bonk and Solana’s web3 smartphone Saga gained more attention after savvy crypto traders realized they could redeem 30 million BONK tokens, worth between $500 and $800 in December, on the device. At current prices, 30 million in free BONK tokens is worth almost a grand.
In recent weeks, a number of politically inspired memecoins on the chain have also gained traction, including jeo boden, doland tremp, and raw whore elizabath, with market caps of $71.8 million, $47.8 million, and $8.8 million. , respectively, at that time. of the publication. (If you’re wondering if I misspelled those tokens based on the names of US politicians, I didn’t.)
Even Coinbase, America’s largest crypto exchange, common steps on its website about how to buy some of these tokens in the US, through other avenues outside of its own platform. To trade some of these cryptocurrencies on Solana, users need the native chain token to pay a nominal fee, fractions of a penny. (Note that none of this is financial advice, but one of the reasons that could suggest Solana’s price increase.)
Memecoins in general have seen a huge rally as the cryptocurrency market continues to thaw from its most recent winter. This, along with airdrops from the projects’ tokens, has fueled interest in Phantom, a crypto wallet heavily used in the Solana ecosystem, which has seen its active user base more than triple in the past year to 3.2 millions of monthly active users.
While the majority of these tokens have no underlying utility – dogwifhat does Literally named after a dog wearing a knitted hat — people still rally behind them, no doubt in hopes of getting rich quick or because they resonate with the eccentric, tsunami-like communities that generate these assets.
But what goes up often comes down, and the rapid rise of some memecoins is often followed by extreme crashes, sometimes within days of launch. While some may hold price support for months, as we’ve seen with a handful of brands, it’s important to note that not all that glitters is gold.
