Meme coins among largest gainers following crypto market recovery after lower CPI inflation data

Meme coins saw double-digit gains on Wednesday amid criticism from key crypto industry voices. Their rise follows the release of US CPI data revealing a drop in inflation, beating analysts' expectations.

Meme tokens surge following CPI report

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for May on Wednesday. The CPI declined to 3.3%, lower than estimates of 3.4%.

The reduced inflation sparked fresh hopes for the US economy but also impacted the price of several meme coins. Following the announcement, many meme tokens began to see a rally.

Also read: Solana-based meme coins' outlook improves, casting shadow over Dogecoin, Shiba Inu

PEPE, DOG, GME and BODEN were among the top gainers in the meme category and showed no signs of a decline.

Runes-based DOG-To-The-Moon (DOG) and GME meme coin — unrelated to the GameStop company — have experienced the highest surge among these tokens, rising above 20%. The significant rise in GME may have resulted from GameStop's recent stock sales, which netted about $2.14 billion for the company. Following the move, short-seller Citron Research announced it is no longer short the company's stock.

BODEN follows with a 13% rise, and PEPE with a 10% rise at the time of writing.

Despite the surge across meme coins, several key voices in the crypto industry have remained unimpressed by these tokens.

Read more: Meme coins show signs of recovery following GameStop's bullish reversal

A recent X post by crypto designer OxDesigner challenged the very nature of this class of cryptocurrencies and whether it has any real value to the crypto community. 

He commented on the dominance of meme coins so far and how they hold no real impact on the general crypto industry:

"Every cycle has expanded the functionality and reach of crypto:

+ decentralized, tamper-proof money

+ p2p, cross-border payments 

+ programmable money

+ permissionless financial services

+ Digital asset ownership

These are net positives, in my opinion. But where do memecoins take us? There are no compelling visions of how they extend into or improve everyday life," stated OxDesigner.

Also read: Dogecoin, Shiba Inu on-chain metrics support price decline as meme tokens bleed

The comment also attracted the attention of Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

The meme coin market stood out in May, recording one of the highest gains across crypto market sectors. This was characterized by the rise of celebrity meme coins and the return of meme stock trader Roaring Kitty.