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Meme coins lead way as PEPE, BONK hint at possible marketwide uptrend

  • Meme coins are leading the market with double-digit gains as Bitcoin price continues to lag.
  • PEPE, BONK, WIF, DOGE and SHIB are biggest gainers among large market cap sector tokens.
  • Meme coins become  bona fide crypto niche because of Avalanche Foundation.

Meme coins, a sector inspired by memes and internet jokes, boast an exuberant online community that has progressively supported their growth. Now, community members say it could be the sector to watch for anyone looking to get ahead of a broader market recovery after the recent marketwide crash.

Also Read: Top 3 meme coins Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Bonk: Recovery likely if Bitcoin freefall ends

Meme coin madness commences, hints at looming uptrend for altcoins

Meme coins suffered when Bitcoin price crashed in early April. However, the tables seem to have turned as the sector is posting double-digit gains. Pepe price is up over 22% as Bonk Inu (BONK) follows close by with 19% in gains over the last 24 hours. The Bitcoin of meme coins, Dogecoin (DOGE), has also shown strength, rising 12% while Shiba Inu (SHIB) price soared by 10% as of press time.

According to one investor on X, @BullrunMicro, meme coins are the sector to watch when you want to know when the uptrend will start again.

During the Token 2049, Tron founder and Huobi Global advisor Justin Sun discussed meme coins. In a follow up post on X on Wednesday, he said, “Meme coins may seem unconventional, but they highlight the power of community in crypto.”

Meme coins becoming a genuine niche

From their reputation as a global shelling point for speculative liquidity, meme coins are slowly but surely transcending into an actual bona fide cryptocurrency niche in their own right. Avalanche Foundation’s plans to start investing in the sector’s tokens in late 2023 reinforced this ascension.

In the post, the foundation indicated plans to buy "select Avalanche-based meme coins to create a collection," as part of a bid to broaden its portfolio "to embrace a more complete spectrum of possibilities."

The selection process for its meme coin collection would be based on criteria including:

  • Number of holders
  • Project liquidity thresholds
  • Project maturity
  • Principles of a fair launch, and
  • Overall social sentiment

The announcement gave legitimacy to a sector that had never been taken seriously before.

Nevertheless, the meme coin market is also very volatile, which explains the frequent undervaluation despite strong communities for individual projects in the sector.  Cautious optimism is, therefore, key as these speculative assets walk the thin line between prosperity and uncertainty.

Cryptocurrency metrics FAQs

The developer or creator of each cryptocurrency decides on the total number of tokens that can be minted or issued. Only a certain number of these assets can be minted by mining, staking or other mechanisms. This is defined by the algorithm of the underlying blockchain technology. Since its inception, a total of 19,445,656 BTCs have been mined, which is the circulating supply of Bitcoin. On the other hand, circulating supply can also be decreased via actions such as burning tokens, or mistakenly sending assets to addresses of other incompatible blockchains.

Market capitalization is the result of multiplying the circulating supply of a certain asset by the asset’s current market value. For Bitcoin, the market capitalization at the beginning of August 2023 is above $570 billion, which is the result of the more than 19 million BTC in circulation multiplied by the Bitcoin price around $29,600.

Trading volume refers to the total number of tokens for a specific asset that has been transacted or exchanged between buyers and sellers within set trading hours, for example, 24 hours. It is used to gauge market sentiment, this metric combines all volumes on centralized exchanges and decentralized exchanges. Increasing trading volume often denotes the demand for a certain asset as more people are buying and selling the cryptocurrency.

Funding rates are a concept designed to encourage traders to take positions and ensure perpetual contract prices match spot markets. It defines a mechanism by exchanges to ensure that future prices and index prices periodic payments regularly converge. When the funding rate is positive, the price of the perpetual contract is higher than the mark price. This means traders who are bullish and have opened long positions pay traders who are in short positions. On the other hand, a negative funding rate means perpetual prices are below the mark price, and hence traders with short positions pay traders who have opened long positions.

Author

Lockridge Okoth

Lockridge is a believer in the transformative power of crypto and the blockchain industry.

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