The memecoin market, once flourishing after the 2024 presidential success of Donald Trump, has experienced a sharp downturn, seeing a 56% decrease from its December peak. Current data from CoinMarketCap indicates that as of March 5, the total market capitalization of memecoins stands at a mere $54 billion, a stark contrast to its $124 billion valuation on December 5, 2024.
The memecoin market’s value has been on a gradual decline since reaching an all-time high of $137 billion on December 8. This fluctuation saw brief periods of increase and decrease, particularly during the launch of memecoins by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in January.
Several industry insiders attribute this drastic memecoin downturn to unstable global economic conditions, lack of strict memecoin regulations, insider trading scandals, and endorsements from public figures.
Zeta Markets co-founder, Anmol Singh, has stated that the “memecoin bubble has burst” due to a combination of factors like economic uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration and mixed economic and foreign policies in the United States. Celebrities and social media influencers have also been blamed for exploiting their influence to inflate token prices before selling for profit, leading to a loss of trust and confidence among retail participants.
Following this significant selloff, Singh predicts a consolidation in the memecoin market with a focus on major memecoins, while “others slowly fade out of relevance.”
According to Singh, Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK), Dogwifhat (WIF), and Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin are among the major memecoins. He foresees that the rest of the memecoin capital will likely be distributed to perpetual futures, spot crypto investments, and fiat.
At the time of writing, Dogecoin, a preferred memecoin of Trump’s senior adviser Elon Musk, holds the largest share of the memecoin market, accounting for 53% of the total market cap. Following closely are Shiba Inu (SHIB) and PEPE, with market caps of $7.7 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively. The Official Trump memecoin ranks fourth with a market cap of $2.6 billion.
Notable crypto figures like Tron founder Justin Sun have touted memecoins as the future of crypto, urging investors to concentrate on well-established memecoins like DOGE.
