Memecoin market crashes 56% since December peak amid fading hype

Total memecoin market capitalization in the past year. Source: CoinMarketCap
The memecoin market has erased all of the gains that followed Donald Trump’s presidential victory in November 2024, having lost more than half of its value since December.
According to CoinMarketCap data, the total market capitalization of memecoins stood at $54 billion on March 5, down 56% from $124 billion on Dec. 5, 2024.
The memecoin market has gradually declined after peaking at a record-breaking market cap of $137 billion on Dec. 8, briefly rising and dropping amid memecoin launches by Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in January.
Total memecoin market capitalization in the past year. Source: CoinMarketCap
Some industry observers have attributed the massive memecoin slump to volatile global economic conditions, as well as lack of memecoin regulation, insider trading scandals and endorsements by public figures.
Major memecoins are set for consolidation
The “memecoin bubble has burst” due to a few critical factors, such as economic uncertainty over the Trump administration and the mix of economic and foreign policies in the US, Zeta Markets co-founder Anmol Singh told Cointelegraph.
Singh also pointed to increased involvement from celebrities and social media influencers, who have been accused of using their influence to pump tokens before selling for profit:
“Blatant exploitation as celebrities, key opinion leaders, cabals and insiders seek to run up tokens by leveraging their influence and then take profit on the retail traders they bring in — fundamentally shaking confidence and trust among retail participants.”
Following a significant sell-off, the memecoin market will likely see consolidation into the major memecoins while “others slowly fade out of relevance,” Singh predicted.
Dogecoin leads memecoin market at 53% dominance
Among “major memecoins,” Singh cited established memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), Bonk (BONK) and Dogwifhat (WIF), as well as the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin.
“Most other memecoins won’t be interesting for traders, and that liquidity will go elsewhere,” Singh said, suggesting that the rest of memecoin capital will likely be distributed to perpetual futures, spot crypto investments and fiat.
The top seven memecoins by market capitalization as of March 5. Source: CoinMarketCap
The Zeta Markets co-founder also predicted that investors would likely approach new memecoin launches with more caution going forward.
Related: House Democrats propose bill to ban presidential memecoins: Report
At the time of writing, Dogecoin — a favorite memecoin of Trump’s senior adviser Elon Musk — is the largest memecoin on the market, accounting for 53% of the entire memecoin market cap, according to CoinMarketCap data.
SHIB and PEPE rank the second and the third-largest memecoins, with the market caps amounting to $7.7 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively.
The Official Trump memecoin is currently the fourth-largest memecoin with a market cap of $2.6 billion.
Some prominent crypto community figures like Tron founder Justin Sun have claimed that memecoins are the future of crypto, but called for investors to focus on well-established memecoins like DOGE.
Magazine: SCB tips $500K BTC, SEC delays Ether ETF options, and more: Hodler’s Digest, Feb. 23 – March 1
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 123,580.00
Ethereum (ETH) $ 4,728.04
XRP (XRP) $ 3.29
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00
BNB (BNB) $ 846.65
Solana (SOL) $ 202.20
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999712
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 4,715.54
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.243964
TRON (TRX) $ 0.362553
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.925335
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 5,716.26
Chainlink (LINK) $ 23.84
Hyperliquid (HYPE) $ 47.38
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 123,416.00
Wrapped Beacon ETH (WBETH) $ 5,072.62
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.456249
Sui (SUI) $ 4.01
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 5,068.45
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 620.79
Hedera (HBAR) $ 0.266237
WETH (WETH) $ 4,727.50
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 25.37
Litecoin (LTC) $ 131.37
Toncoin (TON) $ 3.54
LEO Token (LEO) $ 9.26
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000014
USDS (USDS) $ 0.999422
Uniswap (UNI) $ 12.08
Coinbase Wrapped BTC (CBBTC) $ 123,607.00
Binance Bridged USDT (BNB Smart Chain) (BSC-USD) $ 0.998958
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 47.02
OKB (OKB) $ 110.44
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.26
Bitget Token (BGB) $ 4.85
Ethena Staked USDe (SUSDE) $ 1.19
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.167591
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000012
Ethena (ENA) $ 0.766982
Aave (AAVE) $ 330.05
Monero (XMR) $ 250.09
Dai (DAI) $ 1.00
Mantle (MNT) $ 1.15
Bittensor (TAO) $ 390.61
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 2.98
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 24.01
Aptos (APT) $ 5.02
Ondo (ONDO) $ 1.07
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 5.97
Pi Network (PI) $ 0.398793
Jito Staked SOL (JITOSOL) $ 247.43
Binance-Peg WETH (WETH) $ 4,711.66
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.554141
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.098490
Algorand (ALGO) $ 0.279071
BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) $ 1.00
Pudgy Penguins (PENGU) $ 0.037052
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.255860
VeChain (VET) $ 0.026380
Cosmos Hub (ATOM) $ 4.83
Rocket Pool ETH (RETH) $ 5,368.89
USD1 (USD1) $ 0.999492
Render (RENDER) $ 4.13
Gate (GT) $ 17.78
Bonk (BONK) $ 0.000027
Worldcoin (WLD) $ 1.11
Binance Staked SOL (BNSOL) $ 215.34
Kelp DAO Restaked ETH (RSETH) $ 4,954.95
Sei (SEI) $ 0.351950
sUSDS (SUSDS) $ 1.06
Fasttoken (FTN) $ 4.57
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 0.747922
Official Trump (TRUMP) $ 9.61
Jupiter Perpetuals Liquidity Provider Token (JLP) $ 5.43
Filecoin (FIL) $ 2.72
StakeWise Staked ETH (OSETH) $ 4,970.35
Story (IP) $ 5.86
Sky (SKY) $ 0.081761
Liquid Staked ETH (LSETH) $ 5,131.75
Jupiter (JUP) $ 0.553141
Mantle Staked Ether (METH) $ 5,040.18
Lombard Staked BTC (LBTC) $ 123,266.00
Flare (FLR) $ 0.023394
Quant (QNT) $ 114.55
KuCoin (KCS) $ 12.83
SPX6900 (SPX) $ 1.71
Injective (INJ) $ 15.89
Optimism (OP) $ 0.845273
Celestia (TIA) $ 1.98
USDtb (USDTB) $ 0.999633
XDC Network (XDC) $ 0.088929
Curve DAO (CRV) $ 1.03
Renzo Restaked ETH (EZETH) $ 4,980.70
Stacks (STX) $ 0.789019
NEXO (NEXO) $ 1.37
Pump.fun (PUMP) $ 0.003884
USDT0 (USDT0) $ 0.999323
Lido DAO (LDO) $ 1.51
Falcon USD (USDF) $ 0.999965