Memecoins lose momentum after losing $40B in December.
Memecoin's total market capitalization fell by 30% in December, reflecting a slowdown in momentum and demand for meme-based tokens.
According to CoinMarketCap data, on December 1, the total market value of memecoins was 120.14 billion dollars. It peaked at $137.06 billion on December 9 before dropping to a low of $92.67 billion on December 23. This represents a 32.38% drop in market capitalization during the month.
Total market capitalization of Meme tokens. Source: CoinMarketCap
At the time of writing, the total market value of memecoins is 98.72 billion dollars, which is 18% less than the performance at the beginning of the month.
Pepe, exchange listings will bring the December memecoin increase
The third largest memecoin by market capitalization (PEPE) has mirrored the price movements of the broader memecoin market. According to data from Cointelegraph Markets Pro, Pepe peaked at $0.000026 on December 9, but fell to $0.000017 on December 20.
Pepe memecoin 30 day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Markets Pro
On December 4, Binance.US listed Peep, a US-based digital asset exchange platform, competing for a stake in the lucrative memecoin market. In addition to Binance, Coinbase listed tokens such as Moodeng (MOODENG), Mog (MOG) and Dogwifhat (WIF) in December.
Following its listing on Binance's US arm, Pepe's price surpassed Uniswap's token (UNI) in market capitalization on December 7 to reach an all-time high. At the beginning of 2024, memecoin had a market cap of $591 million. After the listing, the token's market cap exceeded $11 billion, representing an 18x growth since the beginning of the year.
Related: Is the ‘memecoin supercycle' already over? Analysts weigh in.
Traders earn millions of dollars with Pepe trading
Throughout the year, savvy traders invested in Pepe memecoin and made millions of dollars as the token rose. In April, a crypto trader spent $3,000 buying a meme-based token. A month later, the businessman Pepe's holdings were worth up to 46 million dollars.
A trader who spent $27 buying Pepe tokens in December and held for more than 600 days finally touched their holdings. The wallet transferred about $52 million in Pepe tokens to a new address. According to Onchain Analytics Firm Lookonchain, the merchant received a 1,900,000x return on investment.
Magazine: 5 real use cases of absurd memecoins
