A trio of Solana tokens—Pudgy Penguins’ PENGU, Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), and Popcat (POPCAT) have all jumped in the last 24 hours, while meme coin leader Dogecoin (DOGE) has remained relatively flat in the same timeframe.
DOGE, which is ranked inside the top 10 crypto assets by market cap, is down by just 0.4% in the last day while the trio of Solana tokens have outperformed amid their listing on Robinhood. Dogecoin was showing a gain earlier Thursday morning, but has since dipped slightly to a current price of $0.165.
POPCAT, the top cat-themed token on Solana, leads the way, gaining more than 20% en route to a current price of $0.186 over the last day of trading. The other new Robinhood listings, PENGU and PNUT, have gained 5.9% and 5.8%, respectively.
The bumps represent a broader relief rally for some of the leading Solana and Ethereum meme coins, which have been in free-fall for the better part of the month. That’s highlighted by losses of more than 30% for DOGE and PEPE, two of the top three largest meme coins by market cap.
Other notables, like the U.S. president’s official Solana meme coin TRUMP and Dogwifhat (WIF) have also posted moderate gains of 2.5% and 3.7%, respectively. The pair are both available for trading on Robinhood as well.
The gains for leaders are merely a reprieve for a bleeding meme coin market, however. According to data from CoinGecko, the meme coin market cap as a whole is down by 0.2% in the last 24 hours, falling just below $50 billion in the process.
That’s a far cry from the numbers the sector held in late 2024, when “dog-themed” tokens alone represented a nearly $105 billion market cap at peak, according to the coin tracking platform.
The market has recently reconsidered the future of meme coins, with some traders going as far as to claim that the “Pump.fun days are over” amid the decline of the popular Solana token launchpad.
Pump.fun is responsible for more than 8 million token deployments since its launch, including some of the top meme coins from this cycle like PNUT and Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), though its usage stats have fallen sharply in recent weeks amid market turmoil.
Others though, like Stratos hedge fund founder Renneck Palley, previously told Decrypt that “meme coins are here to stay.”
Meme coins are inherently more volatile and risky than other tokens, and are typically based on relevant pop culture events and figures. They sometimes rise faster than other, more established crypto tokens, but often crash in a hurry based on factors like changing sentiment, large sales from “whale” holders, and moves from bad actors.
Edited by Andrew Hayward