It’s been a rough ride for the world of memecoins. In just the month of December 2021, the market saw a volatile swing, peaking at a hefty $137 billion before nose-diving to $92 billion. This fluctuation resulted in a notable loss of over $40 billion, a testament to the instability of this sector.
The market cap of memecoins nosedived by almost 30% in December, signifying a sudden decline in demand for these whimsical tokens. At the start of the month, the total market cap stood at an impressive $120.14 billion. It soared to a dizzying $137.06 billion just nine days later, only to plummet to a worrying $92.67 billion by December 23rd — constituting a whopping 32.38% decrease.
As it stands, the total market cap of memecoins hovers at $98.72 billion, which is still 18% less than its value at the start of December. The precipitous rise and fall were driven in large part by Pepe, the third-largest memecoin by market capitalization. Its value spiked in conjunction with listings on major digital asset exchanges.
In early December, Binance US and Coinbase jumped on the memecoin bandwagon, adding Pepe and other tokens like Moodeng and Dogwifhat. This influx of platform support propelled Pepe to an all-time high, surpassing even the market cap of Uniswap’s token on December 7th.
While memecoins may be a rollercoaster, there have been some notable success stories. Visionary traders who saw Pepe’s potential early on have walked away with millions. One trader, for example, invested $3,000 in Pepe in April and, within just a month, saw their investment skyrocket to $46 million — a staggering 15,000-fold increase. In another instance, a trade of just $27 netted one trader a return of around $52 million — a return rate of 1,900,000x, according to onchain analytics firm Lookonchain.