Contents
Meme tokens can easily climb to all-time peaks, but get abandoned for the next hot meme.
- BOINK, SLERF, MYRO and WIF Climb Among Top Meme Tokens
- Solana remains one of the most active networks, reaching volumes similar to Ethereum.
- Meme tokens don’t have to make sense, but many make a splash on the markets.
- Meme fame is brief, with just days between boom and bust.
Solana returned and made itself a staple in crypto trading and Web3, during the most recent bull market. The network hosted multiple games, NFT collections and tokens, and included several decentralized exchanges.
Solana meme tokens are the hot new thing, growing by a factor of 10 or 100 during a general crypto bull market. The trend is reviving interest in the Solana ecosystem, but new buyers must beware of common pitfalls.
Meme Tokens are Not New
Starting with Dogecoin (DOGE), meme tokens are not really new. DOGE and later, ShibaInu (SHIB) are here to stay. Pepe (PEPE) was one of the first assets to rise mostly on meme fame, even without utility.
The new batch of Solana meme tokens are following that recipe, trying to find the catchiest theme that will translate into trading success. Unlike other tokens, utility or real-world applications are an afterthought.
Just like with other meme tokens, Solana’s new batch is full of also-rans and copycats. Dozens of tokens try to grab attention and repeat the first success stories. The new gold rush lifted the total market cap of all meme tokens to above $60B.
Which are the Solana Stars: DogWifCat Climbs to All-Time High
The latest batch of Solana tokens are all about the power of memes. No wonder that the newest tokens are the fastest to climb. The recent hype brought DogWifCat to an all-time high.
After a launch at below $0.15, DogWifCat reached an all-time high above $4.70, carried by a highly liquid Binance trading pair.
WIF is a Web3 phenomenon, being carried by nothing but an online community. However, the performance is not guaranteed and WIF may backtrack. Communities are also more fleeting compared to P2E games, NFT collections and other Web3 projects. WIF may be abandoned for the next big meme token.
Despite this, WIF is in the top 3 of meme tokens as of April 2024, getting ahead of BONK, MYRO and SLERF, the previous top Solana meme tokens.
Are Meme Tokens Safe?
Meme tokens and Solana DeFi assets may come with a catch. Not all projects are freely tradable. Buying into an early token sale may mean locked assets and an inability to sell.
New batches of Web3 tokens may also be limited to a single wallet, in a form of forced holding. Unlike older crypto assets, new tokens may tie a buyer to the project, to receive future benefits. However, the tokens may not be freely movable to new wallets or exchanges. For that reason, investments may be illiquid and lock up funds with no ability to sell.
The other risk for new tokens are rug-pulls and rapid crashes. New tokens therefore try to secure a form of audit, providing a bit of confidence that the project will not suffer a rug-pull. One simple tool may be the DeFi Scanner, which allows for a quick check on the rug pull potential of smart contracts, tokens or NFT. An audit by a reputable source like Certik and other reviews may give further assurance on the token.
