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Bitcoin Meme Coins Soar as DOG’s 85% Jump Allays ‘Runes Are Dead’ Fears
The emerging market for BitcoinBitcoin-based meme coins showed signs of life on Thursday as the price of several so-called Runas tokens rose – at the same time as the value of memetic assets on other networks fell.
The market capitalization of meme coins tracked by CoinGecko is down 4.6% in the last day to $66 billion, but the Bitcoin Runes token DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (also known as DOG) is up 20% to $0.007 at the time of this writing it was written. Not far behind, Bitcoin-based meme coin PUPS also jumped 15% in the last 24 hours.
DOG is up 85% in the last week alone, setting a new all-time high price of $0.007542 on Wednesday evening. It now has a market value of almost US$730 million.
Like many meme coins, Bitcoin-based assets have only been around for a short time. But its launch is linked to the launch of Bitcoin Runesa protocol developed by Casey Rodarmor, who previously popularized NFTsimilar assets (dubbed entries) in Bitcoin after its Ordinals protocol launched last year.
Described by Rodarmor as a “place for people to create shitcoins”, several Runes are competing for attention amid a constant lock of Solana-based meme coins which were released through platforms such as Bomb.fun.
And since the debut of Runes in April, alongside Bitcoin fourth half event, there was a notable shift in terms of interest, said Blockspace Media co-founder Charlie Spears Decrypt. But this has been true BRC-20 Tokens in Bitcoin too, minted via an earlier fungible token protocol.
“Right now, neither Runes nor BRC-20 have much narrative momentum,” he said.
The popularity of meme coins in Ethereum It is Solana, relative to those based on Bitcoin, reflects a technical gap and a lackluster user experience, Spears said. Meme coins have existed for several years on other networks, but in Bitcoin the concepts and technology are new.
“Right now, especially with meme coins being the resurgent sector of crypto, […] people don’t really care how a Runa or BRC-20 works,” Spears said. “They want to trade them as quickly and with as much liquidity as possible.”
Although the price of Runes rose notably on Thursday, the asset’s trading volume was small compared to other meme coins. The aforementioned DOG accumulated $97 million in trading volume over the last day, while the Ethereum-based Pepecoin accumulated $1.5 billion in the same period.
Created by pseudonymous Twitter influencer (a.k.a. On Thursday, the account highlighted DOG’s performance amid “a sea of red” for other meme coins.
Whether it’s other meme coins like Floki, Bonk or Dogwifhat, a group of canine-themed coins have emerged in the wake of Dogecoin. Backed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in 2021, Dogecoin’s rapid popularity has effectively created a pseudo-model for other memetic assets to follow on networks like Ethereum and Solana.
Among dog-themed tokens, Bitcoin-based DOG was the leader in terms of weekly gains, recording a 73% increase. However, several tokens inspired by former President Donald Trump rose the most – speaking to the change of political scenario around crypto in the US
Decentralized exchanges, where anyone can list a token, are key to how many meme coins are traded as new assets, which are often associated with little utility or information. Currently, however, Runes mainly trade on centralized exchanges like OKX or markets like Magic Eden.
Over the past 30 days, total sales volume of Bitcoin-based collectibles (including BRC-20s, Ordinal inscriptions, and Runes) has plummeted 70% to $180 million compared to the previous period, according to CryptoSlam data. But as more robust solutions for rune trading are developed, Spears said Dog’s performance could challenge the narrative that “runes are dead.”
“Leonidas’ DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON token was trending a lot and it generated a lot of chatter on the Internet,” Spears said. “I think right now everyone is waiting to see if in fact Runes as a market sector for fungible tokens will make a comeback.”
Edited by Andrew Hayward
The views and opinions expressed by the author are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, investment or other advice.