Memecoin Market Cap Crashes from $150B Peak to $38B — What Went Wrong?
The post Memecoin Market Cap Crashes from $150B Peak to $38B — What Went Wrong? appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Key Insights Political and election-driven narratives pushed memecoins to a record $150.6B market cap before reversing sharply, CoinGecko found. Launches of political tokens like TRUMP and Milei-linked LIBRA eroded investor confidence and accelerated the downturn. The memecoin market later fell 73% to about $38B, highlighting extreme volatility tied to cultural and political sentiment. Bitcoin price has held near multi-month highs even as the memecoin market collapsed from an all-time high of roughly $150 billion in late 2024 down to the high‑$30s billion today. According to CoinGecko, total meme‑coin market capitalization peaked at $150.6 billion in December 2024, driven by a surge in new tokens, from dog‐ and frog-themed coins to AI and political memes. By November 2025 the sector had retraced sharply. CoinGecko data show market cap around $47.2 billion, and CoinMarketCap/CoinGlass charts put it near $39.4 billion on Nov. 21, 2025. In short, a boom built on social hype is now a bust, and the gap between meme coins and major crypto like Bitcoin (whose price remains around $80–90k) has never been wider. Meme Coin Mania Peaked in 2024 Last year’s rally was broad and frenzied. CoinGecko notes that daily memecoin trading volumes jumped about +767% year-over-year in 2024, topping $87.4 billion at one point. New launchpads, notably Solana’s Pump.fun, and high-profile listings (Robinhood/Coinbase adding PEPE, WIF) fueled the frenzy. Dogecoin itself regained prominence, but the market was far more diverse than in 2021: PEPE, BONK, SHIB and hundreds of other “funny coins” chased gains. By December 2024, the combined market cap of all meme tokens (including DOGE) hit $150.6 billion, nearly double the previous peak of $88 billion in 2021. This speculative high was dubbed a new meme‐coin season, with investors hunting the next big viral breakout. For context, Bitcoin price had already climbed above $60k by late 2024, but the crypto narrative was dominated by…
Filed under: News - @ December 17, 2025 1:30 pm