Memecoins Generated Most Profits in Q1 2024

A report from CoinGecko has identified the memecoin sector as this year's most lucrative area in the cryptocurrency market.

Memecoins achieved an average return of 1,312.6% across the leading tokens by market capitalization.

Notably, several memecoins introduced in March, such as Book of Meme (BOME), Brett, and Cat in a Dogs World (MEW), climbed into the top 10 memecoins by market value by quarter's end.

BRETT achieved the most substantial gains, with a return of 7,727.6% by the end of the third quarter of 2024, while Dogwifhat (WIF) saw a 2,721.2% increase in value year-to-date, fueled by its popularity during the Solana-based memecoin craze.

CoinGecko analyst Lim Yu Qian commented:

“Notably, the memecoin narrative was 4.6 times more profitable than the next best-performing crypto narrative of tokenized real-world assets (RWA), and 33.3 times more profitable than the layer 2 narratives with the lowest returns in Q1 this year.”

As reported, the memecoin sector's total market cap stands at $60.93 billion, making up about 2.32% of the overall cryptocurrency market cap, showcasing a quarter-over-quarter growth of 176.9%, based on CoinGecko data.

This growth outpaces the market caps of many established sectors, including decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePINs) at $29.98 billion, layer 2 solutions at $32.39 billion, zero-knowledge proofs at $18 billion, and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) at $8.5 billion.

The surge in memecoins is attributed to growing investor enthusiasm. Google search data shows an unprecedented level of global interest in "memecoins."

The popularity of the term “memecoin” on Google Trends hit 88 in March, marking its second-highest level in five years, just shy of its peak popularity of 100 in the first week of November 2023.

Increased transaction volumes, an expanding user base, and vibrant communities signal the rising appeal of the memecoin sector.

The broader cryptocurrency market, led by Bitcoin's record-setting rally above $73,800 in March ahead of its halving event, has likely contributed to the heightened interest in cryptocurrencies, including memecoins, throughout 2024.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-were-most-profitable-crypto-narrative-in-q1-2024-coingecko

https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/most-profitable-crypto-narratives

https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=today%205-y&q=Memecoin&hl=en-GB