While meme cryptocurrencies were often considered symbols of a "just for fun" ethos and decentralization in its purest form in their early days, the status quo has changed in recent months. New data demonstrates that the largest whales might be the core beneficiaries of the meme crypto frenzy.
SHIB, MEME, BABYDOGE: Whales concentrated power
Five large stablecoins - Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Floki (FLOKI) Baby Doge Coin (BABYDOGE) and Memecoin (MEME) - are dominated by whales. For each cryptocurrency on the list, the top 10 wallets are responsible for over 50% of the circulating supply.
Tis' the season of memecoins. 🐶🐸😺
— PYOR | Power Your Own Research (@pyorxyz) March 5, 2024
But only a few people are having fun. The rest of us, aren't.
The reason?
Most memecoins are held by a few hodlers.
For instance:
- 99.7% of $BabyDodge is held by top-10 holders
- 96% of $MEME is held by top-10 holders
- 75% of $SHIB is… pic.twitter.com/OoJ5SzOTDk
Per a report by Power Your Own Research analytics platform, for BABYDOGE this indicator exceeds 99%. Memecoin (MEME) is following closely with 96% stored by whales.
The next cohort includes Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Floki Inu (FLOKI), with 75,03% and 69%, respectively, allocated by the top 10 public wallets.
For Bone (BONE), Pepe (PEPE) and Dogecoin (DOGE), the metric is between 42% and 54%.
As covered by U.Today previously, in December 2023, for the first time ever, The Blockchain Foundation started buying meme coins.
Avalanche Foundation added meme coins to its portfolio as it managed to "carve a niche" in the Web3 scene, per the official statement.
Solana's meme coins more "democratized"
At the same time, new-gen meme coins on Solana (SOL) blockchain look far from being controlled by the largest whales.
Top 10 wallets only keep 14.3% of Bonk (BONK) and 22.6% of Dogwifhat (WIF), per PYOR's report.
Today, Bonk (BONK) was listed by top-tier centralized exchange Robinhood. The BONK price jumped by 19% in no time, as U.Today reported.