u.today
What happened
The meme coin category has experienced a significant 20% gain in late March. The surge began on early Thursday with meme tokens showing increased momentum, fueled by speculation surrounding the potential integration of Dogecoin (DOGE) into a forthcoming payments service of a social application known as X.
Dogwifhat (WIF) (a meme token) managed to flip Pepecoin (PEPE) in market capitalization rankings, becoming the third-largest meme token in this category. WIF's price also rose above the $4 mark on March 28, showing the biggest price increase since its launch.
Update. The WIF I sold for $800 is now worth $13,795,900 🫡
— 609.slam (@609NFT) March 6, 2024
Unbothered. Moisturized. Happy. In my lane. Focused. Flourishing. pic.twitter.com/PWc4uWu7Pz
However, just a week later, WIF has lost most of its gains. What do we make of all this?
WIF origins
The "Dogwifhat" meme originates from a photograph of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a beanie. In late December 2019, edited versions of this image, featuring logos and images on the beanie, became popular on Twitter, specifically, in the eSports community.
WIF entered the open market in December 2023 at approximately $0.001555. By the end of that month, it had surged to $0.30 before declining to $0.08 in January. This rapid fluctuation in price highlights the speculative nature of meme coins like WIF.
The founders of the dogwifhat project are anonymous, but they drew inspiration from Dogecoin (DOGE), the well-known meme coin. Unlike DOGE, which has practical use cases, the value of dogwifhat is driven solely by speculation.
WIF price potential
Meme coins famously attract massive and younger retail investors with their relative cheapness, large price movements, and their strong bond with current internet culture.
The price of Dogwifhat (WIF) reached its latest all-time high of $4.64 on March 30, soaring more than 250,000% since its launch.
However, in the past week, the price has dropped by more than 10%, and it is currently trading at $3.8. Despite this recent drop, WIF still holds the third place in terms of market capitalization ($3.25 billion), although it has decreased by 28% this week.
The overall meme coins market sentiment seems resilient (although, some might argue that the meme coins rise is a sign of a potential crypto market crash). In the past month, meme coins' total market cap has reached over $55 billion.
The approval of US ETFs investing directly in Bitcoin in January sparked an $800 billion rally in crypto in just the past month. It's widely believed in the market that a memecoin frenzy follows a Bitcoin rally.
Memecoins like Dogwifhat's WIF, Pepe, and Bonk have skyrocketed since late February, pushing the value of their total circulating supply into the billions of dollars.
High volatility is one of the reasons why meme coins are so popular among retail investors. In this regard, WIF is likely to continue to deliver large price movements.