After facing a decline that started in the second half of December, when its value dropped from $3.76 trillion to $3.13 trillion, the broader crypto market is rebounding. It now stands at $3.41 trillion, a level it hasn’t seen since the Christmas rally.
The top 10 cryptocurrencies are all recording gains today, ranging from BNB’s 0.25% rise to Cardano’s (ADA) soar of 10.24%. The meme coin space is also seeing renewed investor interest, which helped it grow by $8 billion today, reaching $104 billion for the first time since December 20th.
While the leading three meme coins, DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE, gained 5-7%, PENGU is up by 14% today, while BRETT rose by 20%. Gaining 8% today, Gigachad (GIGA) is now up by 50% over the past seven days. Additionally, meme coin presales are gaining traction, with Flockerz (FLOCK) and Meme Index (MEMEX) receiving increasing attention.
Pudgy Penguins Commits to Bridging The Gap Between Web2 and Web3
Pudgy Penguins started as an NFT marketplace in 2021 and is now a multifaceted ecosystem that combines physical merchandise, IP licensing, and a soon-to-launch Layer 2 blockchain.
As it branches out, Pudgy Penguins has released its own token, PENGU, in the second half of December. Although the token halved in value after its initial pump to $0.057, PENGU has shown its strength and growth potential by enduring the bearish market and rising to $0.04 today.
Although it slightly dipped after investors took profit, PENGU is currently stable around the $0.37 mark, and chart analyst Papii believes that it can start soaring toward the $0.5 mark as selling pressure lowers.
January will likely see PENGU soar again as the parent company of Pudgy Penguins, Igloo Inc., prepares to release the Abstract blockchain, which intends to simplify Web3 for new users who often struggle with gas fees, seed phrases, and similar complexities.
Based Brett Gains Momentum As Its Daily Trading Volume Doubles
After entering December at its ATH of $0.235, BRETT ended the month priced at less than half of that, entering January 1st at $0.1149.
Today, BRETT managed to go above its 200-day Simple Moving Average of $0.12 after a series of whale purchases earlier today. According to data from Nansen, at least five whales purchased $100,000 or more worth of BRETT today, which had a positive impact on its price.
The most notable purchases came from a wallet whose owner swapped 525 ETH for BRETT over the past 18 hours, driving their total BRETT holdings to over $2.1 million.
Crypto analyst TimBased believes whales are just starting to buy BRETT, as he expects it to soar further.
Analyzing BRETT’s technical indicators reveals the coin’s potential for short-term gains, as it enjoys a 2.06 long/short ratio that suggests traders are more willing to bet on its long-term success than short the coin.
Gigachad Records a New ATH Above $0.08
Gigachad has seen several ups and downs since its inception in January 2024. The token took six months to explode and crossed the $0.01 mark for the first time in July. Amidst the market-wide rally surrounding the US Election Day, GIGA soared to $0.07, only to dip to $0.03 in late November.
GIGA saw its next major soar following a listing by Coinbase on December 11th, when it surged to $0.074, and after a brief dip post-Christmas rally, it experienced an upward momentum that propelled it to its new ATH at $0.08119 today.
After December 26th, which saw the beginning of the 7-day-long broader crypto market’s decline, GIGA maintained its impressive performance fueled by bullish predictions from Murad, a meme coin analyst.
Murad told his 604,000-strong audience on X (Twitter) that he expects GIGA to become the leading Solana meme coin in 2025, which would place it above BONK, which currently boasts a $2.4 billion market cap.
Flockerz and Meme Index Gain Momentum as Investors Look for New Meme Coins with High Potential
As well as established meme coins, new tokens are also gathering pace – with Flockerz and Meme Index emerging as two new projects to watch in 2025.
Flockerz is a community-focused meme coin centered around the FlockTopia DAO. In FlockTopia, FLOCK holders will have the opportunity to vote on key project decisions that may range from marketing strategies to token burns and get rewarded for their participation.
This model solves the core problem most DAOs face, where the casual traders have no incentive to vote, allowing whales to take the wheel.
Currently, FLOCK sells for $0.0065823 each, which crypto expert ClayBro sees as an ideal entry point. Plus, he points to the project’s massive 322% staking APY as an excellent opportunity to earn FLOCK passively before FlockTopia releases.
He urges his audience to enter the presale while the per-token price is low, highlighting that just 20 days remain before the presale wraps up.
Meme Index is also bringing exciting news to the meme coin space with its unique meme coin indexes that seek to simplify investing in these volatile tokens.
MEMEX intends to provide its users with four meme coin indexes – Titan, Moonshot, Midcap, and Frenzy, which will cover leading meme coins, top contenders, mid-tier tokens, and highly volatile tokens, respectively.
Investing in the meme coin indexes will provide returns based on the performance of all tokens included, and those owning MEMEX will have a chance to collectively decide which tokens to add to each “basket.”
Impressed by Meme Index’s momentum and unique approach to the meme coin space, Jacob Bury, a crypto analyst, believes the token has a 10x potential and advises his followers to start accumulating MEMEX and take advantage of its four-digit staking APY.
Currently, MEMEX costs $0.0148639 each, but that price will increase as more investors join, making this the best time to invest.
