In 2024, the crypto space has been awash with talk about meme coins, making them the most popular crypto narrative. The tokens inspired by trendy internet captions captured 31% of investors’ interest globally across the main meme coin narrative and 25 meme coin trends.
This percentage means that nearly a third of crypto narrative interest was based on speculative opportunities with fundamentals. The market grew from dog-related meme coins such as Dogecoin to other animal and personality-related meme coins. The success of meme coins was spurred by the launch pool, Pump.fun.
Solana alone deployed almost 5 million new meme coins in 2024, leading to over $335 million in fees. Meme coins claimed the top spot in crypto narratives, with the leading tokens making up 14.36% of investor interest. Other meme coin trends also gained traction, including Solana-based meme coins (7.65%), Base meme coins (2.13%), AI meme coins (1.49%), and cat-themed meme coins (1.19%). As a result, meme coins were the third most rewarding narrative of the year, delivering an average annual profit of 201%.
AI tokens shine in 2024, but meme coins outpace them
The year 2024 saw the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) in the crypto space. There was curiosity and investor expectations in exploring the intersection between AI and blockchain. AI was a hot topic within the crypto space, capturing 15.67% of the mindshare across six narratives.
The AI narrative came second with a 12.58% share of investor interest, which means it grew by 1.26% from last year when it had an 11.32% share of interest. AI-related trends, including AI meme coins (1.49%) and AI agents (1.17%), made the technology more popular around crypto.
Yet, it couldn’t match the meteoric rise of the meme coin narrative, which outdid it by far. Analysts state that AI tokens had a dismal performance, with a 2024 yearly negative performance of 11.6% due to Worldcoin’s WLD 39% drawdown.
Meme coins have evolved from an internet fad to a $117 billion market powerhouse
Many people see meme coins as an internet joke, noting that they lack the technological innovation or utility of Bitcoin or Ethereum. Their value relies on community interest rather than their inner value or groundbreaking use case, making them highly volatile and unreliable.
Yet Binance statistics reveal immense growth in interest in meme coins. More people believe that their reputation is beyond a joke and that they have a potential drive for future market growth.
Meme coins have a combined market cap of $117 billion, indicating how they have captured attention and grown to dominate the crypto space. At the apex is Dogecoin, an original meme coin that is considered the “King” of meme coins.
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