Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) joins the $1B meme club

Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT) is the latest token to join the $1B club after gaining a spot listing on Binance. PNUT was added to the exchange even faster than legacy memes from the first Solana boom. 

Peanut the Squirrel, a token created just before the US election, quickly became a success story in the meme space. After launching less than two weeks ago, the official PNUT token reached $1B in market capitalization following a Binance listing.

PNUT was listed along with Act I: the AI Prophecy (ACT), with both tokens immediately appreciating to new price ranges. 

PNUT has now almost caught up with Popcat (POPCAT) in terms of valuation just days after gaining a liquid centralized trading pair. The token displaced GOAT, which was the first Pump.fun asset to reach $1B in market cap.

Older Solana tokens took months or over a year to build up adoption and listings. PNUT, however, has launched a significant rally, attacking the $1.5B valuation target.

During its latest rally, PNUT also achieved higher trading volumes than DogWifHat (WIF), one of the most active community tokens with wide adoption and liquid trading. The recent popularity of PNUT sets expectations for a higher price range, especially if the asset behaves as a community token. 

Pump.fun tokens graduate to large cap valuations

Just one day after GOAT touched one billion dollars, it was PNUT’s turn to reach that milestone. PNUT launched as a Pump.fun token exactly 13 days ago, and the official version rose among the many copycats. The list of meme tokens with valuations in the billions is still limited, and only a small handful of assets have realistic hopes of joining that list.

GOAT is the only token to achieve this milestone only through decentralized trading. For all other assets, centralized liquid trading pairs were the main sources of growth. 

PNUT tokens are now spread to more than 49K wallets, surpassing even older memes. The token’s popularity hinges on the drama of the real Peanut, a TikTok sensation squirrel seized and killed by New York State authorities. The story led to the immediate creation of the meme token, which has lined up with the most established Solana tokens. 

Memes are still in the price discovery stage, and there is no roadmap to determine the best ones. Even former star tokens with large communities lag behind in terms of valuation. 

Notably, PNUT has not seen a drawdown since its launch, and its supply is widely distributed. With the Binance listing, more than 37% of the tokens are now on the exchange, available for rapid trading. Binance’s trading pair accounts for more than 49% of all activity as of November 13. Raydium activity decreased to just 8% of all volumes, while a big part of trades moved to OKX. 

Despite the high valuation, PNUT has only $19.4M liquidity in its trading pair and around $947K market depth on Binance to absorb selling with a 2% slippage. As with other memes, some of the early buyers have outsized investments, with few signs of cashing out at the moment. 

It is worth mentioning that PNUT may have absorbed selling during its dramatic first rally when insiders sold some of their early tokens. 

Did PNUT rise on insider information? 

PNUT and ACT rallied immediately after the Binance listing. The token’s listing left on-chain evidence, which allowed early buyers to know of the Binance listing beforehand. 

At the very least, potential buyers have deployed bots to trade newly listed assets. Currently, the rumors and data focus on new potential Binance listings, as the exchange shifted to small-cap memes. 

The new meme listings also made Binance reconsider already existing older tokens. BinanceUS recently opened its wallets for BONK, one of the former leaders on Solana.

For meme tokens, centralized listings may lead to a new round of selling pressure, especially if older holders decide to sell. Centralized exchanges also control a large part of the token’s supply, inviting active traders instead of holders.

Binance has been conservative until recently about adding meme tokens. The exchange has been wary of listing assets with sniped supply. The latest additions to the meme space show signs of wide distribution, with no coordinated effort to snipe the supply.

In the coming days, both early buyers and traders will be on the lookout for memes eligible for an eventual Binance listing.