When looking at a current meme coin landscape that includes Neiro and Popcat, it feels like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have come of age.
That’s because for most of the year, crypto’s most exciting price stories haven’t come from crypto’s stalwart old hounds. No, they’ve come from a rising new generation of meme coins that are slowly challenging the space’s firmly entrenched multi-billion dollar leaders.
Last week, Popcat shot up the meme coin leaderboard and hit a $1 billion market cap, making it the seventh biggest funny token. It has since dropped back to $933k and faces stiff competition for a flippening by its nearest rival, the $926k Brett ($BRETT).
Moo Deng is based on the eponymous adorable baby hippo internet sensation in Thailand’s Khao Kheo Open Zoo in Chonburi.
Her name means “bouncy pork” in the local lingo and the pygmy went viral after various online videos surfaced showing her cute hyperactive demeanour and always moist appearance.
Last week, one anonymous investor turned an initial purchase of $401 worth of $MOODENG into nearly half a million dollars.
Moo Deng’s ascent has been rapid since it launched three weeks ago, and the token itself has perfect cultural clout as a hippo in a sector saturated with cat and dog coins.
However, the token is now posting a steep overnight correction of 26.5% as it trades at $0.2118. Given Moo Deng’s near-vertical ascent, holders shouldn’t be overly concerned. The meme coin is every bit the breath of fresh air it was when it launched earlier this month.
You’ve Met Pepe ($PEPE), Now Meet Him Unchained ($PEPU).
The original Pepe is a great blue chip meme coin for many, but a new variation called Pepe Unchained (PEPU) entered presale this summer and has already raised an eye-watering $16.5 million on the simple premise that it’s the first Pepe to run on a proprietary Ethereum Layer 2.
Ethereum is the most commercially important blockchain, but it currently processes about 15 transactions per second (tps) which results in high network congestion and large transaction fees.
To solve this bottleneck, Layer 2 protocols have been created to sit on top of the main Ethereum network and process transactions independently on a side chain, before adding them to the Layer 1 ledger.
One famous Layer 2 is Polygon, represented by the $POL token (formerly $MATIC), which has a maximum recorded 429 tps.
Tokens underlying Layer 2 protocols have collectively amassed a market cap of over $20 billion.
$PEPU is the first meme coin to utilize this technology to give its holders a more enticing value proposition than any standard-issue meme coin.
It’s a hundred times quicker and cheaper to transact with than Ethereum, and thanks to the improved scalability, Pepe Unchained offers $PEPU stakers far greater rewards (currently 130%) than Layer 1 meme coins.
According to the whitepaper, a fifth of the supply of 8 billion $PEPU is for the presale, with a hefty 30% going towards staking.
Another fifth is for the token’s marketing, while the remaining 30% goes equally between DEX liquidity, project development and the Pepe Unchained Layer 2 treasury.
Got FOMO? Learn more about Pepe Unchained, the $PEPE killer, from the official X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram accounts.
Memebet is a new project that is making meme coins useful by turning them into casino chips in Web3’s first meme coin casino.
It quietly raised $342,000 in a fortnight thanks to its first-of-its-kind premise, which attracted over $200,000 in investments just two days into its presale.
With online gambling primed to explode from a $100 billion industry in 2024 to $130 billion within the next five years alongside the growing adoption of crypto, $MEMEBET is at the fertile intersection of two explosive money-spinning industries.
$MEMEBET tokens unlock a range of benefits for players, including airdrop rewards, special VIP degen bonuses, and access to the upcoming Memebet Casino Lootboxes, featuring real-world prizes and casino bonuses.
The project also launched a 400 million $MEMEBET airdrop.
To join, simply buy some tokens, wait for the launch of the casino (before the end of the presale), and begin gaming and betting to secure rewards.
