Dogecoin Should Not Be Called Memecoin, and the Reason Is Its Unprecedented Popularity

For the first time in more than a year, Dogecoin fell below the top 10 cryptocurrencies in terms of market capitalization. This occurred in the midst of the excitement surrounding relatively new meme-based coins.

It was this week that the original meme coin, which is a layer-1 blockchain led by the controversial cryptocurrency figure Justin Sun, was successfully overtaken by the Tron (TRX) cryptocurrency.

Since the markets reached a low point in November 2022, when the FTX controversy was at its height, TRX has been on a consistent upward trajectory ever since. The market capitalization has increased from $5 billion to $12.2 billion as a result of the nearly threefold increase observed in the value.

A Very Modest Increase in the Value of Dogecoin

The current market capitalization of Dogecoin is approximately $12 billion, while the value of its tokens has only increased by 10% over the same period. The cost of Bitcoin has increased by a factor of three in recent times, and despite the fact that there was a momentary increase in the ratio between Dogecoin and Bitcoin during the bankruptcy of FTX, the cost of DOGE in BTC has decreased by more than sixty percent.

As a result of its connection with Sam Bankman-Fried, TRX has seen a decrease in its bitcoin ratio of approximately twenty percent; however, its upward trend in terms of US dollars may indicate that the market is looking for alternatives to Solana.

Polygon (MATIC) experienced a price surge that was comparable to that of FTX in the months that followed the collapse of FTX. Still, ultimately, the majority of those profits could not be recovered.

Additionally, Sun has made efforts to improve the reputation of his network as a center for the development of DeFi innovations. Following the arrest of Bankman-Fried, the Tron-based stablecoin USDD and the lending platform JustLend have both contributed to a significant increase in Tron’s total value locked (TVL), which is now standing at nearly $9 billion, ranking second only to Ethereum’s $46 billion.

Dogecoin Has Ceased to Be a Memecoin for Many People

Some people believe that Dogecoin should no longer be included in the “meme coin” category, which is primarily governed by tokens such as bonk (BONK), Pepe (PEPE), dogfight (WIF), and dogelon mars (ELON). Others may argue that Dogecoin no longer belongs in this category.

The value of the tokens is primarily determined by the level of participation of the communities that they belong to. BONK, on the other hand, has differentiated itself by collaborating with well-known DeFi applications, which has expanded its functionality beyond just social aspects.

Bitcoin (BTC) serves a function within the Bitcoin network that is analogous to that of Dogecoin within the Dogecoin network. In a manner that is analogous to that of Bitcoin mining, miners extract DOGE by utilizing electrical power, albeit with slightly different configurations.

The users of Dogecoin are obligated to provide miners with DOGE as a form of compensation in exchange for access to the network. Dogecoin is widely considered to be highly resistant to censorship, much like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Recently, Shiba Inu, which is the second most popular memecoin after Dogecoin, launched its very own blockchain and distributed ledger.

As a BSC-20 meme token, SHIB was initially distributed on the Binance Smart Chain in August 2020. Its moniker, which was derived from the dog mascot of its predecessor, was adopted by the token. The developers of Shiba Inu launched Shibarium, an Ethereum layer-2 network, three years after the initial launch. Shibarium was created by modifying the codebase of Polygon. 

How Big Is the Memecoin Market?

In light of the sheer number of meme coins that are produced on an annual basis, it is difficult to determine the size of the meme coin industry precisely. In comparison to 345 a year ago, CoinMarketCap currently identifies nearly 1,700 cryptocurrencies, which includes Dogecoin and Shiba inu. This represents a significant increase.

When examining meme coins with market caps exceeding $40 million, along with some older examples that are no longer as significant, and juxtaposing them against the total cryptocurrency market, it becomes evident that their peak dominance during the previous bullish period in May 2021 was approximately 3.8%.

Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have collectively transitioned from dominating the memecoin market based solely on market caps to accounting for 82% of the market today. This transition occurred after the high points that were previously mentioned.

This decrease has had a significant impact on the market share of memecoins, which is currently slightly above 1% following the decline above. When it comes to the cryptocurrency market, TRX presently holds approximately 0.67% of the market share.

As the remaining portion of the industry moved forward with bitcoin and ether, the influence of DOGE and SHIB began to decrease in the middle of the previous year.

From September until now, the combined influence of the memecoins that are displayed in the graph has increased by a factor of two, going from 0.1% to 0.2%. Their total estimated worth is $4 billion, although their market value would be lower if they were liquidated.

Throughout that period, the total market value of cryptocurrencies experienced a surge of 85 percent, going from slightly more than one trillion dollars to almost two trillion dollars.

Different meme-based cryptocurrencies have been responsible for expansion at various times and in other places. Memecoins that were inspired by Elon Musk, such as BABYDOGE and ELON, experienced a surge in popularity in 2021 as a result of the billionaire’s frequent tweets about Dogecoin.

Popular options such as PEPE, BONK, and corgiAI (CORGIAI) have supplanted Musk tokens as the most popular cryptocurrency in recent times.

Although it has yet to be determined whether those will continue to exist, the market seems content with the way in which they differentiate themselves from the older dogs at the moment.