Meme Coins Are the Biggest Losers as Bitcoin Price Dips Below $65,000

After a powerful run in recent weeks, the crypto markets are bleeding red today. But Bitcoin isn’t the only coin suffering: some of the biggest 24-hour losers now are meme coins and tokens after rallying big time last week.

Over the past day, Solana-based Bonk has shed over 12% of its value, and is now priced at $0.00002306, CoinGecko shows.

The token ignited to fresh peaks late last year and again in early March, rocketing off of the back of broader Solana hype. Despite the correction today, it’s still up more than 3,400% over the past year.

Another battered meme coin is Pepe, which has dropped by over 12%. Even so, the Ethereum-based token is still reveling in recent gains, up 40% over the past 30 days.

Within the top 20 coins and tokens, the two biggest meme coins have fallen harder than Bitcoin. Dogecoin, the ninth-biggest digital asset, is down significantly after popping to its highest price since 2021 last week. It’s now priced at $0.18 after dropping by 7% in the last day. Its rival, Shiba Inu, is also hurting, and has lost close to 7% over the past day.

However, Dogwifhat—just last week the biggest gainer of all cryptocurrencies—has managed to avoid much of the pain over the past day: It’s down, but only by about 1%.

Meme coins and tokens are a subgroup of digital assets based on internet memes, pop culture events, and public figures. They known for their volatility: such cryptocurrencies are known to rocket up in value but can just as quickly plunge—or disappear completely.

The asset class has ridden on the back of Bitcoin’s surge this year, with sizable meme coin trading taking root on Solana in recent months, driving the chain to a record month for decentralized exchange (DEX) trading volume in March. Ethereum scaling network Base is also seeing a meme coin surge, pushing activity to new heights over the weekend.

Bitcoin is down about 4% over the past day, as of this writing, to a price just below $66,000—though it fell harder earlier Tuesday, dipping below the $65,000 mark before quickly rebounding. Even so, the leading coin has shed 11% of its value since hitting a new all-time high price of $73,737 on March 14.

Edited by Andrew Hayward