Meme coins were all the rage during the early years of the pandemic, but since then their (relatively) high prices have come crashing down to earth. In recent days and weeks, however, meme coins have seen their prices rise again. As of the time of this writing, Doegecoin is up over 12% in the last day and over 100% in the last month. Shiba Inu is up nearly 200% in the last month.
But why?
The spike in meme coins in recent days likely has nothing to do with the coins themselves. Instead, the spike in Doge and Shiba Inu likely has a lot to do with Bitcoin and, to a lesser extent, perhaps, Elon Musk.
First, Bitcoin: The world’s most popular cryptocurrency has seen its fortunes rise in 2024 ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved spot Bitcoin ETFs in January. But while the SEC’s decision gave the crypto some more legitimacy in the eyes of traditional investors, the coin still traded around the $39,000 to $46,600 range for much of January and February.
But then in late February, Bitcoin began to rise. At the time of this writing, Bitcoin currently has a price of just over $65,000 per coin—close to its all-time high of nearly $69,000 in November 2021. The reason for Bitcoin’s rise in recent days likely has to do with its upcoming halving, an event that happens about every four years, with the next expected in or around April. When a halving has occurred in the past, Bitcoin prices have traditionally risen around it.
And it seems like Bitcoin’s price rise in the past few days is having a “rising tide lifts all boats” type of effect on the broader crypto market, potentially impacting the prices of meme coins with it.
Second, Elon Musk: Another possible reason meme coins may have gotten a boost in recent days is because of Elon Musk. On February 26, Musk posted that he “will get back on the meme grindstone” after an X user posted that they wanted more memes from the SpaceX owner.
Some seem to have interpreted Musk’s comments as good news for meme stocks, however, this is debatable. As CryptoNews notes, “To be frank, Elon Musk tweeting memes doesn’t necessarily mean that DOGE is going to become a much stronger or useful token anytime soon. Nonetheless, the market appears to have taken his tweet as a sign that now’s the time to begin investing in DOGE again.”
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