The memecoin market cap has increased by over 17% in the past 24 hours, significantly outperforming the rest of the cryptocurrency market, which posted an uptick of over 4% during the same period.
According to CoinGecko data, the market cap of memecoins currently stands at $53.3 billion.
A recent QCP Capital market report suggested that a “speculative buying frenzy” occurring in the Asia trading session on Monday could be driving price appreciation. “Altcoins, especially memecoins, are rallying hard as retail FOMO really kicks in now,” the report said.
QCP Capital analysts pointed to an uptick in activity of leveraged buyers over the past 24 hours. However, they added that the recent buoyant market action could possibly dissipate if bitcoin breaks through its all-time high in dollar terms.
Crypto rally driven by ‘retail impulse’
Suggestions that retail participants may be driving the recent memecoin uptick corresponds with a JP Morgan note from last week that pointed to increased market activity from this cohort.
According to JPMorgan analysts, the recent surge in crypto prices appears to be fueled by individual traders making impulsive decisions rather than being driven by institutional investors or market fundamentals.
“Similar to equities, we find that the retail impulse into crypto rebounded in February, thus likely responsible for this month’s strong crypto market rally,” JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou wrote in a note on Thursday.
Memecoin market cap increases
DOGE +21.13%
, Bonk, Pepe and Shiba Inu increased 14%, 28%, 31% and 19%, respectively. In comparison, major cryptocurrencies such as ether increased by around 2.5% during the same period, according to The Block’s Prices Page.
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