Analysis

After Stellar 2023, Solana-Based Memecoins Crash And Burn: Will We See a Recovery?

Solana's memecoin frenzy of late 2023 has come crashing down in January, with once-reigning tokens like Bonk plummeting by over 70%.

Jim Haastrup

Key Insights

  • Solana-based memecoins soared in late 2023, with some like Bonk and Dogwifhat delivering astronomical returns.
  • However, January 2024 saw a drastic decline, wiping out most of these memecoins' gains
  • Most Solana memecoins plummeted by over 70% from their all-time highs, with some like popcat and Chipi losing as much as 90%.
  • While SOL and Solana-based cryptos declined in value, the network's Total Value Locked (TVL) remained stable, indicating a healthy foundation.
  • Predicting the memecoin market's comeback is difficult, but the incoming bitcoin ETF approval is bound to bring some more clarity.

The crypto market is currently not in the most bullish of places.

As a result, the memecoin market has taken a terrible hit and now sits at a drastic 5% decline at the time of writing

The memecoin market's decline | Source: CoinMarketCap

This memecoin market decline is drastic on one hand. However, the interesting thing is how the new Solana-based memecoins which dominated the final quarter of 2023, have been the worst-performing memecoins.

Most of them have declined by more than 80% from their ATH in less than a month, leading us to wonder:

Will we see a Solana memecoin recovery soon?

Solana's Memecoins Boom

Solana's native token, SOL, increased from less than $20 in early October 2023 to a yearly high of around $120 in December 2023.

This rally on Solana witnessed the birth (or boom) of several SPL (or Solana-based) tokens like Jito, Pyth and others.

However, the most successful by far were the memecoins like Bonk, Dogwifhat, and Myro, which generated a lot of interest and trade activity from enthusiasts and investors.

The Solana-based memecoins were so popular that the dog-themed Bonk surged by over 1000% in just three months, becoming one of the most popular memecoins on Solana.

This popularity exploded even further when some of the largest exchanges including Binance and Coinbase listed the memecoin.

Dogwifhat was another memecoin that took the market by storm. This memecoin featured a picture of a dog wearing a hat and turned out to be one of the most successful memecoins in 2023.

Not much has been said about Dogwifhat compared to Bonk, but it significantly outperformed Bonk by turning in an astounding 10,000% ROI to its early investors.

Others included memecoins like chipi (CHIPI), Myro and popcat (POPCAT) among others.

And Then, January Came With a Bucket of Red Paint

January is only a few days in, but things have become bloody for the memecoin market.

The Solana-based memecoins in particular, have lost most of the initial euphoria they gathered, and most have plummeted and wiped out a large portion of their gains.

Consider this snapshot below:

The Solana memecoin market

Not a single one of Solana's top memecoins is green, except Myro.

For example, Bonk lost the majority of its value and market share after dropping more than 70% from $0.00001 to $0.000025 between January and December.

Dogwifhat was no better, plunging about 80% from its peak.

Even worse, popcat and Chipi have lost about 90% from their all-time highs.

Will We See a Recovery?

One thing is for sure: The hype around memecoins is on the low side at the moment.

$SOL has declined strongly from its $124 high and is now under the $100 zone with no definite promise of recovery.

However, investors take comfort in knowing that after Solana's TVL rallied to about $1.3 billion during its last bullish run, it has held its ground, and sits at around $1.23 billion according to DefiLlama.

Solana's defi TVL

This shows us that while $SOL and the Solana-based cryptocurrencies have experienced dips, the underlying infrastructure remains solid.

There is also the issue of the incoming Bitcoin ETF approval, as well as its possible impact on the market at large.

Overall, the recovery of the SOL memecoin market remains under speculation, and who knows, we may see a spectacular comeback on memecoins like BONK and Dogwifhat.

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