Meme coins are a lot of fun – until they aren’t. Cryptocurrency prices are sinking across the board as we go to press, with notable losses for previous hot sellers like Pepe (PEPE), down 23.78% in price over the past seven days.
It’s not just the meme coins that are down, of course. When it comes to the crypto market as a whole, Bitcoin still towers over all other coins; the price of BTC has dropped 11.81% over the past week to sit at US$55,677.54.
But what about next week? What coins should we keep an eye on for potential gains or losses? Let’s take a closer look at the Top 10 “Trending” tokens according to CoinMarketCap, and see if we can figure out why these coins are drawing so many eyeballs.
1. Bitcoin (BTC)
The original is still the best. Bitcoin is still down from its late-March peak of just over 70K, but the overall picture is positive after Hong Kong (meaning China) approved its first spot Bitcoin ETFs in April, alongside Ethereum ETFs.
2. Meme Cup (MEMECUP)
This meme coin on the Ethereum blockchain was designed to take advantage of the buzz surrounding the UEFA European Championship soccer tournament – they’ve got a “game” on Telegram where transactions are scored like goals.
With Euro 2024 now in the semifinals, the price of MEMECUP is down 43.10% over the past seven days, and 37.32% the past 24 hours.
3. Notcoin (NOT)
Breaking the downward trend is Notcoin, up 14.54% this week; this was another viral Telegram game when it was launched in January, and after building a community of some 40 million users, it is now hitting the play-to-earn (P2E) sector hard with mini-apps and accelerating gaming.
4. Minu (MINU)
If you’re a speculator looking for some volatility, Minu is up 15.58% today after shedding 12.44% in value over the past week, and 59.97% in 30 days. This is billed as the first “mining dog coin” on the Binance Smart Chain – and the first BNB Chain token listed on ChainSwap.
5. Pepe (PEPE)
The memetic power of Pepe the Frog continues to propel this deflationary token.
This is one of the biggest meme coins out there, with a market cap of $3.86 billion at press time; the price is down 23.78% over the past week, as investors move towards more volatile competitors like Pepe Unchained (PEPU) and Politician Pepe (POLPEPE).
6. LayerZero (ZRO)
Unlike the other coins on our list, LayerZero has remained relatively stable these past few days – in large part because of its use case.
This is an “omnichain interoperability protocol” supporting smart contracts called Ultra Light Nodes, or ULNs. The buzz on the street says to watch for medium-term growth rather than try to make a quick flip.
7. ether.fi (ETHFI)
Double-dipping is fine – as long as we’re talking about liquid restaking. This is where you take a coin you’ve already staked, then stake it again using Actively Validated Services, or AVSs. Miners get more rewards that way, DeFi projects get supported, and the eETH token accrues interest.
The price is up 7.07% today after losing 31.88% of its value this past week.
8. Klaytn (KLAY)
This South Korean DeFi powerhouse is a “global Layer 1 public blockchain” launched in June 2019 that claims to have the lowest latency among all leading blockchains.
Not much volatility here compared to the meme coins, although the price is down 10.18% over the past seven days.
9. Super Trump (STRUMP)
You can’t get much more volatile than Donald Trump. If you share his politics and you want to express yourself through crypto, analysts say there may be some bull runs on the horizon after STRUMP suffered losses of 24.42% this week, and 55.01% this month.
10. Solana (SOL)
Fittingly enough, we end with the token for one of the most important blockchains in the industry. Solana is all about DeFi, using a hybrid consensus algorithm that combined proof-of-history with proof-of-stake for more efficient transactions. Solana is weathering this crypto storm, down only 8.33% this week – a positive sign for sunnier skies ahead.
