Meme Coin Market Shrinks by Billions—Is the Supercycle Over?

Over the past three months, the meme coin market has seen a sharp decline, with its total market capitalization dropping by 56.8%. 

This sharp decline has raised questions about whether the era of explosive growth for these digital assets has come to an end.

Meme Coin Market Sees Substantial Decline

Meme coins experienced a massive surge in popularity throughout 2024. Over the year, the total market capitalization skyrocketed by 500%, with the meme coin narrative dominating the crypto sphere. 

According to a CoinGecko report, meme coins were the most popular crypto trend in 2024. They accounted for 14.3% of total narrative interest—a significant rise from 8.3% in 2023.

Recent developments, however, present a contrasting narrative.

“There has been a significant drop in meme coin market cap since December. It’s the weakest narrative and not worth putting your money in it,” an analyst wrote on X.

As of March 5, the latest data showed the total meme coin market capitalization plummeted to $54 billion. This represented a 56.8% decline from its $125 billion peak on December 5, 2024. 

meme coin market decline
Meme Coin Market Performance. Source: CoinMarketCap

Trading volumes have also taken a hit, dropping 26.2% in the past month alone. This has raised concerns about the “meme coin supercycle.”

“Is this the end of the meme coin supercycle?” crypto analyst Lark Davis questioned.

A meme coin supercycle refers to an extended period of rapid growth and speculation in meme-based cryptocurrencies. However, with declining numbers across the board, the community is now grappling with fears that the hype may be fading for good.

Dogecoin (DOGE), which accounts for nearly half of the total meme coin market capitalization, has declined 21.7% in the past month. The downturn is not limited to DOGE

The second-largest meme coin, Shiba Inu (SHIB), has also suffered a substantial drop. Over the past month, it has slipped 10.6%. Similar trends have been observed in all 10 top meme coins.

The decline isn’t just affecting individual tokens—skepticism in meme coins as a whole appears to be rising. Elon Musk, for example, one of the most vocal supporters of DOGE, recently likened meme coins to “casinos.” He further cautioned against investing life savings in them. Meanwhile, Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan previously stated that the present time is the “end of the meme coin boom.”

Google Trends data further supports this waning hype. The search volume for “meme coin” has plummeted from a peak score of 100 in mid-January to just 8 last week. This suggested that public enthusiasm was fading as fast as it surged.

The impact of this downturn is being felt across the ecosystem, particularly on platforms that thrived during the meme coin mania.

Pump.fun, a popular meme coin launchpad, has seen its trading volume crash from $3.3 billion in January 2025 to just $814 million. This marked aa staggering 75.3% drop.

Pump.fun Volume Performance
Pump.fun Volume Performance. Source: Dune

Additionally, the total number of tokens created on Pump.fun has been steadily decreasing since late January. Moreover, the daily revenue has also fallen sharply.

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