Over the last day, the cryptocurrency markets showed minimal movement, with the exception of a few meme currencies that saw enormous gains due to the prolonged impact of GameStop’s (GME) earlier this week’s share price increase on certain tokens. According to CoinGecko data, over the last day, Bitcoin (BTC) increased by just over 1%, ether (ETH) decreased by 0.5%, and the stocks of BNB Chain (BNB) and Solana (SOL) decreased by as much as 3%. With stablecoins excluded, the CoinDesk 20 wide index of the largest tokens was down 0.17%.
The token with a dog theme, floki (FLOKI), surged 12% to become the most valuable among the top 50 by market value, while pepe (PEPE) surged 5% to reach a record high. Earlier in the week, meme tokens saw a surge as traders became more comfortable with taking risks following Keith Gill’s first X post since 2021. In 2021, Gill, a retail trader, helped cause a brief squeeze on GameStop’s shares through his online persona and investment methods.Gill did not specifically mention the company in the picture, but it was enough to send the stock skyrocketing, nearly tripling in value on Monday despite several trade halts. Still, the rally appeared to be waning. On Wednesday, pre-market trading saw a 13% decrease in the stocks.
According to reports, some traders anticipated that his influence would lead to surges in meme stocks and tokens. Top meme coins and tokens with cat themes—which allude to Gill’s online persona as @TheRoaringKitty—have seen increases of up to 50% in recent days. On the Solana blockchain, a parody GameStop (GME) token saw a capitalization of $100 million earlier on Wednesday, rising by more than 700% over the previous week. Despite the gains for meme coins, some traders claim that the general outlook for bitcoin and other big tokens appears weak.
“Neither the meme mania in equities, the overall positivity in stock indices, nor the weakening dollar seems to be helping cryptocurrencies right now,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior market analyst, in an email.