DOGE, SHIB, PEPE fall to new lows: Is this just a passing fad?

• SHIB and DOGE sentiment remained negative, while PEPE improved.
• The positions held by traders suggest that the memes may soon recover.

The trio of Dogecoin [DOGE], Shiba Inu [SHIB], and Pepe [PEPE] have experienced lackluster performances in the last three months. Although this kind of show is not strange to the broader crypto market, the meme cohort seems to have had it worse, and it’s not just related to the price action.

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SHIB looks to be the best out of the three, even though its 90-day performance showed a 4.78% decrease in value. PEPE was worse off with a 55.31% plunge, while DOGE managed a 7.66% dip.

Memes are dealing with a lack of love 

As a result of these underwhelming performances, traders have shifted their attention away from the listed cryptocurrencies.

As highlighted by Santiment on 28 September, using the social dominance metric, discussions about Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and Pepe have reached lows that have not been seen in a long while.

🐶 As #altcoins have seen more declines than gains since the mid-July #crypto market local top, #memecoins are showing a smaller ratio of overall trader interest than they have in some time. Particularly, $DOGE has the lowest discussion rate since 2020. https://t.co/QO5Cbuf2G2 pic.twitter.com/aC5NaHyGGb

— Santiment (@santimentfeed) September 27, 2023

This decrease in social dominance does not only point out the oversight that traders have displayed toward the memes. It also reflected the waning positive expectations for the aforementioned cryptocurrencies in the short term. 

While disinterest in the memes continues to heighten, there was a notable difference in the recent perception towards them. For Shiba Inu and Dogecoin, the weighted sentiment fell into the negative region at press time.

This implied that market participants had a more pessimistic viewpoint about DOGE and SHIB.

During this period, the weighted sentiment of PEPE moved into the positive region at 0.786. But this could be due to the 3.38% hike it had in the last 24 hours.

Nonetheless, one can conclude the acumen had changed in PEPE’s favor. The only issue is that it’s uncertain how long this olive branch will last.

Source: Santiment

But how have DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE all fallen out of favor in the eyes of traders, and will the tides change anytime soon?

SHIB to decouple only for a while

For Shiba Inu, its ability to put up a bit of resilience could be linked to the development of its L2 Shibarium. While there were some landmarks reached with Shibarium, some inconsistencies with the project pulled down the initial hype.

AMBCrypto had a conversation with Faraj Abutalibov on the matter. Abutalibov, who is the Chief Communication Officer of blockchain firm Venom Foundation, the lack of impact on SHIB’s price action could be connected to the decrease in confidence in the market.

He also mentioned that the creation of tokens like Bone ShibaSwap [BONE] affected the growth of SHIB. Abutalibov, however, noted that the utility the Shiba Inu ecosystem offers could still drive short-term growth. But in the end, the memes would be back to a similar correlation. 

He said,

“At best, Shib might outperform other meme tokens in the short term if significant development occurs within the Shibarium ecosystem. However, in the long run, it is likely to follow the overall trend of the meme coin index.”

Interestingly, Abutalibov’s opinion seemed to corroborate traders’ actions in the derivatives market. At press time, SHIB’s long/short ratio had increased to 0.90. The metric provides an insight into the sentiment of traders by looking at the ratio of long to short positions.

Although values over 1 suggest a bullish outlook, the reversal from the long/short ratio implies that traders are increasingly changing their minds and targeting upsides for SHIB.

Source: Coinglass

DOGE and PEPE could regain attention

For DOGE, one of the reasons it has been overlooked could be its network activity. According to Santiment, the 30-day active addresses on the Dogecoin network were 392,000. And this number has been almost the same for the coin since July.

Active addresses show the daily level of speculation around a token. Therefore, the stalemate in the metric implies that many addresses have not found Dogecoin worthy enough to interact with.  But for the time being, traders are betting bullish positions on the meme. 

The funding rate indicated this inference. At press time, DOGE’s funding rate was 0.01%. Since the funding rate wasn’t negative, it means the broader sentiment was for DOGE’s price to increase.

Source: Santiment

Lastly, traders’ decision to ignore PEPE could be because of a number of factors. First, the token had an elongated period of decline. Then, there was a time when there was pandemonium in the PEPE camp due to dishonesty and sell-offs by some members of the team.

Consequently, the number of addresses holding PEPE dropped from almost 140,000 to 137,000. This decrease signifies a drop in the conviction that the token would perform well in the short to mid-term.

Realistic or not, here’s PEPE’s market cap in SHIB’s terms

Also, the daily trading volume also fell for a while. But in the last few days, PEPE’s volume had increased to 88.5 million.

Source: Santiment

Should the trading volume increase as PEPE’s value also increases, then the meme’s price could continue in the upward direction. However, there’s a chance that the rising price eventually falls on declining volume. In this case, a potential reversal may occur.