Memecoin market cap hits $55 billion: Moo Deng, POPCAT, Neiro lead

• Memecoin market dominance continues in October. 
• NEIRO and POPCAT were the best performers in the past 30 trading days. 

Memecoin dominance seems far from over as the narrative continues to Q4 2024 market recovery.

In the recent market rebound, Moo Deng [MOODENG], Popcat [POPCAT], and First Neiro on Ethereum [NEIRO] led the meme coin resurgence. 

Source: CoinMarketCap

In the past 30 days of trading, NEIRO topped the charts with a whopping +3000% rally, closely followed by the cat-themed POPCAT at 137%. 

Memecoin market for charity

The rebound seen on the 8th of October was notable, especially for MOODENG, which has crashed over 60% in the past few days.

For the first time, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin overwhelmingly praised meme coin teams that offered him tokens to share with charity entities. MOODENG was part of the list. 

“I appreciate all the memecoins that donate portions of their supply directly to charity. Anything that gets sent to me gets donated to charity too (thanks Moodeng! The 10B from today is going to anti-airborne-disease tech).” 

Buterin has been calling for useful meme coins, especially for charity purposes, instead of benefiting a few insider teams. The founder also donated a huge chunk of NEIRO in early August. 

Market size increases

That said, the market rebound at the end of September has boosted the overall memecoin market cap.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the market cap surged from around $25 billion in early September to a peak of nearly $55 billion at the end of September. 

Source: CoinMarketCap

Although there was a slight retracement afterward, the recent rally has tipped a rebound toward $50 billion. That’s approximately $15 billion in additional value accrued in meme coins over the past 30 days. 

According to Kaito, the sector hit record-high annual mindshare control, reinforcing memecoin’s dominance and supercycle narrative. 

Source: Kaito

That said, at press time, memecoins ranked first on monthly performance, followed by the AI sector.

According to Artemis data, the segment netted 46% average returns in the past 30 days of trading. 

Source: Artemis

Reacting to the sector’s outperformance, one crypto trader, Mayne, noted, 

“This cycle it’s just straight up memecoins, you know the coin does nothing and that doesn’t matter. Community and attention drive price, pure supply and demand.”