Key Insights
- Political and election-driven narratives pushed memecoins to a record $150.6B market cap before reversing sharply, CoinGecko found.
- Launches of political tokens like TRUMP and Milei-linked LIBRA eroded investor confidence and accelerated the downturn.
- The memecoin market later fell 73% to about $38B, highlighting extreme volatility tied to cultural and political sentiment.
Bitcoin price has held near multi-month highs even as the memecoin market collapsed from an all-time high of roughly $150 billion in late 2024 down to the high‑$30s billion today.
According to CoinGecko, total meme‑coin market capitalization peaked at $150.6 billion in December 2024, driven by a surge in new tokens, from dog‐ and frog-themed coins to AI and political memes.
By November 2025 the sector had retraced sharply. CoinGecko data show market cap around $47.2 billion, and CoinMarketCap/CoinGlass charts put it near $39.4 billion on Nov. 21, 2025.
In short, a boom built on social hype is now a bust, and the gap between meme coins and major crypto like Bitcoin (whose price remains around $80–90k) has never been wider.
Meme Coin Mania Peaked in 2024
Last year’s rally was broad and frenzied. CoinGecko notes that daily memecoin trading volumes jumped about +767% year-over-year in 2024, topping $87.4 billion at one point.
New launchpads, notably Solana’s Pump.fun, and high-profile listings (Robinhood/Coinbase adding PEPE, WIF) fueled the frenzy.
Dogecoin itself regained prominence, but the market was far more diverse than in 2021: PEPE, BONK, SHIB and hundreds of other “funny coins” chased gains.
By December 2024, the combined market cap of all meme tokens (including DOGE) hit $150.6 billion, nearly double the previous peak of $88 billion in 2021.
This speculative high was dubbed a new meme‐coin season, with investors hunting the next big viral breakout. For context, Bitcoin price had already climbed above $60k by late 2024, but the crypto narrative was dominated by these high‐beta altcoins, not Bitcoin.
High‐Profile Flops Trigger the Sell‑Off
The decline unfolded as early 2025 brought a sobering reality check. Analysts cite growing criticism of meme tokens’ lack of real utility, along with a string of spectacular pump‑and‑dump events.
In January, political figureheads introduced their own coins and then abandoned them. U.S. President Donald Trump’s Solana‑based token (TRUMP) rocketed to about $75 on Jan. 19, 2025, then cratered over 90% to roughly $5.42.
Similarly, Argentina’s President Javier Milei backed a token (LIBRA) that surged to a $107 million market cap and promptly collapsed – an estimated 86% of traders lost $251 million on that trade.
These high-profile meltdowns shattered confidence. CoinGecko explicitly links the mid‑2025 crash to such events, noting “critical reviews about the lack of real asset value and a series of high-profile scams” as key causes.
By November 2025, the memecoin cap had dived to about $47.2 billion, a roughly 70% drop from peak. Coingeko data confirm it reached the lowest level of 2025 – about $39.4 billion – in late November.
Key factors in the memecoin crash:
- Political hype and pump‑and‑dump: Tokens tied to public figures spiked and then collapsed (e.g. TRUMP and LIBRA).
- Extreme oversupply: Speculative mania created a glut of tokens – over 13 million meme coins were issued in 2025 alone, most with no fundamentals.
- Investor fatigue: Once the initial euphoria passed, traders quickly moved on. CoinGecko reports memecoin web traffic fell by roughly 81.6% in 2025, mirroring the market cap plunge.
Bitcoin Price Steady as Meme Market Sinks
Throughout the memecoin bust, Bitcoin price has mostly held up. As of late November 2025, Bitcoin traded around $82,778, even after a brief pullback; by mid‑December it was near $90k.
In other words, Bitcoin price has remained on a firm footing despite a general risk‑off tone. This decoupling has become striking: major meme tokens are now trading far below their 2025 highs while Bitcoin is relatively strong.
Dogecoin, the original memecoin, is down about 57% year‑to‑date, and Shiba Inu about 61%. Neither move follows Bitcoin’s performance.
In short, the crypto market’s “meme” segment is no longer moving in lockstep with Bitcoin price; it has become a stand‑alone, highly volatile niche.
This is evident in dominance figures: CoinGecko’s data show DOGE still comprises roughly 47.3% of the entire meme market, down from nearly all of it in 2021 but up as others faltered.
In practical terms, memecoins now trade like a levered gamble, whereas Bitcoin price is viewed as the market bellwether.
Going forward, skepticism reigns in the absence of a new catalyst. Some insiders insist the meme era isn’t over. MoonPay President Keith Grossman recently called the idea that the “meme coin era is over” “lazy and wrong,” arguing that meme tokens have uniquely “tokenized attention” on blockchain.
Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao even teased a fresh “funny coins season” in late 2025. But those views have yet to revive prices.
Most professional analysts now treat meme tokens as speculative curiosities: once the bullish craze peaked, few see clear fundamentals to drive prices back up.
With Bitcoin price stronger and the broader crypto market favoring DeFi, NFTs or AI narratives instead, retail investors appear to have moved on.
For now, the lesson is that memecoins remain highly event‑driven. Without a sustained story, they have burned out: after peaking at $150B, the combined market cap is now under $40B.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2025/12/17/memecoin-market-cap-crashes-from-150b-peak-to-38b-what-went-wrong/
