Memecoins Lead the Charge!

GM Anon!

So where do we start? This week saw Musk accepting a challenge to fight Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro over Twitter, a serious escalation in the Middle East, and memecoins displaying the most strength in the market, despite insane chop from BTC, which has been psychologically breaking many traders down.

TLDR 

• Memecoins, particularly NEIRO, showed strong market performance, with NEIRO reaching a $200M market cap on Ethereum.

• Trump outlined his crypto-friendly policies, including firing Gary Gensler and building BTC reserves for the U.S.

• The market has been characterized by brutal chop, suggesting that less experienced traders should stick to spot trading.

• Significant smart money buys included Neiro and Miggles on Ethereum, while Mog experienced a slight sell-off. On Solana, MUMU emerged as a new favorite among smart money.

• DeFi is rebounding with active loans and TVL reaching levels not seen since early 2022, indicating increased market participation and investor confidence.

• Polymarket hit over $1B in betting volume, driven by the U.S. presidential election, highlighting the growing interest in crypto betting markets.

Despite Trump speaking at Bitcoin Nashville and optimism surrounding potential rate cuts in September, this didn’t have lasting positive sentiment for the market in the short term, which dumped. The Harris administration has yet to make any positive moves concerning crypto, and her rising odds of beating Trump have many in crypto feeling nervous about potential regulations. 

Trump has made his position clear, such as firing Gary Gensler, pardoning Ross Ulbricht, building strategic BTC reserves for the U.S., and fostering a positive environment with clear laws and guidelines to keep crypto innovation in the U.S. Time will tell if the Harris administration thinks the crypto sector is worth gaining favor with; keep your eyes on this because it will have huge ramifications in the short and medium term on how crypto markets react to the elections.

Lastly, brutal chop has characterized the market over the last few months. Unless you’re experienced or using extremely light leverage, it’s better to sit in spot and wait for all this craziness to break to the upside, which it will, anon.

If you’re feeling a little down about the current market, here’s some hopium.

We bring up this tweet from the OG, GCR. Now is the time to grind like no other. 20-hour days in front of your screen will pay huge dividends. Learn the market inside and out.

Michael Saylor continues to push forward with his vision, accumulating BTC at an impressive rate. Notably, Saylor began directing MicroStrategy's treasury to start accumulating BTC in late 2020, and he hasn't stopped since. Follow these big moves by visionaries—they know what's up.

Let’s get into the data!

Majors & Alts

There has been interesting price performance from coins largely forgotten by the market, such as NEM, BCH, and BSV. Major old DeFi coins like AAVE, COMP and CSV saw notable pumps this week. However, most altcoins have been continuously bleeding, particularly during this period. 

When or if retail investors return, many of these coins might see a turnaround. Do traders still look at fundamentals, or have we entered an era characterized by intense speculation akin to gambling, as seen with memecoins or betting markets? A standout coin in recent weeks has been KAS, showing impressive resilience to market conditions. XRP also saw a substantial pump (7.5%) before dumping yesterday. 

• XEM (53.7%)

• CDT (36.7%)

• AAVE (15.2%)

• KAS (9.4%)

• BCH (7.5%)

• CRV (7.8%)

• BSV (6.5%)

• COMP (1.6%)

For the Solana maxis out there take note of this interesting piece of news, as it goes in crypto unicorn one dya and then next you’re getting fudded into oblivion. Could this be something catches momentum?

Memes

The talk of the town this week is undoubtedly NEIRO. After an awkward battle where multiple versions of the coin existed on Solana, the Ethereum version seems to have won out. Degening on Ethereum is back in full force, with NEIRO quickly reaching a $200 million market cap and showing no signs of slowing down.

Most large-cap memes saw a pullback this week, which is no surprise given the current market conditions. However, some large and mid-cap memes still showed impressive performance:

The coins below have managed to keep their gains from this week 

• SCF (67.9%)

• MAD (65.5%)

• DOG (21.1%)

• BOME (11.8%))

• AURA (3.4%)

While other coins that saw impressive run ups and then pullbacks of varying degrees include: 

• BRAINLET

• GINNAN

• MUMU

• FWOG

• SCF

• MOG

• MICHI

• TSUJI

• KABOSU

There could be some good buying opportunities for those mentioned above after their retracements. 

Some other new coins this week that secured huge gains for perceptive traders, include:

• GAY 

• BAR 

• MY PRONOUNS ARE HIGH/ER

Now for some thoughts on the memecoin landscape:

The memecoin market has reached extreme levels of competition, with platforms like Pump.fun making it easy to launch new coins, leading to rapid and intense capital rotations. 

• This high-speed environment demands a deep understanding of market dynamics and quick decision-making, making it a challenging area for inexperienced traders. 

• Despite their seemingly silly nature, memecoins might offer significant gains for those who understand capital rotations and memes.

Recent data shows that Pump.fun hit an all-time high in daily revenue at $2.3M, with a cumulative revenue just under $80M. 

• Over 1.5M coins have been launched since its inception, including 6K in the last 24 hours. On the launch day of NEIRO, nearly $1B in volume was traded on just a few coins. 

• The number of coins currently exceeds the capital needed to sustain growth, and large chunks of capital are leaving the ecosystem.

The main beneficiaries in the current environment are platforms like Pump.fun, trading bots, and coin launchers. 

• The market sees a rolling selection of 5-10 coins with market caps between $10M and $100M, competing for attention until the next cohort arrives. 

• The end game scenarios suggest either a market so efficient that nothing new can survive, leading to an extended low-cap bear market and a reset, or enough new entrants and capital to sustain growth and level the playing field. 

• This could all have significant impacts on the memecoin sector..

For a deeper dive into these insights, check out Kezfourtwez's thoughts on X.

Moving on, let’s take a look at smart money buys this week. On the Ethereum front, Neiro has rapidly climbed to the top of the list this week, while Miggles also saw a noticeable accumulation. Mog saw a slight sell-off by SM.

On the Solana front there’s been intense accumulation through the top coins with only SCF and BILLY seeing sell offs. Take note of MUMU, this seems to be a new favorite among SM.

Data Points

DeFi  is showing signs of revival, with key metrics like active loans and TVL rebounding to levels not seen since early 2022.

• Active loans in DeFi have surged back to around $13.3B, indicating increased leverage and participation in the market, which could signal the onset of a bull market.

• TVL in DeFi has recovered significantly from its 2023 lows, climbing roughly 160% to stand at around $96.5B, suggesting a resurgence in investor confidence and market activity.

One of the hottest emerging narratives is the explosive growth of crypto betting. This sector shows no signs of slowing down, as betting volumes on Polymarket hit an astounding $1 billion. Watch out, Las Vegas! 

• July saw a dramatic rise in betting volume on Polymarket, primarily due to the U.S. presidential election.

• Polymarket has diversified its prediction markets and improved user onboarding through partnerships and funding.

Touching base with fee revenues recently has revealed an interesting pattern. Currently, Ethena is leading the charge, but just a few days ago, Pump.fun was at the top, generating more fees than even Ethereum. 

• It's fascinating to see how Solana ecosystem projects such as Jito and Raydium are also significant earners. 

• Notably, Raydium has seen higher revenues than Uniswap over the past thirty days, and is inching closer to overtaking the Ethereum staking protocol Lido.

That wraps up today's insights! We hope you enjoyed today’s issue! Till next time anon.