Bitcoin Meme Coins Surge as BTC Rises Towards $100K

Bitcoin-based meme coins are seeing renewed interest amid the asset’s record-setting climb, lifting the price of various Runes tokens launched alongside the protocol’s debut this year. 

Over the past week, the price of DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (DOG) has increased 98%, rising to $0.0078 Thursday, according to Magic Eden. With a market capitalization of around $767 million, the asset is among the most widely adopted Runes, with over 95,000 different holders.

Developed by the creator of Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor, Runes aims to create an efficient standard for fungible tokens on crypto’s oldest network. Released alongside Bitcoin’s so-called halving in April, the cross-chain NFT marketplace Magic Eden was an early adopter.

According to Magic Eden co-founder and COO Zhuoxun Yin, users likely see Runes as an additional way to get exposure to Bitcoin. He told Decrypt in an interview that Runes are also dovetailing with a meme coin meta that’s grown dominant in crypto over the past year.

“A lot of the activity is coming from the fact that people—they’re obviously very bullish on Bitcoin to begin with—and then they see these on-chain assets as additional ways for them to get exposure to the Bitcoin ecosystem,” he said.

DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON’s rise follows speculation that Binance could soon support futures trading for the Bitcoin-based meme coin. Earlier this month, the crypto exchange Kraken did just that, announcing a futures listing for DOG on November 15th.

Over the past month, several other Runes have notched notable gains, including PUPS•WORLD•PEACE and BILLION•DOLLAR•CAT. During that period, the Bitcoin-based meme coins have jumped 76% to $0.28 and 30% to $0.15, respectively.

According to a Dune dashboard, Magic Eden and OKX are the largest sources of trading volume for Bitcoin-based assets. On Tuesday, for example, they accounted for 96% of Ordinals-based trading volume, which totaled $8 million.

Pioneered in March 2023, the earlier BRC-20 standard leverages Ordinals to enable fungible tokens on Bitcoin. While separate from Runes, OKX Chief Marketing Officer Haider Rafique told Decrypt that the class of Bitcoin-based assets is still seeing interest as trading swells on its exchange as well.

When it comes to Ordinals, Runes, and BRC-20s, OKX’s trading volume has increased 50% since November 6, Rafique said. He added that “BRC-20 tokens are definitely leading the way” on the exchange, with trading volume for BRC-20s running at three times that of Runes.

Though Runes saw a burst of initial momentum when the standard was released in April, questions were raised regarding their success as interest ebbed months after. But it appears that Bitcoin’s record-setting climb could be helping the tech return to the spotlight.

Bitcoin is currently trading for about $98,100 after setting a current all-time high price of $98,831 earlier Thursday.

Edited by Andrew Hayward