KEY POINTS
The impending Bitcoin halving has sparked considerable interest within the cryptocurrency community, evidenced by the significant surge in PUPS, a Bitcoin-based memecoin, which has experienced an increase of +1,575.2% in just 14 days.
Data sourced from CoinGecko shows PUPS’ initial trading average of $3.80 in early April, followed by a rapid escalation to an all-time high of $83.47 on April 14.
With a trading volume exceeding $44 million in the past 24 hours and a market capitalization surpassing $529 million, PUPS currently ranks third in terms of sales volume, trailing closely behind another Bitcoin-based token, $WZRD.
The anticipation surrounding PUPS and similar projects is further amplified by the upcoming release of the Runes protocol. Developed by Casey Rodarmor, Runes is a token standard designed to streamline the issuance of NFTs on the Bitcoin network, offering users a straightforward mechanism for NFT creation and trading.
“Runes were built for degens and memecoins, but the protocol is simple, efficient, and secure,” Rodarmor mentioned in an X (Twitter) post on April 1.
Beyond the halving event and the introduction of the Runes protocol, the surge in memecoin popularity can be also attributed to broader social media and community-driven trends.
Pantera Capital crypto investor Paul Veradittakit recently discussed the rise of memecoins, referring to them as the “Trojan Horse” for Web3. He emphasized their ability to revitalize networks, as seen with Solana, and introduce newcomers to decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols and Web3 applications.
So far, there have been many instances of successful memecoins. Just a week ago, a trader turned $13,000 into $2 million, marking a staggering 15,700% increase through an investment in the newly launched memecoin on the Base blockchain — Donotfomoew (MOEW).
