Another rough week from Jan. 23-29, 2025, for the culture casino cryptos, as new AI juggernaut DeepSeek, Chinese New Year, and the Fed’s FOMC kidnap crypto’s mindshare.
TL;DR
- Overall meme coin market cap dropped 11%
- Base meme coins are showing strength
- Dean Norris' X account gets hacked
- Ivanka Trump may sue over a meme coin using her name
- Controversy over Pastor who launched a meme coin
Intro
Another rough week from Jan. 23-29, 2025, for the culture casino cryptos, as new AI juggernaut DeepSeek, Chinese New Year, and the Fed’s FOMC kidnap crypto’s mindshare. What happened to the Meme Coin Supercycle as even KOLs are now getting desperate?
Not everyone is singing in the same “It’s so over” choir. He makes an excellent point, though.
Meme coins are struggling at the moment but the cults are still there, still loud and mad—and they are not going anywhere!
7-Day Meme Coin Market Snapshot
Yikes! The overall meme coin market cap dropped from $104.24 billion to $92.34 billion.
Most top meme coins showed minimal gains while the Trump token outperformed.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Bitcoin is the only token from the crypto majors that ended green as Fed Chair Jerome Powell says banks can serve crypto customers.
Source: CoinMarketCap
Meme Coin Market vs Other Crypto Sectors
According to DeFiLlama's Narrative Tracker, the only sectors that performed well were Governance Tokens and RWAs, as WLFi invested in projects like Aave while Larry Fink pushed for better regulations.
The 30-day trajectory showed negative gains for the first time this year.
Source: DeFiLlama
Top 20 Meme Coin Leaderboard
The top meme coins are mostly all down bad, and the trenches are filled with evidence.
Meme Coin Charts: 7-Day Insights
Meme coins on Base are on fire while most other memes nosedive. Toshi, KeyCat, Benji and Mr. Miggles had strong gains this week suggesting new life for the Ethereum L2 chain, which was rocked last week with the news that Virtuals Protocol was also adding Solana.
Talking about Solana, top memes like Popcat and Pengu saw a near 40% dump.
Biggest Gainers (Last 7 Days):
- Toshi (TOSHI): +194.80%
Biggest Decliners
- Popcat (POPCAT): -39.57%
- Pudgy Penguins (PENGU): -38.96%
- Ai16z (AI16Z): -36.28%
- Official Melania Meme (MELANIA): -35.65%
- Mog Coin (MOG): -33.4%
Meme Coins by Chain
Solana Memes
- Unicorn Fart Dust (UFD) founder Ronald Branstetter loses over $1 million in a Solana wallet hack.
- Visa’s official Facebook page gets hacked and used to promote a scam token trading under the ticker VISA.
- 360noscope420blazeit (MLG) rises 10% while playing zombies.
- Major Frog (MAJOR) is up 8% as mistakes were made.
Ethereum Memes
- Pepe Unchained (PEPU) soars by 545% and their Pump Pad will launch soon.
- Shiro Neko (SHIRO) gains 45% as they release their comic series.
Tron Memes
- SunPump has 16 days of giveaways for the Chinese New Year.
All the top Tron meme coins are experiencing a bloodbath.
Most Tron meme coins have low market caps compared to tokens on chains like Ethereum and Solana, so they are extremely risky until proven otherwise.
SUI Memes
- BLUB (BLUB) gains 20% and has weekly incentives for borrowing Blub.
- UNI (UNI) is up 5% while claiming to be on a moon mission.
Most SUI meme coins have low market caps compared to tokens on chains like Ethereum and Solana, so they are extremely risky until proven otherwise.
Base
- Toshi (TOSHI) skyrocketed by 194.80%, flipping Brett for a moment though currently ranking at No. 2 again.
- Doginme (DOGINME) soars by 115% while their community only gains strength.
- Keyboard Cat (KEYCAT) surges by 23% and they are simply vibing on-chain.
Bitcoin Runes
- UNCOMMONGOODS are up 12% over the last seven days.
Most Bitcoin Runes have low market caps compared to tokens on chains like Ethereum and Solana, so they are extremely risky until proven otherwise.
Meme Coin News
Dean Norris’ Account Hacked
Dean Norris, best known for his role in Breaking Bad, revealed that his X account was hacked to promote a scam meme coin, DEAN, which reached a market cap of over $8 million.
Norris called out Reddit users accusing him of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme, pointing out that some of his critics were the ones actively promoting the token.
Elizabeth Warren Is Still Alive and Kicking
New chief crypto antagonist Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Jake Auchincloss have called for U.S. regulators to investigate the TRUMP and MELANIA meme coins, citing concerns over ethics violations and potential foreign influence. Oh Liz, give it a rest. But yeah, maybe find out what happened to Melania’s coin first.
In a letter to multiple federal agencies, they warned that anyone, including foreign adversaries, could buy these tokens to gain favor with the Trump administration. Warren and Auchincloss also raised concerns over the tokens' legal disclaimers, which deny liability for fraud and block class-action lawsuits.
https://www.banking.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/meme_coin_letter.pdf
Ivanka Trump Might Sue
Ivanka Trump has publicly distanced herself from the IVANKA meme coin. In a statement on X, she clarified that she has no involvement with the cryptocurrency and warned that it risks defrauding consumers.
Calling the promotion “unacceptable,” Trump emphasized that her legal team is reviewing the situation and will take action to prevent the misuse of her name. Her statement comes after the token’s recent launch, allegedly leveraging her identity to attract investors.
Degen Pastor
Detroit pastor Lorenzo Sewell, who delivered a prayer at Donald Trump’s inauguration, has launched his own meme coin, LORENZO, claiming it will support charity efforts.
However, the crypto community reacted with heavy skepticism, with many accusing him of exploiting his religious and political platform for financial gain.
What Can You Do Next?
- Interact with non-Solana chains like Base and Sui to check out their communities.
- Be careful of scams promoted by influencers, celebrities, politicians, and pastors.
- Remember that meme coins are a risky asset and it’s often better to take profits, even in a “Super Cycle”! Cycles are round, so don’t roundtrip your gains! (NFA)
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