April—a month marked by extreme market volatility—saw intensifying U.S.-China tensions and a broad selloff in global markets that led to panic selling of almost all asset classes.
Amid the chaos, one of the most improbable winners emerged from the strange depth of the crypto market: Fartcoin (FART).
The Solana-based memecoin, has rallied nearly 90% in the past week and roughly 300% over the past month, leaving traditional assets — and much of the crypto market— far behind.
By comparison, bitcoin (BTC)—the largest and most established cryptocurrency—has been roughly flat over the past week and month, while riskier altcoins like ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and XRP are in the red. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index has slid around 2% over the past week and is down nearly 5% over the month as rising bond yields and geopolitical tensions weigh on risk assets.
It has even outperformed gold, which recently hit an all-time high driven by safe-haven demand, gaining 6.5% in a week and up 12% in a month.
“Fartcoin’s absurd outperformance is the perfect metaphor for this market,” said Kirill Kretov, trading automation expert at CoinPanel, in a message on Telegram. “A joke wrapped in volatility, where escalating U.S.-China tariffs make ‘rational’ trading a fantasy.”
What FARTCOIN’s rise mean for cryptos
By design, memcoins are cryptocurrencies that occupy an extreme corner of the crypto market. Unlike more established digital currencies, they have no utility or scarcity. These tokens, like Fartcoin, are unapologetically speculative, driven largely by social media hype, online communities and the momentum of short-term traders.
Read more: Crypto for Advisors: Memecoins
Launched in October, Fartcoin quickly gained prominence as one of the tokens propagated by Truth Terminal, an autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) agent created by Andy Ayrey, and became a viral hit amid the crypto-AI speculative wave driven by launchpad Pump.fun. Popularized with joke community slogans like “hot air rises” and “billions must fart,” the token’s market cap swelled from zero to just shy of $2.5 billion by mid-January.
Then, it all came crashing down with the crypto market as Donald Trump’s inauguration, and the TRUMP token launch marked the peak of speculative froth. FART, similarly to other small and risky cryptocurrencies, tumbled over 90% to a $200 million market value by March. But, since then, it bottomed out and has staged a staggering comeback, becoming one of the best tokens in the digital assets sector.
What makes fartcoin’s rally dumbfounding is that it completely decouples from other speculative memecoins. Since Fartcoin has already quadrupled in price, other prominent meme tokens like dogecoin (DOGE), pepecoin (PEPE), dogwifhat (WIF) and TRUMP languished near their lows.
“I have never seen such relative strength during macro uncertainty and no signs of animal spirits for altcoins,” said pseudonymous crypto trader Smiley Capital, who has gained a substantial following for his blunt commentary. “It takes a special kind of retardation paired with conviction to simply size up into an asset named Fartcoin whilst the global economy is imploding.”
The token’s outperformance could also be an early signal of risk-on sentiment returning to markets—at least amid crypto traders—after past week’s extreme fear, Smiley Capital speculated.
“It’s also a barometer and frontrunner for broader risk assets,” he pointed out. “That’s a statement most of you are not ready to hear yet, or even grasp.”
Whether the unpredictable and absurd nature of the new financial order is highlighted by Fartcoin’s rise or simply another chapter in the memecoin market remains to be seen.
But Fartcoin’s stunning rally, outperforming most of the asset classes, serves as a reminder that virality often trumps fundamentals in the current market, regardless of how absurd it may sound.
Read more: TRUMP Token Pops 12% After U.S. President Calls It ‘The Greatest of Them All’