Volume
of
futures
tracking
meme
coins
continued
to
rise
massively
on
Saturday
as
bets
against
non-serious
tokens
lost
a
cumulative
$50
million
in
the
past
24
hours,
a
sign
of
irrational
exuberance.
Data
from
Coinglass
shows
shorts,
or
bets
against,
on
dogecoin,
shiba
inu,
pepe,
floki
and
bonk
saw
over
$50
million
in
liquidations
in
the
past
24
hours,
contributing
to
price
surge
among
these
tokens.
Liquidation
refers
to
when
an
exchange
forcefully
closes
a
trader’s
leveraged
position
due
to
a
partial
or
total
loss
of
the
trader’s
initial
margin.
It
happens
when
a
trader
is
unable
to
meet
the
margin
requirements
for
a
leveraged
position
(fails
to
have
sufficient
funds
to
keep
the
trade
open).
Pepe
(PEPE),
the
frog-themed
meme
token
on
Ethereum,
was
up
as
much
as
100%
to
set
record
highs.
WIF,
the
dog-themed
token
on
Solana
that
was
issued
in
November
was
up
as
much
as
80%
to
become
one
of
the
first
prominent
meme
tokens
to
cross
the
$1
price
mark.
Meme
coins
started
to
come
into
focus
last
week
as
proxy
bets
on
the
growth
of
whichever
blockchains
these
tokens
are
based
on.
Ethereum-based
dogecoin
(DOGE),
shiba
inu
(SHIB),
pepe
(PEPE)
and
floki
(FLOKI)
have
captured
most
of
the
meme
trading
volume
on
that
network,
while
bonk
(BONK)
and
dogwifhat
(WIF)
have
acted
as
Solana
proxies.
Bullish
bets
on
DOGE
set
a
record
on
Thursday
with
$1
billion
in
opened
positions.
Nearly
70%
of
those
betting
were
longs,
or
on
the
continued
growth
of
the
tokens.
DOGE
prices
are
up
more
than
50%
since
CoinDesk
first
reported
the
peak
volumes.
Open
interest
in
PEPE,
SHIB,
BONK
and
FLOKI
has
similarly
grown
multifold
to
a
cumulative
$1.5
billion
in
the
past
few
days,
Coinglass
data
shows.
A
rise
in
futures
bets
indicates
new
money
entering
the
market.
Meanwhile,
the
CoinDesk
20
Index
(CD20),
a
benchmark
for
the
biggest
and
most
liquid
cryptocurrencies,
jumped
nearly
5%.
Meme
tokens
are
usually
considered
to
have
no
intrinsic
value
but
are
quickly
gaining
favor
among
traders.
Some,
like
the
Avalanche
Foundation,
a
non-profit
that
maintains
the
Avalanche
blockchain,
have
even
started
to
invest
in
meme
tokens
built
on
the
network
in
recognition
of
the
online
culture
and
memetic
value
that
such
tokens
can
drive
among
investors.
Market
observers
say
meme
coins
are
also
a
profitable,
albeit
risky,
way
to
gain
from
ecosystem
growth.
“While
meme
tokens
have
been
out
of
the
narrative,
they
often
pump
following
blue
chip
rallies,
and
traders
reposition
from
ETH
and
BTC
to
altcoins,”
Nick
Ruck,
COO
of
ContentFi
Labs,
told
CoinDesk
in
a
Telegram
message
last
week.