Memecoins Dominate Investor Interest in 2024

Memecoins dominated investor interest in the crypto space this year, capturing nearly one-third of attention, according to a study by CoinGecko.

“The most popular crypto narrative in 2024 was by far the memecoin narrative,” wrote Lim Yu Qian, a research analyst at CoinGecko, in a report published on Dec. 23.

Lim explained that an analysis of CoinGecko’s token category traffic from Jan. 1 to Dec. 21 revealed that memecoins and related categories accounted for almost 31% of investor focus.

“In other words, almost a third of crypto narrative interest this year was focused on more speculative opportunities with less emphasis on fundamentals,” she noted.

Memecoins experienced significant price swings this year, set against the backdrop of a broader crypto market rally where Bitcoin surged 123% year-to-date.

These tokens, often characterized by high speculation and short-lived price action, have sometimes been associated with scams.

Despite the risks, savvy traders have managed to capitalize on quick profits.

CoinGecko observed that the “main memecoin narrative” secured nearly 15% of investor interest, a significant increase of over six percentage points from 2023.

Additionally, four other memecoin trends made it into the “top 20 crypto narratives.”

Among these, Solana-based memecoins ranked as the fourth-largest narrative, claiming nearly 8% of the interest share.

Memecoins on Coinbase’s blockchain Base followed in 11th place with just over a 2% share.

AI-themed memecoins and cat-themed memecoins captured around 1.5% and 1.2% of the mindshare, ranking 15th and 16th, respectively.

The total market capitalization of memecoins stands at $113.2 billion, with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu leading the category at $49.3 billion and $13.8 billion, respectively, according to CoinGecko.

Interest in artificial intelligence-related crypto tokens came in second, losing its top spot from the previous year.

However, the overall interest in AI tokens grew compared to 2023, climbing to nearly 13% from just over 11% last year.

The “overall AI narrative and 5 other AI-related narratives” collectively captured about 15.5% of the interest share.

CoinGecko’s data also revealed that 1.17% of visitors showed interest in AI agents—autonomous systems capable of performing tasks on behalf of users or other systems.

Sources:

https://cointelegraph.com/news/memecoins-top-crypto-investor-interest-2024-coingecko

https://www.coingecko.com/research/publications/most-popular-crypto-narratives

https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/meme-token

https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/artificial-intelligence