Let’s be honest with ourselves. We saw this coming.
All encryption cycles have confusion, curve balls, and no one can fully predict. But if you are paying about half this year, I know what the central stage is. Blue chip was not ALTCOINS. Not the latest Defi protocol or promising class -1 is not quietly built.
No, it was a meme coin. Again, and this time they just stole the spotlights they kicked, turned on the room, and threw furniture out of the window.
Mim coin craze, supervision
We do not speak small pumps or several Reddit threads with viralism. We are talking about $ Virtual A token, which has increased 24,908%. We Doge, SHIB, PEPE… Again, we are rewriting the general suspect that appears in 2021, but this time, starting the MEME COIN was a platform like PUMP.FUN, which is easy to send tweets.
In December alone, 1.2 million new tokens began in Solana. Think about more than a million coins in a month. Most of them are memes. Most of them are speculative. Many of them are worthless. However, the retail merchants who are priced in Ether Leeum, Solar, or Solar, have become a lottery. And in some cases, the ticket hit.
However, as this meme coin enthusiast developed, the work was quietly in the background, and not everything was optimistic in the rest of the market. so… Where did the actual Altcoins go? While Memecoins revealed the chart, the traditional Altcoin Heavyweights Ethereum, Cardano, and even Defi Blue chips felt as if they were trapped in mang.
Even if the inflow of ETFs that have been waiting for a long time began to appear, the price measures have slowed. Cardano’s rally has stopped and the initial surge has surged. Fault? Quiet, thin fluid and story exercise are not clear. Of course, AI over -advertising, RWA narrative and stable coins will evolve to Stables 2.0, but the main Altcoin pump is where, and we all know and love the return of the face. Is this the past?
It led to a very true question.
Is the meme coin usually fueling the water that supplies fuel in the Altcoin season? Let’s look at the difficult numbers. As of April 2025:
- MEME Coins is a total of $ 47.6 billion in market cap.
- They are pushing $ 8.4 billion in daily trading volume.
- Dogecoin is still the 10th Cryptocurrency with a market cap.
It is not just a side show. It is a key liquidity event, and it is not surprising that a traditional Altcoin is having difficulty in bidding when a lot of money spreads to thousands of high risks and complaints tokens.
Talking chart
Let’s put this in perspective. Simply see how the landscape is formed in 2025.
| category | Market capitalization (April 2025) | 24 hours volume (April 2025) | Notable example |
| Meme coin | $ 47.6 billion | $ 8.4 billion | Dogecoin, PEPE, WIF |
| Other Altcoins | Various (e.g. Solana ~ $ 100B) | Various (e.g. Ethereum ~ $ 50b daily) | Ether Lee, Solara, Carno |
In addition, in 2025, the table that shows the ratio of the highest meme coin vs. high altcoin can explain the following differences.
| category | Best performer | Hundreds of percentage gain (2025 YTD) |
| Meme coin | Tongtongcoin | 262,586% |
| pepecat | 12,363% | |
| Stratovm | 2,770% | |
| derivation | 2,350% | |
| You have a meta club | 1,213% | |
| Other Altcoins | Mantra | 82.2% |
| Street toilet | 31.5% | |
| White comb | 16.2% | |
| XRP | 14.2% | |
| determined | 13.0% |
As of March 17, 2025, this data, which was supplied from the 10 most performance cryptocurrencies in 2025 until NASDAQ, has a significantly higher proportion of MEME COINS than ALTCOINS, which has a high market cap, and supports the point of articles on capital shifts.
These are not fringe numbers. This is a serious capital flow. On November 14, 2024, Crypto.news reported that memes such as PNUT and PEPE increased 122.5% and 75%, respectively, while many other ALTCOINs were rarely moved. It is not a coincidence. It is a trend.
Bitcoin is holding throne and oxygen
Now there is something overlooked in this debate: Bitcoin’s domination.
ETF enthusiasm, institutional trust and small straights have been climbed throughout the year, recording the highest level in early 2025 by the company that purchases SPREES.
Historically, the Altcoin season does not begin when Bitcoin is soaring, so it is important because Bitcoin stops, strengthens or even starts when dip starts. In the past cycle (2017, 2021), the BTC was first pumped. Then it was cooled. Then Altcoins ran.
But this time?
Bitcoin has been pumped. And in that vacuum, the meme coin surpassed the line.
They did not wait for the classic handoff. They had the opportunity to warm up ETH, ADA and others.
So did they kill the Altcoin season? not quite. But they might have hit the Snoz button.
There is a place where the community actually starts to break up. Some merchants, analysts, and reddit warriors are risky appetite as a canary from the initial signal of the coal mine where Meme Coin Rallies is waking up. They are only the first field of the new Altcoin cycle, and memes coins are always doing what they do.
But others are ringing alarms. They are seeing thousands of new launches a week and seeing dangerous fragmented capital grass.
Both camps have a point.
Beincrypto predicted that in July 2024, MEME COINS would lead the next Altcoin season, thanks to the roots of Ethereum and Solana ecosystems. Meanwhile, COINDESK warned that in March, Meme Coin Hype could delay a broader market rotation due to Bitcoin’s gravity. So what is the truth?
Probably both. Perhaps the meme coin is now part of the Altcoin story. So what happens next?
If you have been around this space for a long time, you know better than calling the tower and floor with absolute confidence.
But what we can say is:
Altcoin season is not dead. Maybe it’s late. We are seeing strong achievements in projects, such as continuous signs of accumulation of ETH and the constant signs of a wider rotation of Solana and Steady. The meme coin did not replace Altcoin. They just took a wheel that could drive too quickly. Maybe it’s too hard, but it’s still on the same way.
Final Think: The party is still in a different room.
No, the meme coin did not kill Altcoin Bull. But they kidnapped the playlist.
And if we are trying to find out where we are here, do not use madness. Understand the flow. Look at the story. If the capital is changed to the utility, infrastructure, it will want to be placed if it is changed again towards the actual adoption.
Until then, the market is alive. It is bigger in the meme room.
Hopefully, you enjoyed today article. Thank you for reading! Have a fantastic day! I live on the platinum encryption exchange.
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