Meme coins face steep meltdown amid broad market decline

Shiba inu, cat in a dogs world, pepe, and popcat have fallen to levels not seen since 2024.

11/4/25 11:40AM

The crypto market is in a downturn, with bitcoin hitting its lowest price since June, and the animal kingdom of meme coins is not exempt.

shiba inu is at an almost 21-month low, as its current price was last seen in February 2024.
Cats in a dogs world is at a 19-month low, as its current price was last seen in March 2024.
pepe and popcat are both at an 18-month low, as their current prices were last seen in April 2024.
Pnut is at a price last hit nearly a year ago, in November 2024.
Bonk is at an almost seven-month low, at a price last seen in April 2025.
Dogwifhat, Floki , and Moo Deng are all at roughly six-month lows.
Dogecoin and pengu are at almost four-month lows, with prices last seen in July 2025.

“The whole market is down bad [right now], and memes are leveraged crypto,” according to Ogle, the pseudonymous cofounder of blockchain ecosystem Glue. “So when BTC goes up, it’s often the case memes go up 10x faster. If BTC goes down, it’s often the case memes go down 10x faster,” Ogle told Sherwood News.

The fully diluted market capitalization of the meme coin sector has dropped 48.4% year to date, data from blockchain analytics firm Artemis shows.

Reduced speculative demand

Kelly Ye, deputy chief investment officer of Avenir Group, said the meltdown from meme coins highlights both cyclical and structural changes in the market.

“Long-term holders, driven by the belief in bitcoin’s four-year cycle theory, continue to offload positions into year-end, adding pressure to broader risk sentiment,” Ye told Sherwood. “At the same time, equities — especially AI-related stocks and publicly listed crypto companies with tangible revenue — are drawing liquidity and investor attention away from purely narrative-driven tokens.”

The October crash has produced a lingering caution that has diminished speculative demand, “while mainstream adoption has redirected focus toward crypto businesses with real use cases and sustainable revenue models rather than meme-driven assets,” Ye added.

Despite the lows, Ogle likened meme coins to religions. “So long as one person believes in the coin, it is not dead yet and could spread virally again at any moment,” he said.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy3h

Bitcoin drops to lowest level since day after Trump’s election win

Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level since November 6, 2024, the day after the US election, when it had been in ascendance amid unbridled enthusiasm about the incoming “crypto president.”

While the asset had a quick rebound from the weekend bloodbath, it is now down 2.2% in the past hour, which brought the price below its lows seen in the sessions following the announcement of reciprocal tariffs on “Liberation Day” in April 2025.

It briefly broke below $74,000 and according to Bernstein analyst Gautam Chhugani, could still “bottom out” in the $60,000-levels.

Several experts said bitcoin was in the throes of a bear market, including Bitiwse CIO Matt Hougan, who added nevertheless said it was “close to an end.”

Bitfinex analysts said that the broader flow picture suggests a clear risk-off rotation, with investors reallocating toward cash and gold amid rising macroeconomic and political uncertainty.

“In this environment, the lack of ETF absorption has amplified downside volatility, reinforcing the importance of institutional spot demand as a stabilizing force during periods of market stress,” they said.

Sage D. Young4h

Standard Chartered predicts solana will more than double in price by end of year

The price of solana is trading at $100, a nearly two-year low, but Standard Chartered forecasts that the token will climb to $250 by the end of 2026.

Geoff Kendrick, the bank’s global head of digital asset research, pointed to flows on decentralized exchanges on solana beginning to shift from meme coins to solana-stablecoin pairs, aided by AI-driven micropayments.

“AI-driven micropayments using stablecoins are starting to demonstrate that the ‘order of magnitude’ cost reduction on solana can enable entirely new markets (in this case micropayments) to develop,” Kendrick wrote in a Tuesday note.

Market-implied probabilities derived from event contracts show that investors think there’s a 30% chance the token will go lower than $40 in 2026. On the bullish side, traders are pricing in a 41% chance it will climb higher that $200 in the same period.

(Event contracts are offered through Robinhood Derivatives, LLC — probabilities referenced or sourced from KalshiEx LLC or ForecastEx LLC.)

Even though the firm expects solana to trade significantly higher by the end of the year, the firm lowered its initial forecast of $310 and predicts the token will underperform ethereum in the next two years.

“Beyond that, if it achieves sufficient scale, we think SOL will be due for a catch-up as this new market takes shape,” Kendrick said.

On a longer horizon, Standard Chartered predicts the token will climb to $2,000 by 2030.

Yaël Bizouati-Kennedy

Bernstein analyst says bitcoin could bottom out at $60,000, but expects its “most consequential cycle” after that

“This is not a ‘bull market correction’ or ‘a dip.’ It is a full-bore, 2022-like, Leonardo-DiCaprio-in-The-Revenant-style crypto winter,” Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan wrote.