Author: Tharmaraj Rajandran, CoinGecko; Compiled by: Whitewater, Golden Finance

The Rise of Animal-Inspired Cryptocurrencies

In the past decade, Internet memes have taken over the culture of Web3 and cryptocurrencies A solid position. Meme coins thrive on hype, community, and fun and "depravity" and have become unique innovations in the industry. In recent years, a number of animal-inspired meme coins have emerged, notably DOGE, SHIB, and PEPE, which have captivated the cryptocurrency market. Driven by social sentiment and online trends, these tokens have soared from obscurity to multi-billion dollar market caps in record time.

How quickly can an animal meme coin hit $1 billion?

Squirrel Peanut (PNUT): 11 days. Inspired by the playful and quirky mascot Peanuts Squirrel, depicted as a squirrel wearing a cowboy hat, PNUT is a meme coin built on the Solana blockchain. In fact, PNUT is based on the tragic backstory of Peanut, a real-life squirrel who was allegedly taken away from his caretaker, Mark Longo, by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Elon Musk then criticized the DEC's actions and had the PNUT impromptu rally on X. As a relatively new entrant to the meme coin space, PNUT’s meteoric rise has been aided by the hype surrounding it and its listing on Binance on November 11, 2024, driving the token’s market cap within the same month of launch Over $1 billion.

PEPE: 19 days. While Pepe may not look like an animal at first glance, the popular internet meme created by cartoonist Matt Furie features a green anthropomorphic frog. PEPE, an Ethereum-based memecoin based on popular internet meme characters, experienced a meteoric rise in early 2023. Within just a few weeks of its launch, PEPE hit the $1 billion mark, quickly garnering attention on social media and climbing to the top of the charts. level exchange. PEPE has maintained its popularity, with daily trading volumes growing significantly and social media engagement continuing to be steady.

Brett (BRETT): 28 days. Like Pepe, Brett is derived from Matt Fury's Boys Club comics. Brett launched on the Base blockchain in May 2024 and took 28 days to reach the $1 billion milestone. Base's popularity during that period contributed significantly to its rise. It has since become the leading meme coin on the Coinbase-backed network, with a value hovering near the $2 billion mark.

GOAT (GOAT): 37 days. The Goatseus Maximus memecoin was created on Pump.fun by an AI chatbot called Terminal of Truths. It quickly gained a following and reached a $1 billion market capitalization in 37 days. Notably, it is also the first Pump.fun token to reach the coveted $1 billion mark.

DOGWIFHAT (WIF): 81 days. WIF has taken the meme coin scene by storm with a whimsical approach, branded as a dog wearing a funny hat. Launched within the Solana ecosystem, WIF quickly gained traction and resonated with meme enthusiasts and the crypto community. WIF has demonstrated exceptional market activity and community engagement, achieving the $1 billion market capitalization milestone within months of launch.

Neiro (NEIRO): 104 days. Neiro was launched after the death of Kabosu, the iconic Shiba Inu who was the inspiration for Dogecoin. Neiro is a dog adopted by Kabosu's owner. Multiple Neiro tokens were launched around the same time, but the first Neiro deployed on Ethereum has managed to become the leading coin. However, what really catapulted Neiro to $1 billion was its listing on Binance in September, which saw the token’s market capitalization surge from $16 million to $400 million in a single day.

Cat in a dogs world (MEW): 214 days. Inspired by the beloved Simon the Cat comic series, MEW experienced real growth. Another cat-themed meme coin, the Solana-based token’s strong brand and community engagement have been crucial to its rise. MEW has reached a market cap of $1 billion in just 7 months, thanks to a series of successful exchange listings that have cemented its place within the broader meme token ecosystem.

Popcat (POPCAT): 284 days. Popcat became popular for its internet meme origins, and the proliferation of user-generated content on social media that leveraged Popcat Meme to humorous effect has skyrocketed in popularity. Riding this wave of social sentiment, this Solana-based cat-themed token has attracted an enthusiastic community. POPCAT reached the $1 billion mark within a year of its launch, driven by its strong community engagement and continued growth. The surge in interest in cat-themed tokens reflects a new trend in meme coin culture that capitalizes on the appeal of cats as viral internet symbols.

Shiba Inu (SHIB):289 days. Inspired by DOGE and based on the beloved Japanese dog breed, Ethereum-based SHIB bills itself as the “Dogecoin killer” and hit the $1 billion mark within a year of its launch in 2020. Significant growth has been driven by the listing of major decentralized exchanges (DEX) and later centralized exchanges (CEX) such as Binance and Coinbase. SHIB’s dramatic rise has also been driven by a community-focused roadmap and continued media hype.

Bonk (BONK): 356 days. Launched on Christmas Day 2022, Bonk has slowly climbed to become the largest Meme coin on Solana. It launched in the depths of a bear market, with FTX filing for bankruptcy more than a month before its launch and the Solana network suffering multiple outages during that time. It took nearly a year to reach $1 billion in market capitalization, at which point Solana began to gain traction and many meme coins were launched on the network.

MOG Coin (MOG): 486 days. The launch of MOG Coin aims to become the first cultural currency on the Internet. The name MOG is derived from "AMOG" which stands for Alpha Male Group. Launched in 2023, the company took 486 days to briefly reach a $1 billion market capitalization in November 2024 before falling back again.

Floki Inu (FLOKI): 775 days. It took Floki Inu more than two years to reach a market cap of $1 billion, the second longest time for an animal-themed meme coin. Floki started out as a meme coin and has transformed into a utility project with a sizable ecosystem of projects. It’s involved in the 3D NFT Metaverse, DeFi, Real World Assets (RWA), and even prepaid cards. It also sponsors sports teams and runs advertising campaigns around the world. Despite not being exactly a meme coin anymore, it has still managed to maintain a market cap of over $2 billion.

Dogecoin (DOGE): 1,487 days. Originally launched on the Ethereum blockchain in 2013 mostly as a joke, DOGE’s price soared over time, reaching a market cap of $1 billion in early 2018. Key factors include Elon Musk’s infamous tweets, growing mainstream awareness, and rising retail adoption. As of November 2024, DOGE’s market capitalization has exceeded $57 billion, with the price hovering around $0.39. The price of DOGE has also seen a significant increase recently, largely due to social sentiment and US President Donald Trump’s announcement of plans to form a US Presidential Advisory Council, i.e.Department of Efficiency (D.O.G.E.). Although the planned unit currently has no ties to cryptocurrencies, increased speculation and enthusiasm for its crypto-eponymous product has sparked a new wave of interest.

Two major factors driving Meme coin’s rise

While Meme coin may not rely on the same metrics or use cases as its more mainstream counterparts (e.g. Bitcoin, USDT, Ethereum, etc.), there are some key aspects that affecting their growth and subsequent price movements.

First of all, Meme coins rely heavily on social media participation. Influencers and celebrities play a significant role in influencing the price movement of such tokens. For example, Elon Musk's tweets about DOGE, praising its utility and teasing potential use cases in the form of buying a Tesla, triggered a sudden and significant increase in price. For SHIB and PEPE, virality and organic comments on platforms like X and Reddit generated massive community engagement.

Another key factor affecting Meme coin price movements is listing on an exchange, especially on major exchanges such as Binance. For example, SHIB more than doubled in price after listing on Binance in May 2021, while PEPE experienced a similar surge in May 2023 on Coinbase and Binance. Such listings provide validation and liquidity, sparking investor interest.

Conclusion: The future of animal-themed meme coins

The success of these meme coins demonstrates the potential of strong community engagement and social sentiment to drive value. While these tokens may sometimes lack the technical innovation of other blockchain projects, they demonstrate the cultural strength and collective enthusiasm unique to the cryptocurrency space.

For investors, these tokens offer both high risk and high reward, requiring a deep understanding of market dynamics and sentiment-driven investing. DOGE, SHIB, WIF, PEPE, PNUT, POPCAT, and MEW valuations quickly rose to billions of dollars, highlighting the interesting intersection between finance, internet culture, crypto culture, and decentralized networks that will continue to influence the development of digital assets pattern.

How long did it take for Animal Meme Coin to break through 1 billion US dollars?

Here’s how long it took animal-themed meme coins and their market cap to reach $1 billion: