Sokipiriye Dokubo
Over the weekend, Bitcoin’s much-anticipated halving failed to spark a significant price surge for the cryptocurrency itself, despite being the focal point of attention. While Bitcoin experienced its fourth halving event late Friday, the real winners in the crypto market were meme coins, particularly those with dog-themed motifs, which saw substantial price increases.
Leading the charge was BONK, a Solana-based meme coin, which skyrocketed by a staggering 37% over the past 24 hours alone, reaching a current price of $0.000021 according to CoinGecko data. BONK’s price surge effectively erased losses suffered on April 12, aligning with a broader market downturn.
Among the top 100 coins by market capitalization, BONK witnessed the most significant swing. However, other meme coins on Ethereum also performed well over the weekend. FLOKI surged by nearly 19% to almost $0.00017, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) saw a 14% increase to above $0.000026.
Additionally, Ethereum’s PEPE experienced a 13% jump to nearly $0.000006, and Dogwifhat (WIF), based on Solana, climbed by almost 8% to approximately $3.00. Traders in Ethereum and Solana meme coins may be gravitating towards established tokens amidst the emergence of Runes, a new Bitcoin fungible token standard introduced alongside the halving.
Runes garnered significant hype as project creators rushed to mint tokens using the protocol. While trading volume initially surged, it has since remained relatively modest, as tracked by the OKX marketplace. The most actively traded Runes token in the past 24 hours is Satoshi Nakamoto, named after Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator, with a trading volume of around $2.7 million.
Despite the excitement surrounding Runes, Bitcoin itself has struggled to gain momentum post-halving, registering only a modest 1.5% increase to just below $65,000. Historically, Bitcoin’s most significant post-halving gains occur several months later as the impact of reduced supply begins to ripple across the ecosystem.
This cycle has been unique, with Bitcoin reaching a new all-time high in March before the halving, driven partly by the emergence of spot Bitcoin ETFs. As a result, the post-halving price action is navigating uncharted territory, leaving traders to speculate on future market movements.