Solana's New Top Dog? Meme Coin Dogwifhat Flips BONK for First Time

Solana meme coin darling Dogwifhat (WIF) continued its meteoric resurgence on Wednesday, briefly eclipsing BONK as the network’s top meme coin by market capitalization. 

At multiple points today, Dogwifhat’s $2 billion-plus market cap eclipsed that of BONK by several million dollars. At writing, the two coins stand at near-equal valuations, with BONK having recaptured its lead by a sliver of less than 3%. 

For months, BONK stood uncontested as Solana’s top meme coin, with no other token approaching its multi-billion dollar value. BONK began that stretch of dominance in the late fall, leading a wave of rising prices in the Solana ecosystem. 

It was in that period that Dogwifhat first launched, over Thanksgiving week. After an astonishing 227,000% rise in its first weeks, the coin—an homage to the popular meme of a Shiba Inu wearing a knitted beanie, and little more—continued to grow steadily until exploding last week. In a matter of days, WIF increased in value fivefold, from $0.37 to $1.88.

That streak was in part fueled by the coin’s listing, during that period, on key crypto exchanges including Robinhood Europe and Binance. It has since continued unabated, with the token up by over 50% in the last 24 hours, to $2.06 at writing. 

Just this morning, that phenomenal momentum carried WIF beyond a $2 billion market cap for the first time ever—a massive milestone for a meme coin that was essentially worthless a fiscal quarter ago.

BONK, meanwhile, crashed significantly after its December surge, shedding over 80% of its value within weeks. Fortunes changed for the meme coin last week, though, as a wave of optimism in the crypto market led by Bitcoin’s seismic surge lifted BONK and various other cryptocurrencies (including WIF) to record highs. 

The token reached its all time high on Monday, a price nonetheless equivalent to a fraction of a fraction of a cent. It has since fallen by 27%, as crypto prices across the board begin to retract slightly from bullish sprints.

Edited by Andrew Hayward