Bitcoin may have dipped from its new all-time high it hit yesterday—but smaller cap meme coins and tokens are up big.
The biggest winner is Dogwifhat (WIF), which is up nearly 34% in 24 hours and is priced at $3.21, CoinGecko data shows at time of writing.
And Pepe (PEPE), which came into existence last year, is up slightly more than 13%, making it the second biggest gainer in the past day.
Solana-based meme Bonk (BONK) has also made gains, jumping by nearly 10%.
Bigger memes, like Dogecoin, the 10th biggest digital asset, is up only slightly in the past day, by 4%.
While Shiba Inu hasn't budged at all.
The price surge in memes comes as Bitcoin (BTC) and other major cryptocurrencies take a hit: many big coins and tokens dropped along with stocks on news that February inflation was hotter than expected.
The price of Bitcoin and other digital assets tends to move in line with U.S. stocks because they are "risk assets," meaning their value fluctuates more than that of other, more stable investments.
But meme coins have been an exception—despite being the riskiest of cryptocurrencies.
Meme coins are highly volatile digital assets based on Internet memes and trends. They don't appear to have much utility, but their prices can spike suddenly, giving some lucky traders huge returns.
Such cryptocurrencies can also drop in value just as quickly.
Edited by Ryan Ozawa.