Meme Coins Surge Alongside Other Risk Assets Following Trump Shooting

Meme coin mania has returned—just days after some of the biggest such risk assets took a hit—with tokens like Ethereum-based Pepe and Solana's Dogwifhat making big gains.

In the past day, Pepe (PEPE) and Dogwifhat (WIF) are among the biggest winners in the crypto market—they're up 21% and 18%, respectively, according to CoinGecko data. Pepe is now priced at $0.00001256, while Dogwifhat today hit $2.24.

Also gainig today is Popcat, a Solana-based meme token. The asset has shot up nearly 18% in the past 24 hours and is now priced at $0.8995.

Of the largest-cap meme coins, Dogecoin—the original meme coin and 10th biggest cryptocurrency by market cap—is up nearly 5% in the past day, marking a bigger jump than Bitcoin and Ethereum. Dogecoin's price currently stands at $0.1252.

Meme coins are cryptocurrencies that are often based on Internet memes and jokes, as well as real-world events and trends. Such virtual coins and tokens—which may run on their own blockchain or other major networks, like Ethereum and Solana—are known to be very volatile.

"Risk-on" assets—investments that tend to swing up and down in price—have done well off the back of a failed assassination attempt on Donald Trump this past weekend.

A bullet skimmed the presumptive Republican candidate's ear at a rally on Saturday. Investors now are betting that the ex-U.S. president will not only win in November, but also be the most Wall Street-friendly candidate.

As a result, crypto and meme stocks are up big, while Trump-themed meme coins in particular skyrocketed in value over the weekend. Trump has recently positioned himself as the crypto-friendly presidential hopeful. He has said he will "defend the right to mine Bitcoin" and later this month will speak at the 2024 Bitcoin Conference in Nashville, TN.

Bitcoin today broke above $65,000 per coin, according to CoinGecko—the first time it has reached that level in nearly a month. It is currently priced at $64,359, up more than 1% over the past 24 hours.

Edited by Andrew Hayward