Meme Coins Lead Post-Bitcoin Halving Surge

This past weekend, following the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving event, it was not Bitcoin but meme coins that dominated the crypto market headlines. The latest Bitcoin halving, which took place late Friday, reduced miner rewards by half, marking the fourth occurrence in the cryptocurrency’s history. Despite these significant changes to Bitcoin’s supply dynamics, its price has shown only modest gains.

Among the standout performers, dog-themed meme coins have captured significant attention and investment. BONK, a Solana-based token, experienced a remarkable 37% increase in its value within just 24 hours. This surge brought BONK back to its price level before the market dip on April 12, which affected a wide range of cryptocurrencies.

Other meme coins have also seen impressive gains: Ethereum’s FLOKI rose nearly 19% to $0.00017, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) climbed 14% to over $0.000026. Additional notable increases were observed in PEPE, also on Ethereum, which went up by 13%, and Dogwifhat (WIF) on Solana, which increased by nearly 8% to around $3.00.

The excitement around meme coins may also be fueled by traders’ pivot towards established favorites in the wake of the halving, as well as the curiosity surrounding the new Bitcoin token standard, Runes. This protocol, launched alongside the halving by Casey Rodarmor (creator of the Ordinals protocol), has sparked interest as project creators and traders rush to mint new tokens. Although the initial trading volume has been relatively low, the activity around these tokens is expected to grow.

The most traded Runes token in the last 24 hours on OKX was the Satoshi Nakamoto token, named after Bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator. It saw around $2.7 million in trading volume, with a market cap of $136 million and a price of approximately $6.50 in Bitcoin terms.

Despite the surge in meme coin trading, Bitcoin itself has seen limited upward movement, with only a 1.5% increase since the halving, peaking at a 3% gain. This subdued response is atypical, particularly given Bitcoin’s history of significant post-halving rallies that tend to materialize months after the event.

This cycle is unique, especially since Bitcoin set a new all-time high in March, breaking its 2021 peak before the halving, likely influenced by the emergence of spot Bitcoin ETFs. As such, the post-halving market landscape is now venturing into uncharted territory, suggesting that the most significant impacts of the supply reduction may still be ahead.