Dogecoin Leads Meme Coin Dive as Geopolitical Tensions Slam Crypto Market

The top meme coin by market cap, Dogecoin, is diving lower amid a broader market sell-off, dropping nearly 6% in the last 24 hours as tensions between Israel and Iran flare following Israel’s airstrikes late Thursday.

The dog-themed meme coin leader is now trading below $0.178, down 23% over the last month and more than 75% from its all-time high of $0.73 in 2021. 

The meme category as a whole is underperforming major assets, dropping 9.5% in the last 24 hours compared to 2.6% and 8% for Bitcoin and Ethereum, respectively, according to data from CoinGecko.

Those meme coin losses are highlighted by most of the majors, like Ethereum-based Pepe, which has dropped 10.8% during the same time frame. Solana’s top meme coin performers, like Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), Bonk (BONK), and Dogwifhat (WIF) have each dropped more than 9%. 

The Fartcoin drop has led to a notable odds shift for Myriad Market’s Fartcoin flash market, which asks predictors whether or not the flatulence-themed meme coin will trade above a $1.3 billion market cap come Saturday evening. 

Now, odds of that taking place trade around 14% compared to around 51% on Thursday afternoon, signaling predictors may not be that confident in a quick turnaround for the meme coin market. 

Even SPX6900, an Ethereum-based token that its creators say is designed to try and flip the S&P 500 by market cap, is down more than 13% in the last 24 hours after climbing to a new all-time high just two days ago. (It’s still nowhere near the S&P 500’s market cap, to be clear.)

Plus, other notable memes like Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), Popcat (POPCAT), and Mog Coin (MOG) have dropped at least 10% apiece.

The market’s sell-off hasn’t been isolated to meme coins and majors, as altcoins have faced a similar fate over the last 24 hours, helping rack up more than $1.13 billion in crypto liquidations during that timeframe, per CoinGlass data.