Crypto’s institutional influx has killed the memecoin craze

The crypto market continues to mature with growing institutional participation, and memecoins are paying the price.

The combined market capitalization of DOGE$0.06939 and shiba inu (SHIB), the two largest memecoins by value, has fallen to $13.27 billion, the lowest in three years and down about 2% this month alone, even though market leader bitcoin BTC$64,989.11 has risen by 10%.

A more revealing picture emerges when you measure the top two memecoins against bitcoin’s market cap of $1.30 trillion.

That ratio now stands at just 1.02%, the lowest on record. That’s a dramatic reset if considering where things stood at the peak of memecoin mania in 2021, when DOGE and SHIB together accounted for 7% of bitcoin’s market cap. In other words, for every dollar invested in bitcoin, seven cents were chasing internet joke tokens. Today that figure is just over one cent.

Bitcoin has grown substantially since 2021, meaning memecoins haven’t just lost value in dollar terms, they have ceded ground against the very asset that defines the crypto market cycle.

It points to a broader change in how capital flows through crypto. The introduction of U.S. spot bitcoin ETFs in 2024 accelerated the institutionalization of the market, drawing in a class of investors who have little interest in meme tokens and significant interest in bitcoin as a macro asset. Capital has also been pulled away by other emerging sectors with links to traditional finance, such as real-world assets.

Capital that once chased speculative memecoins is consolidating into bitcoin and other major market sectors. This, coupled with higher interest rates worldwide, indicates that the era of easy money through memecoins is gone.

As for short-term market trends, positioning in the options market points to a constructive outlook among traders with expectations for a BTC price increase to at least $72,000. Stay alert!

Read more: For analysis of today’s activity in altcoins and derivatives, see Crypto Markets Today . For a comprehensive list of events this week, see CoinDesk’s “Crypto Week Ahead.”

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The chart shows the combined market value of the top memecoins, DOGE and SHIB.

Their aggregate value has slid to $13.3 billion, the lowest level since September 2023. The pair is down 2.3% in July alone, despite gains in bitcoin, underscoring the extent to which these once‑crowded trades have fallen out of favor.