The cryptocurrency market saw frenzied activity in the first half of 2024, with memecoins emerging as the most significant wealth multiplier for investors.

What Happened: Birthed out of popular memes and characters, these coins gave massive windfalls to traders who believed in their prospects.

Ethereum (CRYTO: ETH)-based Mog Coin was the biggest gainer YTD, netting a staggering 4959.69% return in the first six months of 2024.

Solana (CRYPTO: SOL)-based dogwifhat, based on a picture of a Shiba Inu dog wearing a pink knitted cap, bagged the second spot with a whopping 1385% profit.

Frog-theme Pepe exploded 833% since the start of the year, while yet another canine token, Floki (CRYPTO: FLOKI) surged 5x YTD.

These emerging coins also outstripped gains of senior and more popular tokens like Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB), and the king of memecoins, Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE),

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While not astronomical, these large-cap memecoins saw respectable increases. Shiba Inu grew 70% YTD, while Dogecoin gained 35%.

Why It Matters: Broadly, meme tokens outstripped the gains of blue-chip cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), both of which recorded 50% gains in the first half.

Even while this class of non-serious cryptocurrencies continues to be tarnished by worries about extreme price volatility and a lack of underlying utility, they continue to be an appealing, low-cost option for regular investors hoping to enter the market and make quick returns.

According to analysts, the narrative around investment has shifted from long-term worth to short-term gains on speculative meme coins.

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