Decentral Block Post

In episode 22 of Hashing It Out with Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw, Sara Gherghelas, blockchain research analyst at DappRadar — a cryptocurrency data tracking platform — discusses the recent hype around memecoins, while looking at on-chain data. Gherghelas also provides insights on how other sectors, such as nonfungible tokens (NFTs), are faring as memecoins take off.

Gherghelas believes we are in a memecoin era. From her perspective, when you mention Web3 or cryptocurrencies in 2023, many people will associate the terms with memecoins. Gherghelas says there have been multiple memecoin cycles in the cryptocurrency space, but this time is different because the trend has been sustained for a more extended period.

The blockchain analyst associates the trend with the popularity of memecoins on social media and the creation of tight-knit communities that people want to be a part of. What’s more, the price action of memecoins in this cycle has attracted a large crowd of traders looking to make returns, according to Gherghelas. She also adds that memecoins are more accessible and inclusive due to their low barrier of entry.

“You can be a millionaire in Shiba, but you can never afford one million Bitcoin or one million Ethereum.“

Memecoins could be more than just a social media trend or an attempt to make quick returns. Gherghelas highlighted projects like Shiba Inu, which is building a decentralized exchange and layer-2 network, and Floki Inu, which is building a metaverse. The blockchain research analyst believes that memecoins are not a zero-sum game for the cryptocurrency industry because most people who come in through memecoins may stay and discover other aspects of crypto.

Tether-issued USDT (USDT) stablecoin broke past a new all-time-high market cap of over $83 billion as it continues its stablecoin market dominance.

The new ATH market cap for the USDT stablecoin comes in a year when other stablecoin issuers are struggling to remain afloat due to regulatory ire. The same was pointed out by cryptocurrency exchange Binance’s CEO Changpang Zhao aka CZ.

CZ in a quote tweet drew attention towards BUSD, a Binance stablecoin issued by Paxos. The Binance CEO said that “BUSD was a fully regulated stablecoin that was ‘capped’ by NYDFS at a $23 billion and currently sits at a $5 billion market cap and since then USDT has seen tremendous growth.”

In February earlier this year, the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) ordered Paxos to stop any new issuance of BUSD citing violations of security laws.

At a time when USDT has reached its ATH market cap, its competitors such as Circle-issued USD Coin (USDC) or Binance’s BUSD are struggling to maintain their market dominance. USDC the second largest stablecoin’s market cap stands at $28.8 billion with a difference of over $50 billion. For context, at one point UDC's market dominance was nearing that of USDT and its market cap reached an ATH of $55.8 billion in June 2022.