Doge (DOGE) Is on a Tear Thursday, Leading the Meme-Coin Market Cap Surge

Dogecoin (DOGE) price rose on Thursday as the biggest meme cryptocurrency surged 14% in the last 24 hours, more than double Bitcoin’s daily percentage gain as BTC reclaimed $100,000 and has continued to rise above $103,000 as of this writing.

The leading dog-token is now trading at $0.195, up 36% on the month. Predictors on Myriad Markets give it about a 55% chance of trading above $0.19 in the next two days, based on data from Myriad’s recent flash market. (Disclosure: Myriad is owned by Decrypt's parent company, DASTAN.)

While DOGE is leading the pack, a trio of other notable meme coins are following close behind.

The President’s official Solana token—TRUMP—has jumped nearly 16% in the last day of trading, now priced at $12.62. The token recently surged after an announcement that top holders will gain access to a special dinner with the President, but it's still 83% off its January high.

Another Solana token, the flatulence-themed Fartcoin (FARTCOIN), is outpacing the President’s token, surging 24% over the same time frame, the fifth-biggest daily gain among the top 100 tokens by market capitalization according to CoinGecko. It's priced at $1.23.

Ethereum-based meme coin PEPE is the third-largest gainer in that group, increasing nearly 41.5% on Thursday to a price of $0.000011.

Not only is the trio outperforming the top crypto asset, but they’re pulling the weight for the rest of the meme coin category which has now eclipsed a $65 billion market cap—a 16.5% gain in the last 24 hours of trading.

That category is filled with dozens of once-hot meme coins making surges today, like the Solana token Moo Deng (MOODENG) which is based on a Thailand-based pygmy hippo of the same name. The token, which earned listing on multiple centralized exchanges, is up by 125% in the last 24 hours to $0.089. It remains 88% off its all-time high of $0.68 from November.

Meme coins, which are inherently risky and volatile, have grown in popularity since last year’s launch of Solana token launchpad Pump.fun, which makes it cheap and easy for anyone to create their own token.

New token launchpads, like Boop.fun, are now innovating on that experience, including offering users major airdrop rewards to try to get them to launch tokens and engage on their platforms.