Meme Coins Melt by Double Digits as ‘Flight to Quality’ Begins

Around $75 billion has exited crypto markets over the past 12 hours with total capitalization falling to a monthly low of $2.48 trillion.

However, meme coins are suffering the greatest losses, with many of them dumping by double digits.

In a post on X on June 18, Bitcoin pioneer Kyle Chassé said it has “never been clearer to see how people are exiting meme coins super fast.”

He observed that the meme coin narrative, which was “leading by relative strength a few days ago,” is now “nowhere to be seen.”

Meme Coins Melting

He also described this meme coin exodus as a “flight to quality” as traders and investors turn to crypto assets that provide a function or serve a purpose.

“The flight to quality has started, and the memecoin market has experienced a massive shakeout!!!”

HOLY SH*T!!!!

It’s NEVER been clearer to… pic.twitter.com/ql2VycgqPM

— Kyle Chassé (@kyle_chasse) June 18, 2024

While total crypto capitalization is down 3%, meme coin market capitalization has dropped 14% in the same period and is now $48.8 billion, according to CoinGecko.

The biggest loser was the MAGA coin TRUMP which has dumped 34% in a fall to $7.34. Donald Trump has not officially endorsed the asset and there have been rumors that his team launched an “official” token on Solana.

Several other meme coins suffered losses greater than 14%, including dogwifhat (WIF), Brett (BRETT), and Book of Meme (BOME).

The top three, Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and Pepe (PEPE), were also down double digits.

Ordinals creator ‘Leonidas’ observed that the only meme coin still in the green over the past seven days was the Runes-based DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON token DOG.

Out of the top 15 memecoins $DOG is holding up the strongest over the past 7 days and is only down 2.92%

The $DOG army shows up every day no matter what!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/gkemVKTnt1

— Leonidas (@LeonidasNFT) June 18, 2024

Altcoins Also in Pain

Meme coins are not the only crypto assets that have been dumped hard recently, though this category has suffered the greatest losses. Altcoins are also bleeding heavily today, so the ‘flight to quality’ hasn’t started yet.

There were heavy losses for Solana (SOL), which dropped 7% in a fall to $132, while Cardano (ADA) dumped 7.8%, falling to $0.37.

Other altcoins in similar pain include Avalanche (AVAX), Uniswap (UNI), Internet Computer (ICP), and Near Protocol (NEAR).

Bitcoin fell to support at around $65,000 before recovering slightly, and it still remains within a three-and-a-half-month sideways channel.