The end of the meme coin theme?

MemeCoin, which has been leading the coin market since early last year, has recently continued to weaken, and its market capitalization has evaporated by more than half in a month.

The total cryptocurrency market capitalization dropped by $100 billion in a week to $900 billion, marking its lowest point since February, according to CoinMarketCap data on Thursday afternoon.

The downturn in the meme coin sector, which had been a highlight of the market earlier in the year, contributed significantly to the decline. The meme coin market capitalization decreased by 51.30% to $57.3 billion, contrasting sharply with the $117.6 billion reported last month following the launch of "Official Trump."

The major meme coins also experienced a decline, with Dogecoin decreasing by 48.0%, Pepe by 54.4%, and Official Trump by 82.8% over the same period.

The meme coins had enjoyed immense popularity, especially in the final quarter of last year, as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was less likely to intervene due to the coins' lack of purpose or use, rendering them less susceptible to legal issues. They also quickly adapted to reflect the latest online trends.

The market sentiment shifted following the launch of President Donald Trump's meme coin, "Official Trump," on the 17th of last month. The coin's capitalization exceeded 20 trillion won shortly after its listing.

As reported by Tiger Research, "Memcoin is emerging as a key trading item for virtual asset exchanges in speculative assets, driving changes in the flow of funds in the market along with a large inflow of liquidity."

Following the success of the official Trump coin, the first lady 'Melania Meme' coin also appeared. On the 14th, 'Libra,' an Argentine president Javier Milay meme coin, and 'Argentina's Trump' also made their debut.

However, these coins deviated from the original essence of meme coins. The meme coins were typically released with the same initial price, and the foundation, holding no more than 80% of the distribution volume, aimed not to affect the price.

In contrast, Trump MemeCoin bought back 80% of the volume immediately after the issuance, and Trump later announced on his social network (SNS) that "This is the official Trump meme coin."

MemeCoin received attention for purely inheriting the spirit of Bitcoin in opposition to centralized capital, as highlighted by Kim Min-seung, head of the Covit Research Center. However, he noted that the ecosystem has cooled rapidly as the culture was distorted by Trump and Milay MemeCoin.

Another pressing issue arose from North Korean hackers who recently hacked Bibit, the world's second-largest exchange by transaction volume, to launder money using the meme coin "Jinxi Huang."

According to blockchain analyst ZachXBT, Lazarus issued about 500,000 Qin Shihuang coins at Pumpfun, a Solana-based meme coin trading platform.

The trading volume of Qin Shi Huang quickly increased to $26 million within three hours of the issuance, attributed by analysts to Lazarus's actions to launder money.

Following the news, Solana removed the Qin Shi Huang coin from Pumpfun. Currently, only similar meme coins are traded at Pumpfun, not the ginxihuang coins issued by Lazarus.

Amid this situation, some predict the end of the meme coin trend. Matt Hogan, Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Bitcoin spot ETF issuer Bitwise, expressed his view that there are enough assets to replace meme coins, such as Bitcoin, stablecoins, and real-linked assets (RWA). He predicts the end of meme coins is in sight in the virtual asset market.

MemeCoin is growing based on abundant market liquidity, but it is also a problem that the virtual asset market continues to weaken. As of 3 p.m., Bitcoin is trading at $85,801, down 3.31% from the previous day. Bitcoin has fallen 10.86% in the last three days.