The End of the Memecoin Season? Dominance Plummets to New Lows

From mid-2022 to 2025, memecoins have experienced multiple peaks and corrections

The mid-2022 to 2025 period saw multiple peaks and corrections in memecoins, with the overall trend remaining downward.

As visualized by CryptoQuant, memecoin dominance, defined as the ratio of the combined market cap of major memecoins (e.g., Dogecoin, Shiba Inu) to the total cryptocurrency market cap, varied significantly.

Initially hovering around 0.02 in mid-2022, memecoin dominance spiked briefly to 0.08 by late 2022, likely due to a short-lived speculative frenzy. However, this surge proved unsustainable, and by early 2023, dominance corrected to 0.04.

Throughout 2023, the market remained volatile but trended downward, stabilizing between 0.03 and 0.04. A notable drop in late 2023 pushed dominance back to 0.02, signaling growing investor disinterest.

Early 2024 saw a temporary resurgence, with dominance rising to 0.06 by mid-year. Nevertheless, this rally quickly lost momentum.

From December 2024 onward, a sharp decline became evident, with memecoin dominance plummeting to 0.02 and remaining stagnant into March 2025.

This persistent downtrend confirms that memecoins are outperforming relative to the broader altcoin market. Moreover, the absence of a reversal pattern indicates that memecoins have continued to lose traction, with no signs of a renewed bullish cycle.

Memecoins performance breakdown

The Coin Performance chart from IntoTheBlocks further highlights the decline of memecoin dominance, showcasing steep corrections in major tokens.

Dogecoin (DOGE) peaked with a staggering 40,000% price increase in late 2024, while Shiba Inu (SHIB) surged to around 22,500%.

However, the euphoria faded quickly. By February 2025, Dogecoin retraced to 10,000%, and Shiba Inu dropped to just 5,000%.

Other memecoins, such as PEPE and FLOKI, mirrored this trend, erasing previous gains and now hovering near 0% or even negative returns.

Further data from CoinGlass confirms the end of the memecoin season, as none of these assets have shown recovery signals since March 2025. Unlike past cycles, where speculative hype fueled rebounds, memecoins are now facing an increasingly skeptical market.

This sector’s performance against the broader altcoin space also highlights the fading relevance of meme-driven tokens in a maturing crypto market.

Finally, several factors have contributed to the decline of memecoins, rendering a resurgence unlikely. The “Coin Performance” chart reveals the sharp downturn in leading memecoins, aligning with a broader shift in market sentiment.

Web discussions highlight oversaturation, with an influx of new memecoins flooding the market, diluting interest in individual projects.

Moreover, trading volume on platforms like Pump.fun has plummeted by 94% since January 2025, confirming waning speculative interest.

This aligns with the data from Atomic Markets, showing a decrease in retail traders interested in memecoins.

Furthermore, regulatory scrutiny has dampened enthusiasm for memecoins, which might be outperformed by utility-driven assets such as AI and DeFi tokens that offer tangible use cases.

Also, several reports highlight how institutional and retail investors are shifting toward projects with strong fundamentals, leaving memecoins behind.

Additionally, memecoin market capitalization has fallen by 30% in 2025 alone, reinforcing the sector’s decline.