Solana (SOL) meme tokens reawaken, BONK leads, while AI16Z breaks above $1B market cap

Solana meme tokens are gaining attention again after the top trends rearranged their order. Bonk (BONK) is now the leading Solana meme by market capitalization, after flipping Dogwifhat (WIF).

Solana meme tokens are rearranging their influence. Bonk (BONK) flipped DogWifHat (WIF), reaching a total market cap of $2.99B. BONK is a relatively early mass-appeal meme, while WIF tapped its community for long-term holding. Both memes have gone through drawdowns of up to 70%, with both retail and whale activity.

Meme tokens as a whole retained a total market capitalization of over $120B after a recent correction. Solana’s top assets make up about 10% of that market, with some fluctuation in the top 20 tokens. While Solana makes up to 80% of new token launches, only a handful of top tokens compete with the earlier batch of Ethereum-based memes.

Solana meme traders have also shifted their profile in the past few weeks. There are fewer new traders and smaller weekly cohorts, with lowered DEX activity. The bulk of transactions come from repeat traders, experienced in the Solana ecosystem.

Overall, Solana memes are trying to grab the spotlight from the earlier Ethereum-based dog-themed tokens. The Solana network carries five tokens with a market capitalization above $1B, a threshold of increased visibility. Most of the up-and-coming Solana tokens are hovering around $500M while waiting for a breakout.

Solana DEX activity slowed down in the past few days, as seen by lowered fees for Raydium and JitoSOL. The Solana meme craze is now being replaced by a rollover to DeFi and Ethereum-based projects. Despite this, meme tokens are still highly active, offering short-term opportunities for outsized rallies.

SOL also took a step back, trading at $221.69, after attention moved to BTC and other narratives.

AI agent tokens boost Solana’s trades

The recent attention on Solana assets comes from meme tokens linked to AI agents. Those assets are the most active ones. The top Solana assets in the past week include WIF, POPCAT, Luigi, BONK, Chillguy, FARTCOIN, and GOAT.

AI agents extended their top position among the most mentioned topics in crypto, starting from the end of November. The trend may continue into 2025, as predicted by experts from the real a16Z.

In total, the AI agent market expanded above a valuation of $10B, of which AI16Z made gains at around $1B in market capitalization. The AI16Z token rallied after MEXC prepared to list it in its Assessment zone, starting to trade this Friday.

🚨#MEXC New Listing Alert!

📈 #AI16Z/USDT will be listed in the Assessment Zone on 2024-12-13 03:40 (UTC).@ai16zdao is the first venture capital firm led by Al agents.

— MEXC (@MEXC_Official) December 13, 2024

AI agent meme tokens are one of the recent trends on Solana, which partially overlaps with general AI on-chain startups. The trend was started by Truth Terminal and the Numogram (GNON) bot, later spawning multiple social media profiles.

Not all AI agent tokens are made equal, and some are abused by minor token projects for extra visibility.

One of the AI-driven tokens to rally was FARTCOIN, a ticker selected almost as a joke. The token rallied to an all-time high of $0.76, driven by social media hype. The asset is not connected to any specific AI agent on social media but is considered a part of the AI agent narrative.

AI agent tokens are the more recent meme creation, tapping the Solana ecosystem for a faster launch through Pump.fun.

The ranking of AI agents on social media also coincides with their token performance. In the past few days, FARTCOIN lined up as the most influential mention by AI agents, driven by social media messages on X.

AI agents still take up a significant part of the mindshare, evolving into agent-to-agent communication. New projects are also building infrastructure to allow the agents the ability to transact on-chain without additional human input or permission.

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