Despite the general slowdown in the cryptocurrency market, meme coins saw a tremendous influx of memes with celebrity, sports, political, and animal themes in the second quarter of 2024.
Notably, NFT was hit by this wider downturn in the cryptocurrency market, with sales volume dropping to $2.32 billion in Q2, 2024—a 44% decrease from Q1’s $4.14 billion.
This general market collapse is accompanied by a 15% drop in Bitcoin from its all-time high of $73,750 on March 14. Top altcoins proceeded in a similar manner, but meme coins remained unaffected.
Memes are stealing market share from the NFT industry.
The increase of meme coins may have had an impact on NFT sales since it diverted investors’ attention from the product. In this context, Mind Share refers to a product’s level of appeal with investors and customers.
Meme coins are becoming the talk of the town due to a spike in trading volume, while NFT sales are dropping. The trade volume of meme coins has hit $3.6 billion in the last day, according to data.
PolitiFi meme coins account for the majority of trade activity; their appeal has grown in the wake of the US 2024 presidential election. In addition, a surge in new celebrity meme coins has been observed on the Ethereum and Solana networks.
The Donald Trump-affiliated token MAGA (TRUMP) and the meme coin Pepe with a frog motif were two of the coins that had a notable increase in value in Q2. In May, PEPE achieved new all-time highs; on May 27, it reached its highest value of $0.00001718.
In a same vein, MAGA’s value surged after Trump made pro-crypto statements during the campaign, setting a new record high of $17.52 on June 1. MAGA’s drop from its new record high has been almost 63%.
Gamestop GME is another meme coin that saw tremendous growth in Q2 2024. It peaked on June 7 at $0.03207 then fell 75% to $0.0077.
NFTs are being dumped from billionaire Mark Cuban’s wallet after two years of inactivity.
A cryptocurrency wallet connected to billionaire Mark Cuban, which has been dormant for nearly two years, dumped some NFTs amid the falling NFT sales. On January 13, 2022, Cuban made its final transaction before it went dormant, selling one Roc Aero Pitch Deck NFT for $33.73.
But Pudgy Penguin was just sold by the wallet address marked markcuban.eth, along with other products like Euler Beats Genesis and Wrapped MoonCats.
The billionaire sold roughly 14 NFTs in June for an estimated $38,533. The most costly NFT on his selling list is the Pudgy Penguin NFT, which is valued at $39,578. The price range of the most recent NFT sales was $22-$1,800.
The billionaire still intends to sell some of the other valuable NFTs in his collection in the interim. He offered to sell his hashtag, NFT #MFFL, which is estimated to be worth $50,000 and is worth 15 Ether.
Additionally, Cuban offered to sell his BibleNFT translation of Deuteronomy 25:4 for 5 ETH, or almost $16,000. He will make $100,000 in total sales if he sells both NFTs.
Cuban’s NFT sales are mysterious, but they do seem to be related to a security breach on his Gmail account. After receiving a phony call, Cuban disclosed that his Gmail account had been hijacked. On June 25, Cuban was able to retrieve his Gmail account with the assistance of Google.
Additionally, in 2023, scammers cost Mark Cuban nearly $900,000. Therefore, the recent NFT sales may have been a precautionary step. Still, more investors may have dumped their NFTs as a result of the transactions given the growing interest in meme coins.
There have previously been drops in NFT market sales similar to this one. NFTs saw a similar downturn in 2023 before rebounding to achieve over $3 billion in sales in the most recent quarter, according to marker statistics.
