Memecoins
Institutional holdings of Meme Coin have increased since January, led by Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and Pepe
Institutional allocations to meme coins have increased more than 300% this year, reaching a peak of nearly $300 million in April, according to crypto exchange Bybit.
The influx indicates how the sector is enjoying new favor among professional investors, Bybit said in a report released Wednesday. Popular choices among institutional investors were dogecoin (DOGE) and shiba inu (SHIB), mainly due to their high liquidity in the spot market. Holdings were tracked exclusively on Bybit and do not include those on other exchanges.
The Solana BONK meme token has become the most favored of the new meme coins that have risen to prominence this year, attracting more than $75 million in institutional bets.
Holdings fell by almost half, to $125 million, in May as institutions took profits.
Stablecoin holdings fell during the period from $1.7 billion to $1.4 billion, while bitcoin exposure (BTC)ether (ETH) and the coins even increased.
As of May 1, DOGE held the largest share of coin holdings for retail and institutional investors. Institutions allocated a greater proportion of funds to DOGE: 36% compared to 24.5% for retail investors.
“This suggests that while both groups view DOGE as a core asset in the memecoin space, institutions are favoring it more, perhaps due to its higher liquidity and relative stability,” Bybit said. “Both cohorts also benefit from Ethereum-based memecoins (PEPE) and (SHIB), with retail users holding 20.95% and 14.61%, respectively, compared to 22.23% and 10.39% for institutions.”
In recent months, meme tokens from the Ethereum and Solana ecosystem have risen to prominence as a way to bet on the growth of a blockchain.