After a series of bad launches and rug pulls killed off investor interest, the enthusiasm for memecoins appears to have cooled according to CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong.
Here are the latest updates from the crypto world
After a series of bad launches and rug pulls killed off investor interest, the enthusiasm for memecoins appears to have cooled according to CoinGecko founder Bobby Ong.
Ong said in a March 6 report, that metrics for token launchpad Pump.fun immediately plummeted following the Libra (LIBRA) rug, with newly created tokens and daily graduated tokens on the platform falling over 90% since their February peak.
“The launch of TRUMP and MELANIA marked the top for memecoins as it sucked liquidity and attention out of all the other cryptocurrencies.”
It’s a stark contrast from memecoin activity after the launch of US President Donald Trump’s memecoin on Jan. 18, when Pump.fun usage recorded an all-time high of $3.3 billion in weekly trading volume.
But since then, Pump.fun's volume has dropped 63% between January and February. CoinMarketCap data also shows the total market capitalization of memecoins hit an all-time high of $124 billion on Dec. 5, but has since dropped to $54 billion.
David Sacks, White House crypto czar has criticized the US government’s sale of confiscated Bitcoin over the years, referring to it as a strategic mistake that has cost taxpayers billions.
Sacks in a March 6 social media post, said the US government generated $366 million in proceeds from its Bitcoin BTC$89,022 sales over the past decade.
Sacks said, “If the government had held the bitcoin, it would be worth over $17 billion today. That’s how much it cost American taxpayers not having a long-term strategy.”
It was highlighted by Joe Burnett, the head of market research at Unchained about the folly of treating Bitcoin as a short-term trade.
Burnett told Cointelegraph in a written statement, that “Long-term holders shape the market.”
“Bitcoin isn’t about timing the market. It’s about time in the market. In short, Bitcoin’s price will swing, but its true value is built for generations,” he added.
The Department of Justice received the green light in January to sell the 198,000 BTC it seized from Silk Road, the darknet marketplace that was shuttered in 2013. This decision was panned by the crypto community for being short-sighted and not carefully weighing Bitcoin’s long-term wealth effect.
The US government however, continues to hold the confiscated Bitcoin. The status of the stockpile has been subject to debate since Donald Trump secured the US presidency in November.
Following a fierce debate on the state Senate floor, the Texas Senate passed the Bitcoin BTC$88,894 strategic reserve bill SB-21 in a 25-5 vote on March 6.Charles Schwertner, Texas State Senator, who introduced the legislation, argued for the bill and said it would help Texas shore up its balance sheet with a valuable, scarce asset.
Senator Schwertner told the floor, that “We don’t have stacks of dollar bills and safes like we did in medieval times. What we have is digital currency.”
Adding that BTC was more similar to gold and a hedge against inflation., Pro-Bitcoin lawmakers also assuaged fears that Bitcoin was a direct competitor to the US dollar as a global reserve currency.
Schwertner said:“I would argue, and put forth, that because of central intervention and manipulation of the supply of currency, in this case, the US dollar, the ability to spend money through printing money has caused the dollar to fall in value and fall in worth.”