New tokens flood crypto market, memecoins dominate with almost half a million since April.
Since the beginning of April, over one million new tokens have been created, with over 370,000 appearing on Ethereum and over 640,000 on Solana, most of which are meme coins.
On the Ethereum network, 372,642 new tokens have been introduced since April 1, of which 88% have been introduced on Coinbase’s layer-2 blockchain Base. The layer-2 network has experienced a surge in activity due to degenerates congregating in the inexpensive network to generate new meme coins.
In a post to X on May 14, Coinbase director Conor Grogan referenced a comparable number, stating that it was double the number of tokens generated on Ethereum from 2015 to 2023.
According to L2beat, the total value locked (TVL) on Base has increased by approximately 630% since the start of 2024, primarily due to a broader fervor surrounding meme coins.
In the same period, 643,227 new tokens were generated on Solana, per data from the analytics platform Step Finance.
As per a Dune Analytics dashboard monitoring the number of newly launched tokens on the pump, fun, a Solana-based meme coin platform, meme coins comprised 466,914 of 643,000 tokens on Solana.
Most of the 500 tokens CoinMarketCap has added to its platform within thirty days are meme coins.
Memecoins now have a category on the crypto analytics platformScream Memecoin Launches Presale of $SCREAM Token CoinGecko, which lists over 600 coins with a total market capitalization of $52.7 billion — that is, nearly half of the USDT tickers down $1.00 in market capitalization of Tether.
The crypto community reacted negatively to Grogan’s X post, with many alleging that meme coins had been detrimental to the values of cryptocurrencies.
An individual expressed that it had a “net negative” impact due to the widespread occurrence of fraudulent activities and rug pulls. “That is real money that could have been invested in larger “legitimate” projects,” they stated, adding, “However, the fraudster has acquired it and will convert it to fiat currency.”
Some characterized the surge in the quantity of newly introduced meme coins as “spam to farm sniper bots,” which are automated programs that gather up new meme coins with the expectation of a breakout.
In April, an investigation by Cointelegraph unveiled that over 90% of newly created Base meme coins were vulnerable, and one in every six was a fraudulent scheme.
Cointelegraph reported in April that meme coins were the most lucrative crypto narrative during the first quarter, notwithstanding the anger directed at them.
