Meme Coins Hijack the Crypto Narrative While Bitcoin Shatters Records at $118K ATH

As Bitcoin smashes through its all-time high at $118,000, an unlikely cast of meme coins is stealing the show. Forget fundamentals—this is the era of the dog, the frog, and the absurd.

### The Meme Economy Strikes Back

While institutional investors hyperventilate over BTC's parabolic move, retail traders are doubling down on digital jokes with market caps. The irony? Some of these 'useless' tokens are outperforming 'serious' altcoins—proving once again that crypto markets reward audacity over utility.

### Wall Street Meets Internet Culture

Traditional finance types still can't comprehend why a token named after a Shiba Inu commands a nine-figure valuation. Meanwhile, degens are getting rich off cartoon amphibians. The lesson? In 2025's market, liquidity flows where the memes go viral—regardless of whitepapers or 'adoption metrics.'

### The Cynic's Take

Let's be honest: half these projects will vanish faster than a hedge fund's ethics during a bull run. But for now? The circus is in town—and the clowns are making bank.

BONK Takes Over From Pump.Fun

Recent developments have seen a decline in confidence in Solana-based launchpad Pump.fun, leading to a rapid decline in market share. It has also been seeing fierce competition from LetsBonk.fun, a rival platform built and delivered by the BONK team, and for the first time last week, the latter overtook the former in terms of market share.

Given that the BONK team plans to use half of all generated fees to buy back the meme coin, interest in BONK has accelerated. This is because a notable amount of supply is expected to be bought back by the team, and the meme coin’s value is expected to rise as a result.

In response, the BONK meme coin has rallied ahead of other top coins in the category, with an over 43% increase in a 7-day period. As Letsbonk.fun’s dominance rises and the crypto market remains in a bearish trend, BONK is expected to hit new all-time highs before the cycle is over.

USELESS Joins Top Ranks Of Meme Coins

USELESS is the latest rave on the solana blockchain that burst into the meme coin scene back in June 2025. Since then, the meme coin has steadily built up a cult-like following on social media using its “useless” branding. What started out as an initial fad that faded after its over 50% crash quickly metamorphosed into an internet culture.

In the last few weeks, the price of USELESS has climbed steadily, with an over 5,000% increase in price. At the time of writing, the meme coin is sitting at over $300 million in market cap and doesn’t show any signs of stopping anytime soon.

USELESS has also scored the backing of some of the most important voices in crypto, including crypto trader Unipcs, popularly known as “BONK guy”. The trader has made over $7 million on his initial USELESS investment, and has publicly stated that he expects USELESS to reach a $1 billion market cap.

With the ethereum price surging alongside Bitcoin, PEPE has swam to the forefront again as one of the major meme coins to invest in. Over the years, PEPE has acted as a multiplier bet for the Ethereum price, meaning that a rise in the ETH price has often translated to a higher increase in the PEPE price.

This is seen in the Friday rally when the ETH price rose 8% after Bitcoin hit new ATHs, and the Pepe Price rose by around 16% during the same time period. Thus, as Ethereum is expected to rally back above its $4,800 all-time highs, PEPE could be a good bet to corner higher gains using ETH’s rally.