- The animal meme sector saw large losses in recent weeks.
- Some memes created around a certain viral event may explode in value, but be unable to hold on to the gains over time.
The memecoin market has been bleeding since the first week of December, when their total market cap stood at $127 billion. At press time, it was down to $89.53 billion.
Among the memes, the animal-based memecoins appeared to be particularly bearish.
Animal memes and the news cycle
Among the animal meme tokens, Peanut the Squirrel [PNUT] which had been a strong animal meme in early November, has been falling quite rapidly, losing 41.4% in a week.
Many of the others, such as cat in a dogs world [MEW] or Moo Deng [MOODENG] have shed double-digit percentages over the past week amid Bitcoin [BTC] weakness.
In early November 2024, Peanut, an orphaned squirrel who has been raised by humans for the past seven years, was seized in Pine City, New York, by the US Department for Environmental Conservation (DEC).
Another pet in the same household, a raccoon named Fred, was also seized after the duo became an internet sensation in October, which prompted some netizens to call the DEC.
Stating that a person involved with the investigation was bitten, the DEC said they had euthanized Fred and Peanut to test for rabies.
Source: Santiment
This event also led to the birth of the PNUT token, an animal memecoin based on Peanut the Squirrel.
As seen on the Santiment chart above, it saw a swiftly rising social dominance in the second week of November, reaching a peak value of 1.75% on the 14th of November.
Should you leave once the narrative dies down?
Source: PNUT/USDT on TradingView
If you had bought $1,000 worth of the animal meme PNUT on the 8th of November, it would have been worth close to $20,100 by the 14th. At press time, it would still be worth close to $2,210.
The continual decline in social dominance, weighted sentiment, and price suggested that once the token is out of the news cycle, it will be hard for it to maintain its price levels.
Moo Deng, the viral baby hippo, and its namesake animal memecoin MOODENG revealed a similar price trajectory.
Source: MOODENG/USDT on TradingView
It is inevitable that other animal memes will be created and will demand the public’s attention in the coming weeks and months. This could be spurred by viral memes, for example.
Read Peanut the Squirrel’s [PNUT] Price Prediction 2025-26
The key is to notice the trend early — which is extremely hard by itself, but equally important is the willingness to sell.
Some memes like Dogecoin [DOGE] might never leave the limelight. Others, like PNUT, might only have a limited time to shine before fading into obscurity.
