Smart Money Continues to Pursue Memecoins Despite End of ‘Supercycle’

Despite signs that the broader "supercycle" for speculative memecoins may be ending, the most successful cryptocurrency traders are still pursuing quick profits in these assets. This shift follows recent letdowns tied to memecoin launches linked to US President Donald Trump.

The industry's top traders, tracked as "smart money" on Nansen's blockchain intelligence platform, are continuing to hunt for profitable memecoin opportunities.

While rising stablecoin holdings signal a more cautious approach, these smart money traders remain open to speculative plays, according to Nicolai Sondergaard, a research analyst at Nansen.

“There was a recent surge in meme coins, and smart money is always keen to capitalize on that. But they’re also quick to rotate out when needed,” he explained during Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction live show on X.

“The recent meme frenzy was more of a fun play, while the broader market figures out its direction. Memecoins aren’t necessarily impacted by the same macroeconomic factors affecting Bitcoin and Ethereum,” he added.

The analyst's comments followed a week after a savvy trader turned an initial investment of just $2,000 into $43 million with the popular Pepe (PEPE) cryptocurrency.

Savvy Pepe trader, transactions. Source: Lookonchain

Although the trader missed selling at the peak, they still made a realized profit of over $10 million, despite Pepe’s decline of more than 70% from its all-time high.

The Launch of Trump Token May Have Marked the End of the Memecoin “Supercycle”

The launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin on January 18 may have marked the end of the memecoin "supercycle."

According to a Binance research report, "Pump.fun" has been closely linked to the "memecoin supercycle," as it represents over 70% of the tokens launched on Solana.

Pump.fun usage metrics. Source: Binance research report

The memecoin launchpad's weekly usage metrics peaked during the week of Trump’s inauguration but have since declined. The number of active wallets on Pump.fun dropped from 2.85 million on January 20 to just 1.44 million by March 31.

This decline is largely attributed to a decrease in investor sentiment, according to a Binance spokesperson, who added:

“Market sentiment seems to have shifted due to unverified reports of insider trading connected to high-profile tokens like $MELANIA and $LIBRA.”

"Broader macroeconomic uncertainty, including volatility driven by global tariff policies, may have further reduced speculative interest in memecoins," the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the TRUMP token has dropped more than 87% from its peak of $75.35 on January 19. In the past week, the token has fallen by over 8%.