Bitcoin Nears $64K, 'Memecoin Supercycle' Trends as MOG, POPCAT Surge

Bitcoin (BTC) neared $64,000 in early Asian hours Monday ahead of a busy U.S. data week that sees the Federal Reserve release FOMC minutes and key economic figures from August that track the economy's growth.

BTC rose 3%, putting in motion a market-wide jump that saw majors from ether (ETH) to dogecoin (DOGE) jump as much as 4%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20), a liquid fund tracking the largest tokens, added 3.26%. Frog-themed Pepe (PEPE) rose 14%.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) will release the unadjusted CPI annual rate in September, the PPI annual rate in September, and the number of initial jobless claims for the week ending October 5.

Asian stocks rose on Monday, with the tech-heavy Hang Seng index jumping 3% and Korea’s KOSPI adding 1%. The People’s Bank of China, the nation’s central bank, has announced several stimulus measures over the past two weeks, boosting sentiment in the region. China is expected to announce further measures to stimulate the economy at a press conference on Tuesday morning local time.

Bittensor’s TAO led gains among mid-cap tokens of less than a $5 billion market cap with a 14% jump in increased social sentiment and growth in artificial intelligence tokens over the past week. Overall, the category on CoinGecko is up 7.5%, with AI tokens like (NEAR) and Internet Computer (ICP) also in the green.

Memecoins rose higher over the weekend as social sentiment and riskier behavior among crypto traders grew. Talks and posts of the so-called “memecoin supercycle,” a prediction that memes will lead the next crypto bull market, trended on social app X.

Solana-based popcat (POPCAT) and Ethereum-based mog (MOG) jumped over 12% in the past 24 hours, while BNB Chain-based simon’s cat (CAT) rose 10%.

Smaller tokens GIGA, SPX6900 (a parody of the U.S. index S&P500) and Fwog surged more than 20%.

Cat-themed memecoins continue to lead over their dog-themed counterparts and remain the preferred choice for riskier memecoin bets, as CoinDesk flagged previously.

Interest in memecoins comes amid low market volatility in more serious crypto sectors, such as layer-2s or storage, and rising negative sentiment around tokens backed by venture capital funds – which are increasingly perceived as overpriced and a bad bet for retail traders.

One market participant known as Kaiwen0x, who penned an essay on the memecoin supercycle, noted that they are bearish on memecoins if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election as it might bring regulatory clarity to the U.S, causing "capital to rotate toward utility tokens."