![Cryptocurrency Prices Rise, Coinbase Shares Rise After Q1 Results Beat Expectations: CNBC Crypto World](https://image.cnbcfm.com/api/v1/image/107236603-O5_05_CW_THUMB.jpg?v=1683313201&w=750&h=422&vtcrop=y)
The value of ether jumped on Friday as investors bet on the latest crypto memecoins.
Ether it closed higher 5.61% at around $1,990, in accordance with Coin Metrics. It is still below the key $2,000 level that briefly broke in April after the Shapell update. Earlier in the day, it was up greater than 6% to a high of $1,999.59.
Bitcoins it ended the day higher by USD 29,501.16. It is slowly approaching the $30,000 mark it has struggled to regain since mid-April.
Market participants are betting on attempting to bring the meme mania back to crypto. Cryptocurrencies surged at the starting of the 12 months, but were largely characterised by low volatility. Many investors stayed on the sidelines after the collapse of FTX, waiting for the market to scrub away the bad actors and irresponsible or otherwise frivolous ventures that contributed to a few of the disastrous events in 2022.
Memecoins like PEPE and SPONGE as well dog coin or shiba inu are driven by hype and social media, and plenty of investors have suffered significant losses from investing in them.
“There are tons of memecoins on the chain at once that generate large gas fees” or transaction fees on the Ethereum network and “push ETH into further deflation,” meaning its supply is shrinking somewhat than growing, said Michael Rinko, a security analyst at Ethereum. research at Delphi Digital.
In accordance with CoinMarketCap, the newly created SpongeBob token (SPONGE), based on SpongeBob SquarePants and launched on Thursday, has surged nearly 600% and costs lower than 1 cent per coin.
Pepecoin (PEPE), based on the web meme Pepe the Frog, has surged greater than 120% in the past 24 hours, CoinMarketCap said. Pepe the Frog was created by cartoonist Matt Furie in the early 2000s. In 2016, it was appropriated by the alt-right to such an extent that the American Anti-Defamation League listed it as a hate symbol.
“One in all the primary explanation why ETH is growing … is the resurgence of memecoins,” said Conor Ryder, a research analyst at crypto data provider Kaiko. “Whatever you concentrate on memecoins, the fact is that they encourage users to transact on Ethereum, which helps the network earn more fees. Ethereum gas charges have been restored with the return of memecoins, reaching its annual high just today.”
“As gas charges increase, more ETH is burned, and with the current level of activity, ETH is a deflationary asset, which should help push the price of ETH higher,” added Ryder. “Over the past 24 hours, PEPE’s trading volume on Uniswap has surpassed that of Tether and Wrapped Bitcoin, a few of the largest tokens on the exchange.”
Ether finished the week up 4.53%, marking its second consecutive positive week and seventh of the last eight. Coin Metrics measures the week in cryptocurrencies that trade 24 hours a day, from the exchange’s close at 4:00 p.m. EST one Friday to the next.
Bitcoin closed the week up just 0.35%. This is the second consecutive positive week for bitcoin and the third positive week out of 4.
—Gina Francolla contributed to the reporting