Meme coins are coming back into the spotlight after spending weeks on the sidelines. Tokens like Pepe, Bonk, and Floki are now rising faster than even the big names like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, as traders return to higher-risk bets.
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu are still up about 20% over the past week, but smaller meme coins are moving much faster. Pepe and Bonk helped push the total value of the meme-coin market up 7% in one day, lifting it to around $52.4 billion.
This jump shows a clear shift in trader behavior. After lagging through much of late 2025, meme coins are now seeing aggressive rebounds as investors chase risk again.
Over the past week, Pepe, Floki, Bonk, and Pudgy Penguins have all beaten their larger rivals. Several meme coins are now up more than 65% since the start of the year. Because of this surge, meme coins are dominating the crypto leaderboard, with about six of the top 10 gainers in the top 100 cryptocurrencies coming from this sector.
A well-known crypto trader on X, Unipcs, believes Floki could follow the same path as Pepe and Bonk. He also called out Pudgy Penguins as a standout project, pointing to its real revenue and growing global brand—things he says the market hasn’t fully priced in yet.
Right now, PENGU is up more than 48% in the past seven days.
Data from CryptoQuant shows why this rebound may not be a surprise. Meme coins hit a record low in dominance last December after peaking during the November 2024 hype cycle. Their share of the altcoin market dropped from 11% to just 3.2% in a month—levels that have often come right before strong meme-coin rallies.
Bitcoin investor Lark Davis added that meme-coin valuations have already grown by more than $10 billion since January 1. He believes that even a small return of risk-taking in the first quarter could keep this rally going.
