Institutions Traded $180B in Memecoins: ByBit

Retailers and institutional investors account for a large percentage of memecoin holders and traders, according to a report from ByBit.

The report, titled “Beyond the Hype,” sheds light on how investors had jumped on the memecoin bandwagon, especially at the end of March, when the trend peaked with cryptocurrencies such as dogwifhat (WIF), BOOK OF MEME (BOME), Pepe (PEPE) and others.

Precisely, the amount of capital that institutions allocated to memecoins into their spot holdings from February to March saw a dramatic 226% increase to $204M. It didn’t stop there, however. The report notes that the total memecoin holdings surged to $293.7M in April.

Memecoins, Not Stablecoins

The report notes that by the first quarter of 2024, institutions had adopted a more risk-on approach by decreasing their stablecoin holdings, while exposure to memecoins and assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) increased considerably.

“Looking at flows across assets, we see a small decline in institutional holdings of stablecoins in March and April. Stablecoin holdings dropped from $1.7B in February to $1.4B in April, while exposure to memecoins, BTC, and ETH increased, indicating where the flows went.”

Institutions traded over $186.6 billion worth of memecoin perpetual contracts in Q1 2024. However, by May, institutions had exited some of their BTC, ETH, and memecoin holdings and increased their stablecoin supply, indicating the beginning of the profit-taking stages.

Retailers have shown adaptability as well. The report notes that retail memecoin holdings soared nearly 500% from February to April 2024, peaking at $567M before dropping back to $371M. 

Among the top memecoins for retailers and institutions is GME, the Solana-based token inspired by GameStop’s real-life shares. On that topic, Keith Gill, known as Roaring Kitty, is being investigated over market manipulation concerns.

Another popular memecoin is Brett (BRETT), on the Layer-2 blockchain Base and recently surpassed $1.1B in market capitalization.