Koreans trade MEW meme token more than Bitcoin (BTC)

The meme token MEW has taken over the South Korean market. MEW surpassed even Bitcoin (BTC) in daily volumes, riding on the trend of cat-themed memes. MEW is one of the few meme assets offered to South Korean traders, and enjoys a growing fandom.

Cat in a Dog’s World (MEW) peaked as the most traded asset on Bithumb, in a pairing with the South Korean won. MEW is otherwise not lining up among the top memes valued above $1B, but seems to have a loyal following and active trading history. MEW recently flipped Book of Meme (BOME), which has fallen out from the hottest trends.

MEW rallied after a revival of cat-themed tokens, after the launch of MIGGLES tokens based on the Mr. Miggles NFT by Coinbase. Meme tokens also show a more robust capability of rallying compared to older tokens or altcoins. 

MEW goes through another rally cycle

The MEW token started trading in April, and gained listings to OKX and Bithumb over the past few months. Bithumb was the market to really take off, boosting MEW volumes in the past week. 

Trading volumes grew close to $300M, the highest level since the launch of Bithumb trading. MEW is close to its higher range, trading at $0.0073, after touching $0.008. MEW is relatively conservative compared to the latest trending meme tokens. Even with its recent gains, MEW is not among the day’s top gainers on the most active DEX. 

Also Read: Coinbase hypes Mister Miggles token to take liquidity from Ethereum and Solana

Despite this, MEW is supported by highly active listings, and expects to continue the rally. MEW looks like a community-based token, encouraging holding, aiming for a higher price range in the coming weeks. 

The MEW rally is reviving talk of the cat meme season, with multiple tokens being shilled for their ability to rally. Cat meme tokens are more often community-based, avoiding the degen high-risk, rapid reselling model. 

The goal of some cat meme projects is to take up the available liquidity for meme tokens, and use it to reach a higher level and more sustainability. Cat meme tokens are still volatile and risky, but offer better markers compared to newly launched Solana-based tokens that often end up with a rug pull. 

MEW is held in more than 7K daily active wallets, and has a fairly wide distribution. Despite this, top wallets have aggregated 37% of the supply. Bubble Maps revealed that as of July 23, MEW did not show any suspicious wallet clusters or attempts at DEX manipulation. 

$mew has highest volume on bithumb in Korea in the past 24h, even more than bitcoin

that's all you need to know about this catcoin pic.twitter.com/KndtAwDQQG

— juicehead.sui (DIEM) (@timohoppe06) July 22, 2024

MEW shows unusual share of KRW trading

MEW is an outlier, which shows the power of South Korean markets. Those exchanges are often closed to outsiders due to banking and KYC restrictions, and can create a different ecosystem of tokens. 

Nearly 70% of MEW trading is against USDT, with the rest in KRW pairs. This share of fiat pairing is unusual for a crypto asset. 

South Korean exchanges have shown significant activity for older memes, including DOGE. But they have been conservative in listing the new generation of memes. MEW is one of the first tokens to break that barrier, gaining outsized attention. The South Korean exchanges also have a lesser meme fatigue compared to other markets. 

Also Read: Shiba Inu community on alert for fake TREAT token

The increased interest in cat memes may also affect leaders like Mog Coin (MOG) and Popcat (POPCAT). But MEW remains the highest-valued cat-themed meme, and may turn into the sector’s leader. 

Cat-themed tokens as a whole are valued at $2.7B after an expansion in the past few weeks. The current valuation of MEW is not yet connected to a specific action, though some of the possibilities include TikTok memes going viral. 

However, the recent behavior of MEW also points to a concerted pump, organized by holders on one exchange. The effect of Bithumb is not entirely accounted for in MEW trading, as the listing was very recent and is not included in all data trackers.

The coming days may see further popularity and price action for MEW. In the short term, traders expect a backtrack, followed by a new attempt to reach peak valuations. MEW also has a new bounty program opened on WhiteBit. Trading is not yet open, but MEW will be airdropped for tasks or quests.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva