As we approach the end of 2022, meme coin investments have taken off in a big way. Dogecoin DOGE/USD has emerged as the clear leader amongst investors, with a market cap of a phenomenal $10.71 billion.
What Happened: The crypto market has experienced a sharp decline due to a multitude of contributing factors. A long-running crypto winter has been exacerbated by the Terra Luna stablecoin collapse, the suspension of withdrawals by some companies and the disastrous FTX implosion by Sam Bankman-Fried. Despite the overwhelmingly bearish sentiment, meme coins appear to be still of interest to investors.
See More: Best Crypto Day Trading Strategies
Rollercoaster Ride For Dogecoin: It's been quite a rollercoaster ride for Dogecoin in 2022, with several factors driving its increasing popularity.
Data from CoinMarketCap shows that Dogecoin's price was down 52% since last year. At the time of writing, Dogecoin was trading at $0.077.
In September, the DogeChain the unofficial layer-2 solution for Dogecoin developed by community members marked a major milestone by recording more than 50 million transactions to date.
Let's not forget the immense impact that Elon Musk has had on Dogecoin. Ever since the Dogefather called for 'Dogecoin to the moon' in November, DOGE has rallied. He has been a staunch supporter of Dogecoin for years, and his influence has been a major catalyst for the growth of the entire meme coin market.
In October 2022, Benzinga conducted a survey to gauge the sentiment on whether Dogecoin would reach $0.10 by 2023 following news of Musk's deal to purchase Twitter. Over 67.6% of those surveyed indicated they believe it will reach 10 cents by 2023 and 32.4% do not believe it will reach 10 cents again by 2023.
In a tweet on Nov. 30, Billy Markus, co-founder of Dogecoin, who goes by the pseudonym Shibetoshi Nakamoto,made a call for the Dogecoin community to use the meme coin for more than just pump and dumps. Musk responded, suggesting that Dogecoin should operate more like a currency.
Even billionaire Mark Cuban, the owner of Dallas Mavericks, expressed his support for Dogecoin on "The Ellen Show" noting that inflation actually serves to increase its utility as a digital currency.
The Second Winner: No price for guessing, second on the list is Shiba Inu SHIB/USD .Shiba Inu maintained its position as one of the top three cryptocurrencies on Binance in 2022.
Despite the current bear market, Shytoshi Kusama, the pseudonymous lead developer of Shibarium, remains optimistic about the future of Shiba Inu. Kusama recently shared an update with the community, noting that Shiba Inu still holds its place as one of the top cryptocurrency assets. With a bit of luck and some careful analysis, Kusama is confident that Shiba Inu is well-positioned to move back up the rankings soon.
Data from LunarCrush reveals the remarkable growth of the Shiba Inu community, with its social engagement increasing by a staggering 4.78%, at $15.28 million.
Last But Not Least: BabyDogeCoin BABYDOGE/USD is the third coin on our list. With a market cap of $160.81 million, it has seen a price decline of 30% since last year. On the other hand, social engagement for the coin has seen an incredible surge of 7800%, reaching 7.35 million social mentions in 2022.
BabyDogeCoin has continued to outpace Shiba Inu in terms of the number of holders, with a growing and passionate community dedicated to its success. The number of Shiba Inu holders is rising, but not as quickly as BabyDoge. Shiba Inu has 23% fewer holders, 1.26 million in total, lagging BabyDoge by nearly 500,000.
Read Next: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Mixed After Fed Rate Hike: Analyst Says Apex Crypto's Path To $20,500 'Open'
