The cryptocurrency market saw a slight dip in overall capitalization over the past 24 hours, coinciding with a notable improvement on the crypto fear and greed index. As Bitcoin (BTC) saw gains of around 2.7%, other memecoins like BOSS, FROG, and TOAD also experienced significant attention. Meanwhile, Voxies has remained at the center of attention, with its price soaring by over 227% in the past week and experiencing a substantial intraday decline of 96.79%. Its trading volume and market capitalization have also seen a significant drop.
Bitget has confirmed an investigation into potential trading irregularities involving Voxies, specifically highlighting a large discrepancy in trading volume compared to Bitcoin. A recent X post from Wu Blockchain further suggests that Bitget’s bot may be experiencing malfunctioning.
The ongoing debate: is the memecoin market becoming increasingly susceptible to manipulation and pump-and-dump schemes?
In the early days of memecoins, their development lacked a clear purpose. They were initially created as jokes; however, over time, coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have gained prominence.
Yet, the recent years have witnessed significant allegations of manipulation and pump-and-dump activity in the memecoin market, leading to skepticism about its legitimacy.
Historical examples include: the launch of Official Trump, where malicious actors deployed more than 3,000 memecoins under the president’s name. The project was alleged to mislead investors seeking to invest in the coin launched by Donald Trump. However, this example isn’t unique; accusations of insider trading and on-chain market manipulation also came to light regarding Official Trump and MELANIA.
Major crypto experts argue that memecoins don’t offer any real-world utility. Data from CoinMarketCap supports these claims – DABOO, NORDO, and SQRL experienced significant price gains in the month, with DABOO seeing a 1.66% increase in trading price, NORDO by 435%, and SQRL by 348.75%. Despite this impressive growth, the market capitalization of DABOO remains below $300k, while NORDO has a cap of around $1.8 million, and SQRL has the lowest at $127.09k.
The patterns in their candlestick charts raise concerns about potential manipulation. It’s possible that artificial volume increases or other suspicious activity could be at play.