PEPE leads memecoin gains amid post-holiday crypto market altcoin rally

Altcoins, particularly perennial memecoins, are among the biggest winners in crypto markets on Friday amid a post-holiday rally. 

PEPE, the $2.5 billion market cap asset named after a cartoon frog, is the biggest memecoin gainer with over 32% gains on the day, according to The Block’s price data. This is followed by the so-called rival “cat coins,” POPCAT, based on Solana, and its Ethereum-based counterpart, MOG, both of which are up nearly 20%. FLOKI, Dogwifhat, and fartcoin are not far behind.

Dogecoin, the oldest and largest memecoin by market cap, is up about 12%, while the well-established dog-themed tokens it inspired, Shiba Inu and BONK, are up about 13%.

Research shows that assets that “underperform late in the year (especially small and illiquid ones) tend to bounce more in January on average,” according to VanEck Head of Research Matt Sigel. 

Despite multiple tailwinds, from President Donald Trump’s open embrace of bitcoin and crypto coupled with positive regulatory momentum in the U.S., as well as the rise of digital asset treasuries and the growing success of crypto exchange-traded funds, crypto markets significantly underperformed in 2025, trailing traditional assets like the S&P 500 and gold. 

“In 2025, money that typically would find its way into Bitcoin found its way into other assets,” Director of Market Research at Unchained Timot Lamarre told The Block. “Money seeking risk found its way into Bitcoin treasury companies or the AI industry, and money trying to avoid debasement continued piling into precious metals.”

According to Jake Kennis, senior research analyst at Nansen, memecoins “have been some of the hardest hit post the 10/10 liquidation in terms of downside volatility,” with large cap assets like PEPE and DOGE down “79.8% and 81% from their ATHs respectively.”

“This early-year rotation into large cap memes may suggest traders are positioning for upside after months of consolidation.” Kennis said, noting that the “upward trends would have to be confirmed on higher timeframes.”

Additionally, it’s common for crypto to experience an early-year bump. Sigel pointed to Hong Kong IPO momentum and other AI advancements, like China adding AI glasses to the nationwide subsidy list, buoying “tech sentiment … that helps crypto and especially bitcoin miners which are outperforming.” 

Other sectors

Indeed, AI is another big category in crypto seeing meaningful gains, with the ElizaOS token (formerly AI16Z) , leading the pack with an over 50% jump. Render, Virtuals, and Bittensor — some of the blue chip AI tokens — are also up between 8% and 13%, while Goatseus Maximus, a token associated with a brusk-speaking AI bot, is up over 12%. 

Other altcoins connected to recently launched protocols, like Monad’s MON and Plasma’s XPL, are up 15.3% and 13.3%, respectively. 

The largest tokens by market cap have seen more modest gains, with Bitcoin up 2.4%, Ethereum 4.5%, and Solana 4.9%. Crypto stocks have also risen, with digital asset infrastructure company leading with 20% gains. Treasury companies Semler Scientific, which invests in Bitcoin, and BitMine, the largest ETH holder, are up a respective 13.8% and 12.5%. 

Bitcoin miners like Cleanspark, IREN, and Riot all up over 11% as the biggest gainers, with Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, MARA, Terawolf, and others boosted by less than 10%. 

“There’s also research that positive January returns correlate with higher average returns over the next 11 months,” Sigel said. “So, it’s not surprising to see some hope that today sets the tone for the month, and thus the year.”

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