SuperEx丨March Crash in the Crypto Market: Does Meme Still Have a Chance?

#SuperEx #Meme #CryptoMarket

For the crypto market, the beginning of March has undoubtedly been a nightmare, marked by a market crash and chaotic token ecosystem. Bitcoin briefly fell below $80,000, Ethereum dropped below $2,000, and the Meme coin frenzy within the Solana ecosystem also cooled significantly.

In the wake of the market collapse, Meme coins have come under immense pressure. As high-risk assets within the crypto space, Meme coin valuations are primarily driven by community consensus, market sentiment, and social media hype. When fear dominates the market, the short-term performance of Meme coins tends to suffer greatly.

At the same time, Meme coins are also facing multiple challenges, including liquidity exhaustion, regulatory pressure, and prolonged market pessimism.

However, it is worth noting that despite the sharp decline in Meme coins, the overall Meme ecosystem has not completely collapsed. Some established Meme coins, such as DOGE, SHIBA, and PEPE, have managed to maintain strong market attention, while certain emerging Meme projects are actively seeking breakthroughs.

In the Crypto Crash of March: Will Meme Coins Sink or Rise Again?

As the crypto market faces a major downturn in March, the question arises — will Meme coins sink with the tide, or can they undergo a rebirth?

To understand this trend, we must first identify the core challenges that the Meme coin market is currently facing.

The First Dilemma: Liquidity Crisis and Capital Outflow

The decline of meme coins has directly led to capital outflows from public chain ecosystems. For example, Solana experienced a net capital outflow of over $1 billion in just one week, with daily active users dropping by nearly 60%. Its Total Value Locked (TVL) plummeted from $12 billion to $8 billion. These figures reflect the overall state of the meme ecosystem, where liquidity outflows have reached a critical level. According to institutional statistics, approximately $6 billion in liquidity has exited the meme market, with funds dispersing into traditional financial assets or low-risk stablecoins.

The Second Dilemma: Collapse of Market Trust

The collapse of market trust has been significantly influenced by incidents such as the pump-and-dump schemes surrounding the presidential-themed tokens of Donald Trump and his wife, as well as other celebrity-backed meme coins. Additionally, the controversy surrounding Argentine President Javier Milei’s Libra token has acted as a key trigger, accelerating the “great escape” from meme coins.

The Third Dilemma: Limitations of the Technical Ecosystem

Public chains like Solana, which have become overly reliant on meme coin transactions, have exposed issues such as network instability and ecosystem homogeneity. Although Solana managed to operate for a full year without major failures, its on-chain activity has declined sharply, with daily active addresses dropping from 6 million to 500,000, indicating a shrinking user base. Meanwhile, Ethereum’s mainnet gas fees have fallen to historic lows, reflecting weak on-chain demand. This suggests that meme coins have failed to translate into long-term value support for the broader blockchain ecosystem.

So, Is There Really No Hope for Meme Coins in March?

Did you know? There are 112,931,920,482 tokens on the blockchain, and this number continues to grow every moment. Each token experiences its own highs and lows, just as every sector in the market goes through its own peaks and troughs.

Opportunities for trading always exist in the market. As a tangible representation of community culture, meme coins have embedded themselves into nearly every major sector. In other words, any opportunity in any sector could also become an opportunity for meme coins.

Current Main Categories in the Meme Coin Market

Pure Meme Coins
These are the original meme tokens that most purely embody the spirit of internet culture and community-driven movements. Examples like DOGE and SHIBA still maintain strong community consensus. As the market recovers, they could once again become leading forces in a bull run.
Celebrity Coins
These tokens leverage the influence of public figures, with the core logic being fan-driven hype and speculation. While the recent Trump family meme coin controversy has created negative sentiment, the possibility of new celebrity-backed or influencer-driven meme coins remains strong.
Art Tokens
These tokens are art-backed, functioning as a kind of evolution of the NFT community. By combining on-chain art with cultural influence, art-related meme coins could still attract niche communities and gain traction.
AI / Tech / Utility Tokens
These meme coins carry at least some association with technology or functional utility. With AI and Web3 converging, we could see a surge in AI-related meme coins, particularly those tied to AI-generated content (AIGC).
Community / Web2-Driven Meme Coins
Similar to celebrity coins, but rather than relying on a single public figure, these tokens leverage existing Web2 communities and migrate them into Web3. Platforms like Reddit, Twitter (X), or other social media-driven communities could become the next hotspots for meme coin success.
News / Tweets-Driven Meme Coins
These are hype-driven tokens that emerge in response to short-term trending topics or viral events. They can quickly set the “meta” of the market, capitalizing on sudden social or cultural shifts to generate temporary trading frenzies.

The Future of Meme Coins: Finding New Narratives

Meme coins have always been exceptionally versatile in storytelling and adaptation. More than any other token type, they continuously reinvent their narratives. March still holds potential for meme coins, but what’s missing is a major breakthrough or new opportunity.

Here are some potential trends that could help meme coins regain momentum:

Integration with Web3 Communities and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) are emerging as a new trend in the meme coin market. Many projects are adopting DAO governance models to enhance community participation and consensus. For instance, Floki Inu has successfully leveraged DAO governance to attract stronger community support.
Ecosystem Expansion and Real-World Utility
Some meme coin projects are expanding their ecosystems by integrating GameFi, NFTs, and DeFi to increase token utility. For example, PEPE is exploring integrations with the NFT market to strengthen its tokenomics and offer additional use cases.
AI-Driven Meme Coins
The intersection of AI and blockchain could be a defining trend, particularly with open-source models and autonomous agents (e.g., Aiccelerate DAO’s initiatives). AI-generated content (AIGC) could lead to dynamic memes, intelligent NFTs, and automated trading bots, making the meme coin space more diverse. Projects like Neiro have previously capitalized on AI narratives for short-term explosive growth, and similar models may emerge again.
Support from Emerging Blockchains
Historically, meme coins have primarily relied on Ethereum and Solana, but new Layer 2 (L2) solutions such as Arbitrum, Base, and zkSync are offering lower-cost transactions, potentially fueling the next meme coin boom. These networks provide cheaper gas fees and higher scalability, making them attractive environments for meme coin projects.

Conclusion: Meme Coins Are Down, But Not Out

Despite the market downturn in March, this does not signal the end of meme coins. The cyclical nature of the market means that periods of decline often precede new opportunities. The lifeblood of meme coins lies in their communities, collective consensus, and continuous evolution.

As market sentiment recovers, Web3 technology advances, and ecosystem integrations expand, meme coins could once again take the lead in market recovery.

As Solana’s founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, once said:

“Market downturns are the true test of a project’s resilience.”

If a meme coin wants to transcend market cycles, it must evolve from a purely entertainment-based symbol into an asset that combines community governance and technological utility.