Meme-based digital assets often experience sharp fluctuations, mirroring the movements of Bitcoin and the wider crypto ecosystem. Following a sudden downturn in Bitcoin's value, a noticeable trend emerged on Tuesday, with many of the notably unstable meme tokens recording significant declines, echoing the distress across the market.

Notably, established meme cryptocurrencies such as Dogecoin (DOGE) and the Ethereum-based Shiba Inu (SHIB) showed resilience amidst the turmoil. DOGE saw a decrease of approximately 6%, while SHIB experienced a more modest 2% drop over the same timeframe.

What has happened?

Bitcoin itself witnessed a dramatic fall, tumbling from highs above $68,000 to near $62,000 within a short span, primarily attributed to a swift plunge on the BitMEX exchange that briefly saw prices dip below $9,000, sending ripples of concern across the market. However, Bitcoin has been on a recovery path, with its value adjusting to around $65,200, marking a 2% decrease for the day.

While the more established meme coins demonstrated some stability, a newer generation of tokens, particularly those launched on the Solana platform, faced more pronounced losses on Tuesday.

For instance, Dogwifhat (WIF) experienced a significant drop from $2.77 to a low of $2.15, before partially recovering to $2.65, which constitutes a 7% decrease for the day. Despite this short-term loss, the token still boasts a 30% increase over the past week, thanks to notable gains in the days leading up to this fluctuation.

Conversely, BONK, previously a leading Solana meme coin in terms of market capitalization, has faced challenges recently, declining by 23% over the past week. Although it has recouped some losses, narrowing its daily decline to about 6%, BONK price of $0.00002257 marks a significant fall from its peak just a fortnight ago.

Newer entrants to the Solana meme coin market, launched in the past week, are also experiencing downturns as investor sentiment shifts, possibly in anticipation of further declines.

One such example, Book of Meme (BOME), which has been at the forefront of a revived interest in cryptocurrency presales on social media, witnessed considerable volatility, stabilizing at a price of $0.01166 after dipping to nearly $0.009 earlier in the day, reflecting a near 4% decrease on Tuesday.

Currently, BOME's market value has diminished by 57% from its record high achieved just this past weekend. This steep decline in BOME's value might be partially attributed to Binance's recent announcement of an inquiry into possible insider trading related to its unexpectedly early listing of the token.

SLERF, BOME and other news

The term "presale meta" describes a burgeoning phenomenon, largely driven by anonymous developers, that involves investors sending SOL to a provided Solana address in exchange for newly minted meme tokens. This approach initially resulted in significant profits for early participants in BOME, though subsequent ventures have encountered their share of disputes.

In this volatile environment, another token, Slerf (SLERF), experienced a significant increase in value today, despite losing a portion of its initial surge. After achieving a new record price overnight, SLERF saw a 25% decrease, yet it still boasts a 100% increase for the day, with its price standing at $1.02 per SLERF on Gate.io, thanks to early substantial gains.

The developer behind Slerf disclosed early on Monday that they inadvertently destroyed the entire $10 million worth of tokens allocated for the presale airdrop.

In a candid admission, they stated, "Guys, I messed up. There's nothing I can do to remedy this."

Nevertheless, the unintentional burning of the liquidity pool and airdrop tokens triggered a frenzy for the newest meme coin craze on Monday, leading to over $2 billion in trading volume. In response to the presale mishap, the Solana-based decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator Jupiter announced late Monday that it would allocate SLERF trading fees to help those affected by the oversight.

Jupiter's own token, JUP, is notably the day's largest decliner among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, experiencing a 14% drop in the last 24 hours. Despite this, it has enjoyed a robust week, with a 29% increase in value over the past seven days, priced at $1.21 per JUP. Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) has seen the most significant drop among the top 10 cryptocurrencies today, with an 8% decrease in its value.