“Hippo” Saves Solana Solo: Is the Zoo Market Comeback?

On September 27 at 2 PM, the trending hippo-themed token MOODENG surpassed a market capitalization of $200 million, soaring about 84% in the last 24 hours, capturing the spotlight in the market.

As MOODENG rose, funds were drawn back to Solana from other networks. Ethereum gas fees, which had recently remained high at around 20-40 gwei, fell to about 10 gwei at the time of writing.

Under MOODENG’s leadership, Solana has entered a new wave of “zoo” frenzy, with various popular animal tokens being launched on Pump.fun. User sentiment is highly enthusiastic; these animal tokens often reach a million-dollar market cap within half an hour of launch, reminiscent of the crazy zoo trends in 2021.

Coindarwin has compiled a list of leading “popular animal” tokens and offers a brief analysis of how this market differs from the previous zoo craze.

Token Overview

MOODENG

• Market Cap: $200 million
• Holding Addresses: 19,380
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $45.7 million
• Origin: A popular hippo from Khao Kheow Zoo in Thailand.

omochi

• Market Cap: $23.2 million
• Holding Addresses: 8,029
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $37.6 million
• Origin: A TikTok-famous frog with 420,000 followers and over 20 million likes.

PESTO

• Market Cap: $23.5 million
• Holding Addresses: 8,378
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $22.8 million
• Origin: A famous emperor penguin from the Melbourne Aquarium in Australia.

HUAHUA

• Market Cap: $4.6 million
• Holding Addresses: 3,530
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $15 million
• Origin: A panda named Huahua, promoted by the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding.

degen

• Market Cap: $2.5 million
• Holding Addresses: 1,917
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $1.56 million
• Origin: An Instagram-famous otter with over 1 million followers.

JONA

• Market Cap: $2.3 million
• Holding Addresses: 2,732
• 24-Hour Trading Volume: $1.12 million
• Origin: MOODENG’s “mother,” which saw a price increase after the zoo’s official account responded to its name.

Will Another Round of the “Zoo” Market Crash the Crypto Market?

In 2021, DOGE saw a meteoric rise, nearly reaching the 1 USDT mark and attracting a vast number of users. This influx of capital spilled over to other meme tokens like SHIB, AKITA, PIG, and FLOKI, which also experienced remarkable gains.

However, the excitement was short-lived. Following the buzz around the “zoo” concept, the market peaked. DOGE set its all-time high at 0.73995 USDT on May 8, 2021, but just 11 days later, it suffered a massive crash.

Currently, the Solana meme market is also riding high on enthusiasm. The combination of popular animals and smart capital typically means market caps in the range of two to three million dollars, but rapid downturns have also been seen. Therefore, participants must prioritize risk management, remain aware of Solana’s PvP characteristics, and consider strategies like “frequent low-risk experimentation” or “focusing on top-tier tokens.”

Will this round of the zoo market become a primary catalyst for a market crash? Subjectively, I judge that it won’t. The market’s size, leverage, and user demographics are entirely different from those in previous years.

On the other hand, the influence of PEPE and WIF outside the crypto space hasn’t reached the levels of DOGE’s heyday, and tokens like MOODENG still have a considerable distance to go before approaching PEPE’s market cap, limiting risk to the meme market.