Those who think meme cryptocurrencies are useless at this point may want to revise their expectations. A recent study suggests that across much of the United States, people are more interested in puppy-themed meme coins like Dogecoin or Shiba Inu than serious big projects that claim to be a financial revolution.
Although Bitcoin and Ether occupy over 60% of the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu won the hearts of Americans in 2021, trending in 30 of the 50 United States.
Dogecoin takes over nearly half of the United States
According to a study by research firm The Advisor Coach covered by Business Insider, there were an average of 7 million content searches on Dogecoin last month. Such a level of interest exceeds the averages for Bitcoin and Ethereum combined. According to Business Insider, that spike can be linked to Dogefather's influence:
"The interest increase can be partially attributed to the approval of Elon Musk who said earlier this year that Tesla would accept dogecoin as a form of payment."
And while popular financial publication The Motley Fool lists Dogecoin as a "token advertised with virtually no real-world use," it looks like things could change in the near future with a series of investments of capital and Elon Musk's interest in improving Doge's code to adapt it to global usability standards.
Dogecoin is the most popular currency in 23 US states, including Florida, Hawaii, New Jersey, and Arizona. The United States, in fact, is the country with the highest number of Dogecoin searches overall, with 97 points out of 100 in Google Trends, second only to Turkey - which counts a fraction of the population.
Shiba Inu wants to be the alpha dog
Shiba Inu is not far behind. The Dogecoin spin-off already dominates searches in California (the technology hub of the United States), Washington, Nevada, Wyoming, Texas, North Carolina and New York.
By contrast, Bitcoin reigns in 10 states and Ethereum in 8. Cardano is Colorado's favorite.
The meme cryptocurrency market emerged as something of a social phenomenon during the coronavirus pandemic. Cryptocurrencies like Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Floki Inu and others have benefited from several pumps in social media despite having no significant fundamentals.
However, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have grown so much that they have earned a place in the Top 10 of the cryptocurrencies with the largest market capitalization. As of now, Dogecoin is in tenth place and Shiba Inu at number 12.
And considering that the main component of money (its value and acceptance) is purely subjective. Maybe it's time to reconsider and take memecoins more seriously.
