One of the meme coins of the moment, Peanuts the Squirrel (PNUT) has seen an astonishingly explosive growth, achieving a 1,351% increase in just one week.
Less than a month after its launch, the currency has left investors speechless, and its history, like its rise, has trending events behind it.
PNUT's meteoric rise has a history of outrage and support on social networks. Inspired by the story of Peanut, a squirrel that was taken from its home and euthanized by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), the pet has won the affection of Internet users.
After his unexpected death, a cryptocurrency was created in his memory through Pump.fun, a platform dedicated to launching meme crypto on the Solana network.
Since then, PNUT has been seen as an expression of protest and affection for Peanut, gaining traction among investors and memecoin fans.
Let’s remember that memecoins are all digital currencies inspired by jokes, images, and famous internet memes.
PNUT's growth is amazing
The chart below shows the explosive growth of PNUT price:
PNUT price since launch. Source CoinMarketCap.
The surge puts it in second place among the memecoins with the highest weekly gainers, according to CoinMarketCap, and boosts its market cap to a staggering $1.87 billion, putting it among the market’s top 100 cryptocurrencies for a record year.
Memecoin's ranking has risen for 7 consecutive days. Source: CoinMarketCap.
Its all-time high of $2.47 was reached yesterday (November 13), reflecting the strength of the trend it continues to develop.
One of the factors driving the currency's rise is the influence of Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO and Donald Trump adviser harshly criticized the decision to sacrifice the squirrel, posting a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter) he owns, in which he said: "The government is a killing machine for the insensitive. And ruthless."
These words resonated in the market, boosting not only PNUT but other meme cryptocurrencies as well, especially after Donald Trump’s recent victory in the US election.
The president-elect announced his intention to push for a more open regulatory environment toward cryptocurrencies upon taking office in January 2025, which has generated optimism in the market and among investors in memecoins such as PNUT.
Additionally, it plans to create a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a direct reference to the name of the famous meme-famous cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
The division will be led by Musk, who has been an ardent supporter of Dogecoin and is known to frequently promote the cryptocurrency through his publications.
One example is its market cap of $58 billion. According to CriptoNoticias, Dogecoin has been the flagship of memecoins, even surpassing the value of major automotive companies such as Volkswagen, BMW, and Ford.
Binance added to PNUT
This favorable environment has led Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, to list PNUT since November 11 last year, according to a company statement.
The application of a “seed tag” for PNUT on the platform reinforces this additional push, highlighting the Solana memecoin and helping to attract new investors.
Prior to Binance’s announcement, PNUT’s market cap was around $128 million, but it has since grown nearly tenfold.
The exchange has understood the importance of memecoins and therefore decided to list more and more such assets.
In fact, in a report reported by CriptoNoticias, the exchange noted that the popularity of memecoins is due to their simplicity and the connection they have managed to establish with internet culture.
Additionally, unlike more technically complex cryptocurrencies, memecoins allow retail investors to easily understand their propositions, which contributes to their success.
According to Binance, if this trend continues, memecoins “will likely continue to grow in popularity and attract increasing interest in the cryptocurrency market.”
The ease of creating meme cryptocurrencies on platforms like Pump.fun on the Solana network has also been key to its success. These platforms simplify the process of creating memecoins, allowing any user to launch their own cryptocurrencies without advanced technical knowledge and sell them in their own environment.
Alt Season Including Memecoin
The future prospects for memecoins look promising. Analysts such as financial consultant Nikolai Galozi predict that 2025 will see an “alt season” or altcoin season, during which major tokens generally outperform Bitcoin.
Galozi believes that Bitcoin’s dominance may be nearing its peak, opening the door for a hypergrowth phase for altcoins and memecoins.
If this trend is confirmed, 2025 could be the year these riskier and less stable assets attract more investors seeking quick and high returns.
In the words of Morning, an analyst and investor with more than 100,000 followers on the social network X: "We have just witnessed a trailer of how things can go parabolic in a short period of time."
This parabolic phenomenon, as it is called in market jargon, shows how a cryptocurrency can surge in a short period of time, especially when it manages to attract the interest of a large audience.
The Memecoin craze is here to stay, and the immortalization of the squirrel PNUT in the form of cryptocurrency seems to be one of the hallmarks of the end of 2024.
Backed by influential figures and the largest trading platforms, memecoins are emerging as an asset class that, albeit one with high volatility, has the potential to revolutionize the way retail investors interact with the cryptocurrency market.
