Traders exchanged $10 million worth of the meme coins on a SushiSwap, a decentralized exchange on the Base network, in the past 24 hours and provided over $1 million in ether liquidity to the trading pair, said Jeff Mei, COO of crypto exchange BTSE. Meme coins are a hyper-speculative and volatile class of crypto tokens.
A token named after Coinbase (COIN) founder and CEO Brian Armstrong’s cat, Toshi (TOSHI), is quickly becoming a popular meme coin play on the upcoming Base blockchain, according to traders on social-media app X. Last week, the issuance of viral meme coin bald (BALD) saw traders jump in ahead of the official launch in the search for outsized returns, sending over $66 million via a one-way bridge to Base blockchain.
Base, which is built by crypto exchange Coinbase on OP Stack, is scheduled to officially go live next Wednesday. However, some addresses bought over 8 ether (ETH), valued at $16,000 at current prices, worth of the tokens in a single transaction on Friday morning.
Generally, these coins lack practical uses compared to more established tokens like ETH, Mei shared. That said, each investor has their own risk appetite, and these swings in volatility do offer excellent opportunities to lock in profits as well.