MemeCore flips PEPE: M Tops $2B as Memecoins Bleed

MemeCore flips PEPE: the M token climbed past a $2 billion market cap on October 22-23 while most memecoins bled, pushing it above the frog in the rankings. By 05:58 UTC Friday, CoinGecko showed M at about $0.88 and roughly $2.02 billion in market cap, against PEPE's $1.94 billion.

What actually happened

The memecoin sector had a rough Thursday. Bitcoin slid back toward $81,000, Nasdaq futures dropped on fresh doubts about AI spending, and dog coins like DOGE and SHIB posted daily losses. MemeCore went the other way.

CryptoPotato, republished by Cryptocoinbox, reported that M rose about 25% to a 10-day high, crossing $0.95 before pulling back to around $0.91. That move pushed its market cap above $2 billion and, on CoinGecko's board, ahead of PEPE.

Korea's eToday, citing CoinMarketCap at 09:00 KST on October 23, listed MemeCore as the top 24-hour gainer among large caps, up 16.28% on the day and 7.11% on the week. Different sites, different snapshots, same direction.

At our own CoinGecko check at 05:58 UTC, M sat at $0.8805, with a 24-hour range of roughly $0.78 to $0.96. Market cap was about $2.016 billion. PEPE was at about $0.00000461 and a $1.94 billion cap, up 2.75% on the day.

Why MemeCore flips PEPE is not the whole story

Rankings are based on market cap, which is price times circulating supply. Market cap does not tell you how much money actually trades. Here the gap is wild: M's 24-hour volume was about $3.7 million at snapshot time, while PEPE's was about $313 million. That is nearly 85 times more turnover for the coin that just got "flipped."

Thin volume can make a move look bigger than it is. It also means exits can get messy if sentiment turns. When MemeCore flips PEPE on a chart, it does not mean more people are trading M than PEPE. It mostly means M's price went up on a much smaller stream of orders.

There is history here too. CryptoPotato noted that M crashed 76% in a single day earlier this year and that on-chain sleuth ZachXBT publicly questioned its valuation and tokenomics. CoinGecko lists M's all-time high at $5.64 on July 2, 2026, which puts the current price roughly 84% below the peak.

Market cap is a scoreboard, not a liquidity meter. Check volume before you check rankings.

What might be driving it

Nobody has pinned down a single catalyst. The one fresh piece of project news: MemeCore said on X that Meson's bridge services are no longer available for the chain and that M liquidity has moved to LayerZero, which now handles all bridging. The team also said it is working with Meson to migrate USDC.e liquidity from the old contract to Stargate's.

Is a bridge migration enough to move price 25%? Maybe, maybe not. It could simply be a short squeeze, a rotation into one of the few green memecoins, or traders chasing the "flip" headline itself. CryptoPotato also flagged an RSI reading near 90, which many chartists treat as overheated territory. One analyst they quoted pointed to $0.85 as the level to hold, but that is chart talk, not a forecast.

For how memecoin market share has shifted this year, see our memecoin vs altcoin share piece. PEPE fans can also revisit our Canary PEPE ETF coverage for the other side of the frog story.

What to do as a reader

First, separate the headline from the trade. MemeCore flips PEPE is a fun tweet, but the volume gap says the two coins are not comparable markets. If you are looking at M, look at order book depth on the venue you actually use.

Second, check the source of any bridge or migration news against MemeCore's own channels before moving funds. Bridge changes are a classic moment for phishing links and fake "migration" sites.

Third, remember that a coin 84% off its high can bounce hard and still be a long way underwater. Gains of 25% in a day can reverse just as fast. Size positions like a degen who wants to keep playing next week, and never risk money you need. Nothing here is investment advice.

Sources: CryptoPotato via Cryptocoinbox, eToday market report and CoinGecko MemeCore data.