During the final quarter of 2024, memecoins continued to assert their dominance and spearhead the recent recovery in the market. Despite this, Moo Deng [MOODENG], which emerged as one of the top weekly performers towards the end of September, has witnessed a sharp decline of 60% within the last eight trading days.
At its peak, Moo Deng witnessed a staggering 400% surge, propelling its market capitalization to $338 million. However, the beginning of October marked a turbulent period for the Solana-based memecoin.
As of now, its market cap has dwindled to $110 million, causing a significant shift in market sentiment towards pessimism.
Could Buterin’s Sale Have Influenced the Decline of Moo Deng Coin?
Industry analysts have suggested that the recent sell-off by Vitalik Buterin, the founder of Ethereum [ETH], might have triggered the downfall of Moo Deng. On October 5th, Buterin liquidated over $340K worth of memecoins, including Moo Deng.
Subsequently, on October 7th, he offloaded an additional 11.76 billion MOODENG, equivalent to $51K, which could further impact the market sentiment surrounding the coin. Nevertheless, Buterin still retained MOODENG tokens valued at over $8 million.
There are speculations that Moo Deng might mirror NEIRO’s trajectory. Earlier in August, Buterin sold off NEIRO, purportedly for charitable reasons, causing a plunge in its value before witnessing a significant surge thereafter.
Whether or not Moo Deng will emulate the path of NEIRO remains uncertain. However, the prevailing sentiment at the moment is predominantly bearish towards the memecoin.
At present, the valuation of MOODENG stands at $0.11, reflecting a nearly 20% decline within a 24-hour period. Interestingly, despite this downturn, some traders maintain an optimistic outlook on the memecoin, anticipating a potential recovery.
These speculators argue that the prevailing extreme market fear surrounding Moo Deng could offer favorable entry points, particularly as the coin approaches critical Fib retracement levels.