Dogwifhat (WIF): Analysis of Solana's biggest memecoin

What you need to know 🐳

Dogwifhat (WIF) is a community token recognised by much of the Solana community.

His success reflects a degree of frustration among retail investors who no longer wish to be exposed to tokens that disproportionately benefit private investors and the development team.

The significant rise in its share price has marked Solana's (read our fundamental analysis) comeback.

Overview 🧬

Dogwifhat (WIF) is a memecoin launched on the Solana blockchain in November 2023. It is based on a popular internet meme featuring a Shiba Inu dog wearing a pink knitted hat.

WIF describes itself as "literally just a dog wif a hat".

The project's founders were inspired by the success of Dogecoin (DOGE) and other dog-themed memecoins such as Shiba Inu (SHIB).

While DOGE has a few use cases, Dogwifhat's perceived value comes entirely from speculation and the activity of its community on social networks.

"WIF is a textbook example of a memecoin that works: a lot of absurd initiatives stemmed from its launch, particularly around the little pink beanie, it was hard to miss on social networks," Rusk0f, an internet user specialising in memecoins (watch our interview with him).

The project's community approach, marked by active participation on social networks, is at the heart of its success.

WIF's success has been amplified by the resurgence of Solana and its community since late 2023.

When the listing was announced on Binance in early March, the price of the token rose sharply.

Funding 💰

The project has never raised any funds.

Team 👾

The project team is anonymous.

History of its launch 🐕

Dogwifhat began quietly on 20 November 2023, with an initial price of $0.000013. The crypto was initially listed on Raydium, Solana's main decentralised exchange platform, with a small amount of liquidity.

Despite modest beginnings, the coin quickly gained traction and began to increase in value.

By December 2023, the price of WIF had reached $0.30. It experienced a price correction in January 2024, falling to $0.08, before resuming an upward trend. The coin's popularity exploded at the end of February 2024, with its price rising to over 2 dollars. This rapid growth was fuelled by speculative trading and community support.

A major milestone for WIF was its listing on Binance, the industry's largest Web3 trading platform, on 5 March 2024. This listing further boosted the coin's value, which reached an all-time high of around $4.86 on 31 March 2024. At that point, WIF's market capitalisation was nearly $4.8 billion.

The WIF community 👥

The Dogwifhat community has played a crucial role in the success of this memecoin. It has organised a variety of initiatives, such as crowdfunding nearly $700,000 to display its logo on the Las Vegas Sphere (the world's largest LED screen) and launching a shop selling pink hats, with proceeds going to a charity for stray dogs.

Many influencers close to the Solana ecosystem, such as Ansem, have widely promoted WIF.

The WIF token 🪙

There are a total of 998,905,909 WIFs, all in circulation. No new tokens are being issued.

There are no tokens reserved for private investors or the team. However, it is very likely that the team that launched WIF bought a large quantity at launch, when its price was very low.

WIF has no real use, apart from being a medium of exchange.

Almost 20% of WIF is held by addresses controlled by Binance, illustrating that the majority of transactions now take place on this exchange platform.

About 5% are on addresses linked to Kucoin, Bybit, Kraken and Gate.

In addition, there are two addresses not directly associated with exchange platforms that each hold nearly 2.5% of WIF.

In general, the top 100 addresses with WIF control 57% of tokens.

It is worth noting that, after experiencing large increases, the number of different addresses with WIF continues to show steady growth.

Competition ⚔️

Memecoins reflect the attention economy, which creates some form of competition between them, although they tend to grow simultaneously.

Dogecoin is the benchmark among memecoins. Unlike other projects, it has its own blockchain (see our fundamental analysis).

Another memecoin that rivals WIF on Solana is BONK. Launched in December 2022, it is older than WIF. The majority of BONK tokens have been distributed as airdrops to Solana users. In particular, BONK was distributed to holders of Solana Saga, Solana's smartphone, causing a stockout.

A portion of BONK tokens remain locked in the DAO treasury, unlike WIF.

Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE) are two other important memecoins in the Ethereum ecosystem. They have a larger capitalisation than BONK and WIF. However, WIF surpassed PEPE at the end of March 2024, marking an important symbolic victory.

-> Survey: Why memecoins are an enduring trend in cryptos

Regulation ⚖️

Developed as if without the use of fundraising, this project should escape most financial regulations, like Bitcoin.

Nevertheless, it falls within the definition of crypto-assets under European MiCA regulations.

Where can you buy WIF? 🛒

WIF is available to buy in particular on Binance and OKX (which are regulated in Europe), but also on Kraken. It can also be found on investment apps such as Swissborg, for example.

The Big Whale's opinion 🐳

The WIF demonstrates that good communication and the creation of a committed community can be enough to make a token valuable, at least for now.

WIF's growth is being driven by that of the Solana ecosystem, where it seems to be establishing itself as the benchmark memecoin.

The value of WIF depends entirely on its community, the attention it attracts and sentiment, which explains its high volatility both upwards and downwards.

Its popular success and the many hijackings of its image suggest that it could endure over time.

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