Benzinga - The cryptocurrency sector is thriving in 2024 with leading crypto Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) hitting all-time highs and a resurgence of interest and price action being seen across many meme coins.
A leading investment firm is out with a report on meme coins, highlighting a growing recognition of cryptocurrencies’ value.
What Happened: Franklin Templeton, which has the Franklin Bitcoin ETF (BATS:EZBC), is out with a new report from the company's Digital Assets division.
The report titled "the value between meme coins and their native networks" lays out the case for increased adoption and usage of the Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) blockchain.
"Meme coins are derived from internet memes and have no inherent value or utility; their price performance is akin to a meme going viral on the internet," the report says.
Franklin Templeton says meme coins are gaining in popularity thanks to having low fees, requiring little technical knowledge and the potential to make quick profits. The investment firm cautions that meme coins have high price volatility and can be risky.
At the same time, Franklin Templeton lays out the case for Solana, which could be seeing increased interest thanks to more meme coins being created on the blockchain.
"We believe that meme coins have a strong relationship with their native networks."
Related Link: Franklin Templeton CEO Jenny Johnson Holds Bitcoin, Ether, Sushiswap, Uniswap In Her Portfolio
Why It's Important: Franklin Templeton highlights the rise of meme coin BONK (CRYPTO: BONK), which is one of the most followed meme coins, having grown in popularity in late 2023.
The investment firm shows that the daily active user addresses for Solana were up 75% quarter-over-quarter from the third quarter of 2023 to the fourth quarter of 2024.
"During Q4 of 2023, the Solana network captured a large percentage of activity of all the active addresses during the same time that BONK saw a price surge, alluding further to the connection between meme coins and their native networks."
The report from Franklin Templeton doesn't specifically recommend Solana as an investment, but the connection between meme coins could make the cryptocurrency one to watch given the increasing number of meme coins built on the Solana blockchain.
It was previously Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) that was home to many of the top meme coins, including Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB).
The growth of meme coins on Solana could be why Solana is outperforming Ethereum and many other cryptocurrencies over the last year.
Solana is up 695% over the last year. Ethereum is up 126% over the last year.
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