Crypto feels hot again, and old meme coins are leading the charge.
Bitcoin ran from the mid-$60Ks to just under $80K in about a week, and it’s been hovering near that level since. That kind of move changes the mood fast. Some people are already calling it: the bear market is over. I’m not ready to declare victory yet, but the risk-on trades are clearly flowing back in.
When Bitcoin leads, the degens follow. And this week, they piled into the oldest corner of the casino: meme coins.
Before we get into the charts, a quick shoutout.
Looking at our affiliate dashboards from the exchanges, our community jumped on this trend hard. Trading volume this week is up 7x compared to some weeks in July. That tells me a good part of you caught the move early.
Hopefully our string of trading and crypto updates helped you position for it. Seeing those numbers genuinely makes us happy.
The Old Meme Coins Are Running
Now the fun part. It’s not the shiny new launches leading this leg. The old dogs are running. Literally.
Here’s the price action, from recent bottoms to this week’s highs. If you’re new to this corner of the market, read what makes a good meme coin first, because most of them aren’t.
$DOGE
The granddaddy woke up. Dogecoin sat around $0.069 for most of August, grinding sideways while everyone ignored it. This week it ripped to a high of $0.094. That’s a 37% move on a $14 billion market cap coin. When DOGE moves double digits, retail attention usually isn’t far behind.
$PEPE
The frog got squished down to $0.0000023 in July, its lowest level in a long time. From that bottom to this week’s high of $0.0000042, PEPE printed an 85% gain. Most of that came in just the last few days. It’s back above a $1.6 billion market cap and once again the biggest pure meme after DOGE and SHIB.
$BONK
BONK bottomed barely ten days ago at $0.0000022. Since then it’s run 51% to a high of $0.0000034. The Solana OG had been bleeding all summer, so a bounce this sharp off the low suggests real buyers stepped in, not just a dead cat. Insert your own cat joke here.
$PENGU
The penguins had a rough summer, dipping to $0.0058 in late July. This week PENGU spiked to $0.0102, a 78% move, briefly waddling back above the one-cent mark. The NFT crowd loves round numbers, and a cent is the one everybody watches on this chart.
$FARTCOIN
Yes, we’re still writing that ticker in 2026. FARTCOIN bottomed at $0.106 back in June and just ripped to a high of $0.207. That’s a 94% move, nearly a clean double off the low. Say what you want about the name, the chart doesn’t smell bad at all.
Honorable mentions
Two more old memes posted big numbers this week. $NPC gained over 150%, and $DOG, the Bitcoin Runes meme, jumped almost 90%. When even the Runes memes pump, you know the sector is bid.
One warning before you chase any of these green candles: not every breakout holds. Our breakouts and fakeouts guide covers how to tell the difference before you ape in at the top.
$CASHCAT Is Hunting a New All-Time High
The old guard is running, but one newcomer refuses to be left out.
CASHCAT bottomed at roughly $0.09 on August 18. Less than a week later it’s trading around $0.21, up over 130% from that low and more than 40% in the last 24 hours alone. That puts it right back at the all-time high zone it set during its explosive July launch.
A new ATH within its second month would be a strong statement in this market. Most fresh memes never reclaim their launch pump. If you missed the lore, catch up with our full breakdown of what CashCat is before the next leg decides which way this goes.
How I’ve Been Trading These Memes: The FOMO App
Quick word on tooling, because meme season across five chains used to be a nightmare of bridges and gas tokens.
I’ve been using the FOMO app for exactly this. You can trade memes gasless and multichain. I can go from selling a Solana meme to buying a Robinhood Chain meme in two clicks. No bridging, no juggling gas on different chains. For fast rotations like this week, that’s a genuine edge.
The follow feature is the part I like most. You can follow big traders in the app and copy them. For example, I follow Frank, and now I see all his buys and sells by the minute. Pretty cool way to learn how sharper traders rotate.
Funny enough, I originally installed it for the rumours about a potential new Trump token on Robinhood last weekend. Installed it, funded it, and the token never dropped. So I’ve been bouncing around coins a little instead.
Some coins I’ve traded in there: $PONS, $CATE, $MORTY, $FAPCOIN and $ARCHITECTURE. To be crystal clear: don’t follow any of those. It’s just me playing around with small size, and I can sell any of them at any minute.
The cherry on top is that FOMO has a potential airdrop coming for early users. Trading memes you’d trade anyway while farming a possible drop is exactly our kind of setup.
If you want to try it, download FOMO through our link and use code FairSaltySquid for a 10% discount on trading fees.
Keep This Content Free
Meme season is fun. Paywalls are not, and we plan to keep this site free of them.
If our updates helped you catch this move, you can support us by trading through our partner links. It costs you nothing extra and keeps the content flowing:
Final Words
The old memes rarely lead by accident. DOGE, PEPE and BONK moving together usually means broad risk appetite is returning, not just one lucky community pumping its own bags.
We hope this little run continues a bit longer. I’ve personally been stacking some nice wins this week, and judging by our affiliate data, so have you. Let’s keep it going.
Stay sharp, take profits on the way up, and don’t marry a frog.
FAQ
Are old meme coins back in 2026?
The price action says attention is back. DOGE, PEPE, BONK, PENGU and FARTCOIN all posted gains between 37% and 94% off their recent bottoms this week, alongside Bitcoin’s push toward $80K. Whether it becomes a full meme season depends on Bitcoin holding these levels.
Which meme coin performed best this week?
Among the established names, FARTCOIN led with a 94% move off its June low. Newcomer CASHCAT beat them all with a 130%+ run in under a week, trading right back at its all-time high zone.
Is it too late to buy meme coins after this pump?
Nobody can tell you that honestly. Vertical moves like these often retrace hard, and every coin on this list has crashed 50% or more before. Never trade memes with money you can’t afford to lose, and have an exit plan before you enter.
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