Cryptocurrencies based on internet memes and online communities are jumping to billion-dollar valuations in record quick time, leaving behind corporate America in the process.

What happened: A study by cryptocurrency analytics firm Social Capital Markets revealed that some Nasdaq-listed companies took an average of 25-35 years to reach billion-dollar valuations, while meme coin projects like Shiba Inu SHIB/USD and Pepe PEPE/USD achieved a similar feat in less than a year.

For instance, Shiba Inu achieved a valuation of around $10.8 billion in just a year from launch, while Nice Ltd. NICE, founded in 1986, took 35 years to reach a comparable market cap.

Similarly, Dogecoin DOGE/USD, the biggest meme coin by market valuation currently, achieved a $17 billion valuation in eight years with a team of just 12 members. In comparison, Nutanix Inc. NTNX, having a headcount of 6,000, took 15 years to reach a similar valuation.

Pepe PEPE/USD, the third-largest meme coin, took six months to reach $4.5 billion market cap, while TransMedics Group Inc. TMDX, a company founded in 1998, took 25 years for the same.

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Benzinga’s Take: While the meteorological rise of meme coins, driven by viral online culture and celebrity backing, is not news, it’s important to understand that many of them still lack strong fundamentals.

As a result, while they can reach multibillion-dollar valuations in a short period, they can also fall as quickly. 

Take Dogecoin as an example. During the 2021 bull run, the token’s valuation soared from $9 billion to $84 billion in less than a month, representing an 833% increase. However, the market value fell by half to $42 billion in the following three weeks.

Similarly, PEPE describes itself as “completely useless,” having no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. The coin reached an all-time high valuation of $7 billion in May but was down 38% from the peak as of this writing.

Price Action: At the time of writing, Dogecoin was exchanging hands at $0.1234, up 3.93% in the last 24 hours, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Shiba Inu traded at $0.00001823, following a marginal increase of 0.61%.

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