Moo Deng (MOODENG), Pnut (PNUT), and Goatseus Maximus (GOAT) recently experienced a remarkable rally. Each coin posted triple-digit gains and reached multi-month highs.
While the momentum has since slowed slightly, BeInCrypto consulted experts to uncover the factors behind the recent surge in meme coin activity.
What’s Behind MOODENG, PNUT, and GOAT’s Surge?
For context, the cryptocurrency market experienced a significant slump in early April after President Trump’s tariff announcement. Bitcoin (BTC) fell below the $80,000 mark, leading to substantial losses across the sector. Nonetheless, a slight recovery began to take shape.
Meme coins like MOODENG, PNUT, and GOAT tokens started gaining momentum in mid-April. On May 8, they experienced consecutive surges, reaching highs not seen since the beginning of the year.
MOODENG posted the strongest gains, surging by 771% in less than a week. GOAT followed with a 257% increase. PNUT also saw a 220% rise in value.
A key moment came on May 11 when Binance Alpha announced the listing of MOODENG and GOAT. Chris Duggan, Senior Marketing Manager at ChainGPT, explained that this decision “added fuel to the fire.”
He highlighted that the rally resulted from a combination of early community excitement, traction from influencers and key opinion leaders (KOLs) on X, and low liquidity. These set the stage for a quick price surge.
“Social media doesn’t just amplify—these days it creates the trend. Coins can go from obscurity to global attention in a matter of hours thanks to a few well-timed posts,” Duggan told BeInCrypto.
However, he added that Binance’s involvement further strengthened the momentum. Duggan stated that such exposure can quickly turn niche coins into popular assets.
“It was retail-driven at first, but once smart money sniffed it out, the rally intensified,” he said.
In addition to these factors, Dean Chen, an analyst at Bitunix, outlined several key catalysts behind the meme coin rally.
“The surge of MOODENG, PNUT, and GOAT was not caused by a single event but was the result of a combination of capital rotation, market narratives, platform exposure, and overall sentiment,” Chen said.
He explained that major meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and dogwifhat (WIF) had already experienced significant rallies earlier in the year. This, in turn, led to more conservative market expectations.
As a result, speculative capital shifted focus to smaller-cap meme coins like MOODENG and PNUT. These meme coins became key targets for investment. Chen noted that these coins attract whale accumulation when prices are low, and once price volatility sets in, it triggers FOMO among retail investors.
The analyst also emphasized that the rise of these meme coins was closely tied to market sentiment. With Bitcoin surpassing $100,000 in May, investor risk appetite increased, leading to a shift toward high-volatility assets like meme coins.
“During bull market phases, meme coins typically exhibit high elasticity and room for speculation, making them popular targets for concentrated capital bets,” Chen disclosed to BeInCrypto.
While the initial rise may have been extraordinary, it was also fleeting. By mid-May, increased selling pressure had pushed the coins to shed some of their gains. Nevertheless, they remained resilient, and a modest recovery followed.
At the time of writing, MOODENG, PNUT, and GOAT’s values were still up 675.7%, 112.2%, and 237.9%, respectively, from their early April lows.
MOODENG, PNUT, and GOAT Meme Coins Price Performance. Source: TradingView
The volatility raises concerns about the sustainability of the meme coin rallies. Chen believes that the capital rotation to the new meme coins exhibits strong speculative characteristics. He stressed that, from a short-term perspective, this wave of capital flow mirrors an emotionally driven hype cycle.
According to him, market participants are generally focused on quick profits. Therefore, under the influence of community narratives and online sentiment, some low-cap tokens are pushed up by several multiples in a very short time.
“However, such hype often lacks solid fundamental support and long-term development strategies, making it prone to forming bubbles. The cycle of price surges and pullbacks tends to be very short, often completing an entire speculative round within three to seven days,” Chen cautioned.
Moreover, Chen noted that this short-term bubble typically exhibits several traits. Many projects rely solely on viral meme content or catchy themes, lacking real-world applications or technical development to support them.
The teams behind these projects often cash out quickly once prices surge, sometimes coordinating large sell-offs through internal wallets, which leads to frequent “rug pull” incidents within the community. Furthermore, the spike in community interest tends to be explosive but short-lived, emphasizing the highly speculative nature of the current cycle.
“From a long-term perspective, the meme coin space does have the potential to emerge from these high-volatility shakeouts with a few projects that demonstrate lasting viability,” he remarked.
Chen elaborated that the enduring meme coins typically possess more developed narrative frameworks, strong community cohesion, and some level of development and market promotion capabilities. After the bubble bursts, these surviving coins could emerge as “meme blue chips,” becoming key targets in the next phase of capital rotation.
He also emphasized that the current capital movement should not be seen merely as a bubble but as a reflection of a changing market preference for high-risk, high-reward assets, particularly in a bullish market that favors high-volatility assets. Consequently, he forecasted that this market activity may continue for some time.
