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PENGU Overtakes BONK, Becomes Top Meme Coin on Solana at $2.6B Valuation

The newly launched Pudgy Penguins cryptocurrency Pengu (PENGU) has flipped Bonk (BONK) to claim the crown as the largest meme coin in the Solana ecosystem, with a market cap of $2.65 billion. The shift is the culmination of a rally that kicked off on Christmas Eve when the token gained over 30% in 24 hours. PENGU Rises Data from the crypto price tracking website CoinGecko shows that the broader Solana meme coin market has experienced explosive growth, with its total valuation rising to $18.2 billion, a 10.3% increase over the last day. Anchoring this performance was PENGU, which posted an 11.2% jump in the past 24 hours and a remarkable 22.3% rise in the last seven days. The meme coin, airdropped to members of the globally successful Pudgy Penguins NFT community on December 17, has not been without controversy. Soon after the token’s launch, the floor prices of the NFT collection plunged by more than 50%, wiping out any gains made since early November. According to analysts, this was largely because the value of the collection was partly pegged on exclusive access to the brand, with the introduction of PENGU making investment in the NFTs more accessible, therefore diluting their worth. On its rollout, the coin shot to a record high of $0.0684 before dropping to a record low of $0.0114. It then see-sawed for the next few days, moving between $0.038 on December 18 to $0.0231 on December 20. However, since December 23, it has been making steady gains, going as high as $0.0417 on Boxing Day, a price that pushed its market cap to $2.62 billion. BONK Falls Conversely, the previous king of the Solana meme coins, BONK, showed more modest improvements in its price over the last seven days, going up 6.9% in that period. Further, across two weeks, it lost 17% of its value, with CoinGecko data showing another 23% plunge over 30 days, putting its market cap at just over $2.5 billion and allowing PENGU to surpass it. The competition doesn’t end there. Other meme tokens like dogwifhat (WIF) and Fartcoin (FARTCOIN) are vying for investor attention. On Christmas Eve, the former reached an all-time high of $1.02, pushing its overall worth beyond the $1 billion mark. However, despite Fartcoin being among the top gainers across seven days with a price increase of 13.1%, it has plummeted 15% since December 25. With a unit currently changing hands at about $$0.986, its $1.072 billion market cap is still some ways behind WIF’s $1.9 billion. The post PENGU Overtakes BONK, Becomes Top Meme Coin on Solana at $2.6B Valuation appeared first on CryptoPotato . NewsBTC

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AI predicts Polygon price as Aave threats to leave the blockchain

Polygon (POL, formerly MATIC ) is going through a significant crisis as the AaveDAO is set to vote on a proposal to leave the blockchain due to security concerns. Finbold turned to artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze this context and provide a Polygon price prediction if this comes true. Finbold covered Polygon-Aave drama last week, as POL’s price reacted negatively to Aave’s ( AAVE ) response to the $1 billion-bridge proposal. At that time, Polygon was trading at $0.594, down 38.65% year-to-date. Why is Aave DAO considering leaving the Polygon blockchain In summary, Allez Labs, along with Morpho and Yearn, proposed transferring about $1.3 billion of the Polygon-Ethereum bridge to their protocols for liquidity supply and yield generation. Many decentralized finance ( DeFi ) users and analysts expressed concern to this proposal, including relevant leadership from Aave, the world’s leading DeFi protocol and competitor of the proponents. As a result, Marc Zeller and EzR3aL, two of the most influential figures on Aave’s governance’s decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) said they plan to support Aave protocol leaving the Polygon blockchain due to security concerns in a vote expected to happen in January 2025. This could be a significant hit for Polygon price and ecosystem, considering Aave represents around 40% of Polygon’s presence in DeFi, according to a DL News’ s report on December 26. Meanwhile, Polygon accounts for only 1.5% of Aave revenue, an argument Zeller used to justify his position. “Polygon is 1.5% of Aave DAO revenue,” Marc Zeller commented in a related thread. “In what world do we risk a billion of bad debt for this?” Grok AI’s POL price prediction amid Polygon-Aave drama As of this writing, POL (formerly MATIC) is trading at $0.485, down nearly 50% year-to-date. This also represents an 18% drop from when we reported Polygon-Aave’s drama for the first time on December 17. Polygon (POL, formerly MATIC) 2024 price chart. Source: Finbold Grok AI: Polygon price bearish prediction First, Grok AI believes the immediate response to Aave leaving Polygon would be bearish for POL’s price, predicting a crash. This, according to xAI’s model— paralleled to Google —could create a sell-off driving Polygon to as low as $0.30. “The loss of such a major player could shake investor confidence, leading to a sell-off. Given POL’s already negative performance year-to-date as of late 2024, an additional drop might push the price below current levels, potentially testing lower support levels like $0.30 or even lower if market sentiment turns very bearish.” – Grok AI output on the Polygon-Aave drama The AI expects a bounce up after testing the price support. Nevertheless, Grok doubles down on the bearish stance, saying Polygon will hardly surpass $0.50 in 2025. Grok AI analyzing Polygon implication if Aave DAO votes to leave. Source: Grok / Finbold The bullish case On the other hand, Grok also considers a potential upside, with a bullish price prediction for Polygon in 2025. For that to happen, the AI says Polygon’s leadership must be able to deal with the ongoing crisis and loss of confidence from investors, besides delivering a solid work next year, capable of attracting significant demand for its ecosystem. “If Polygon adapts and grows despite this setback, predictions could range from $0.63 to $1.91 by the end of 2025, as suggested by some analyses, assuming market conditions remain favorable for altcoins.” – Grok AI Grok AI Bearish and Bullish price prediction for Polygon. Source: Grok / Finbold As things develop, investors must understand the security risks using bridged assets could incur to the ecosystem and closely watch what happens next regarding AaveDAO’s decision. Polygon Labs CEO, Marc Boiron, already said that “A world in which Aave leaves is not one that I want.” Featured image from Shutterstock. The post AI predicts Polygon price as Aave threats to leave the blockchain appeared first on Finbold . NewsBTC