Meme Coin Market Intelligence — 8.24–8.30, 2026
The full price board on UTC closes: seven red closes, one green, a -5.6% combined-cap week — and the rotation map showing August 21's squeeze premium being returned, coin by coin.
The price-first companion to the weekly data report: the full board on printed closes, the cross-section read, and the volume grades. Closes are UTC dailies from CoinMarketCap, CoinGlass, CoinLore and BitKan; the August monthly report lives here.
1. Price Board — the eight large caps
| Coin | Aug 23 close | Aug 30 close | Change | Cap (Aug 30) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOGE | $0.09342 | $0.08210 | -12.1% | $14.07B |
| SHIB | $0.000005545 | $0.000004952 | -10.7% | $2.92B |
| PEPE | $0.000004099 | $0.000003405 | -16.9% | $1.41B |
| PENGU | $0.00994 | $0.00861 | -13.4% | $541M |
| SPX | $0.466 | $0.539 | +15.7% | $502M |
| BONK | $0.00000327 | $0.00000279 | -14.7% | ≈$248M |
| FLOKI | $0.00002691 | $0.0000239 | -11.2% | ≈$231M |
| WIF | $0.2023 | $0.1894 | -6.4% | $189M |
BONK's cap carries a ≈ because circulating-supply estimates differ across trackers by up to ~15%; we compute close × ~88.8T throughout and state the dependence rather than silently choosing a favourite.
2. What the Board Says
- Breadth collapsed to 1 of 8. The prior week's squeeze had lifted everything; this week lifted one name. Breadth this narrow usually means the marginal meme buyer is exhausted — a claim the following week's 8-of-8 green tested directly.
- The decline was heaviest where the squeeze ran hottest — with two exceptions. PEPE (+28.6% on August 21) gave back the most of any member (-16.9%) and PENGU (+24.2%) followed (-13.4%); but BONK ran +17.4% that day and still fell -14.7%, while WIF (+21.2%) fell least on the board (-6.4%). Participation explains the middle of this table, not its edges.
- The dispersion was 32.6 points (SPX +15.7% to PEPE -16.9%) — the widest of the three-week record. Wide dispersion in a red week reads as idiosyncratic stories mattering; the following week's tight green dispersion would read as one shared bid.
3. Rotation map — the month to date
| Asset | Aug 16 close | Aug 23 close | Aug 30 close | Net (Aug 16 →) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOGE | $0.06948 | $0.09342 | $0.08210 | +18.2% |
| SHIB | $0.00000443 | $0.000005545 | $0.000004952 | +11.8% |
| PEPE | $0.000002572 | $0.000004099 | $0.000003405 | +32.4% |
| PENGU | $0.00591 | $0.00994 | $0.00861 | +45.7% |
| SPX | $0.316 | $0.466 | $0.539 | +70.6% |
| BONK | $0.00000232 | $0.00000327 | $0.00000279 | +20.3% |
| FLOKI | $0.0000224 | $0.00002691 | $0.0000239 | +6.7% |
| WIF | $0.1358 | $0.2023 | $0.1894 | +39.5% |
Zoom out from the red week and the month is intact: every member sits above its August 16 base, led by SPX +70.6% and PENGU +45.7%. The washout returned a week, not a month — the distinction that decides whether the next week's data is read as a pause or a break.
4. Breadth check: eight tokens, one advancer
Weekly advancers: 1 of 8 (SPX). Monthly advancers (Aug 16 → Aug 30): 8 of 8. When the weekly and monthly boards disagree this sharply, the market is testing which frame controls: the month says 'uptrend with a correction', the week says 'distribution'. Volume's verdict — starved at the lows, not capitulating — leaned toward the monthly frame, and the following week agreed.
5. Positioning watch
- PEPE's cohort split was the week's defining flow: mid-whales selling from August 25 (Santiment later quantified ≈80B), retail absorbing a tenth of it. Distribution into strength, confirmed by the tape.
- WIF's low-beta week — the smallest decline at -6.4% with sub-8% daily ranges — was the positioning signal that preceded its board-best recovery week in September.
- DOGE's volume decay (11x from squeeze peak to washout low) said the marginal participant had left the market entirely, not flipped short.
6. What would change next week's board
- A DOGE close under $0.08 — the round-number floor beneath the whole August structure; below it the monthly frame goes from correction to break.
- SPX printing a second green week — the only way one week of relative strength becomes a leadership claim.
- PEPE's cohort flipping to accumulation — the single event that would re-rate the board's worst performer fastest.
- A green week overall — which, following 7-of-8 red, would confirm the washout as a pause and hand the monthly frame the win.
7. Volume quality board
| Asset | Week's key volume print | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| DOGE | $311.8M washout day vs $3.4B squeeze — 11x decay; starved, not purged | C |
| SHIB | $45–130M daily; orderly, no panic prints | B- |
| SPX | Highest volatility on the thinnest books; grades cap at C+ on principle | C+ |
| PEPE | $130–430M daily through a -16.9% week with cohort selling underneath | C- |
| WIF | $35–68M daily; quietest large cap on the board | B |
Grades are ours; criteria are printed: depth at decision points, behaviour on down days, venue mix. WIF earns its B for stability — the only large cap whose volume neither starved nor spiked, which is what a market that has already finished its story looks like.
8. The month so far — and the monthly report
August to date: the board ran from ≈$16.8B (Aug 16) through the $21.31B squeeze-week close to $20.11B — a +19.8% month with a violent middle. The complete August retrospective, including the squeeze anatomy and the supply backdrop, is the separate August 2026 monthly report.
Sources
- CoinMarketCap — DOGE daily closes
- CoinMarketCap — SHIB daily closes
- CoinMarketCap — PEPE daily closes
- CoinGlass — SPX6900 daily closes
- CoinGlass — PENGU daily closes
- CoinLore — FLOKI daily closes
- BitKan — BONK daily closes
- TradersUnion — WIF daily closes
- AInvest — Santiment PEPE cohort data (Sep 10 publication)
FAQ
Why sort the board by weekly change rather than market cap?
Because the ordering is the finding: the two survivors were the two non-participants in the squeeze. A market-cap-sorted table buries that pattern under size. The cap column is still there for anyone who needs it — but the sort encodes the week's structure.
What does 'squeeze premium' mean in the rotation section?
The excess gain a coin printed on August 21 purely from short-covering mechanics rather than durable demand. Squeeze premium gets returned — the only question is how much and how fast. This week's answer: 60–100% of it, within five sessions, inversely proportional to how much each coin had printed.
Why does SPX's volume grade cap at C+?
Because SPX is the board's thinnest book — roughly $8–26M daily against DOGE's $300M–3.4B. On thin books, grades reward stability and DOGE-style decision-point depth; SPX's +18.2%-and--11.8% week is the opposite of stability regardless of direction. The cap is a statement about liquidity, not about the coin.
How does the volume quality board work?
Three printed criteria: depth at the week's decision points, behaviour on the down days, and venue mix. Grades (B to C-) are judgment calls on those criteria; the underlying prints — DOGE's 11x decay, PEPE's distribution-shaped tape — are facts checkable against the linked history pages.
Is this the whole meme sector?
No — it is our fixed eight members (DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, PENGU, SPX, BONK, FLOKI, WIF) on each tracker's own cap at the boundary closes. Sector totals depend on each tracker's inclusion rules and disagree with one another; our board is narrower but fully reproducible, and we label it 'board' everywhere to keep the two apart.