Meme Coin Market Intelligence — 8.31–9.6, 2026
The full price board on UTC closes: eight tokens, eight green weeks, a +10.4% combined-cap recovery — and the rotation map showing the rebound ranked by prior damage.
The price-first companion to the weekly data report: the full board, printed numbers, and what the cross-section says that no single coin can. Closes are UTC daily closes from CoinMarketCap, CoinGlass, CoinLore and BitKan; the August 2026 monthly report lives here.
1. Price Board — the eight large caps
| Coin | Aug 30 close | Sep 6 close | Change | Cap (Sep 6) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BONK | $0.00000279 | $0.00000341 | +22.2% | ≈$303M |
| DOGE | $0.08210 | $0.09082 | +10.6% | $15.58B |
| SHIB | $0.000004952 | $0.000005525 | +11.6% | $3.26B |
| PEPE | $0.000003405 | $0.00000365 | +7.2% | $1.51B |
| PENGU | $0.00861 | $0.00878 | +2.0% | $552M |
| SPX | $0.5390 | $0.5770 | +7.1% | $538M |
| FLOKI | $0.0000239 | $0.0000264 | +10.5% | ≈$255M |
| WIF | $0.1894 | $0.2030 (Sep 5) | +7.2% | $202M |
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. WIF's Sep 6 cell uses the Sep 5 close — the latest its history pages had published in the windows we check.
2. What the Board Says
- Eight green rows, one month after the last one. The August 24–30 week printed seven reds; this week printed none. Board breadth flipped from 1/8 to 8/8 in a single week — the fastest breadth swing in our three-week record.
- The dispersion collapsed. Best-to-worst spread: 20.2 points (BONK +22.2% vs PENGU +2.0%). The prior week's spread was 32.6 points (SPX +15.7% vs PEPE -16.9%). Narrowing dispersion in a green week reads as restored breadth, not a new leader.
- The middle is orderly. DOGE +10.6%, SHIB +11.6%, FLOKI +10.5% — three unrelated assets within 1.1 points. The majors moved as one bid, which is what index-like money returning looks like.
3. Rotation map — the month to date
| Asset | Aug 16 close | Aug 23 close | Aug 30 close | Sep 6 close | Net (Aug 16 →) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DOGE | $0.06948 | $0.09342 | $0.08210 | $0.09082 | +30.7% |
| SHIB | $0.00000443 | $0.000005545 | $0.000004952 | $0.000005525 | +24.7% |
| PEPE | $0.000002572 | $0.000004099 | $0.000003405 | $0.00000365 | +41.9% |
| PENGU | $0.00591 | $0.00994 | $0.00861 | $0.00878 | +48.6% |
| SPX | $0.316 | $0.466 | $0.539 | $0.577 | +82.6% |
| BONK | $0.00000232 | $0.00000327 | $0.00000279 | $0.00000341 | +47.0% |
| FLOKI | $0.0000224 | $0.00002691 | $0.0000239 | $0.0000264 | +17.9% |
| WIF | $0.1358 | $0.2023 | $0.1894 | $0.2030 (Sep 5) | +49.5% |
The three-week arc reframes this week entirely: every board member is up double digits from its August 16 base — SPX +82.6%, WIF +49.5%, PENGU +48.6% — despite a washout week in between. The August 24–30 drawdown now reads as the middle act of a violent three-week range, not a trend change in either direction.
4. Breadth check: eight tokens, eight advancers
Weekly advancers: 8 of 8. Three-week advancers (Aug 16 → Sep 6): 8 of 8. The boards agree for the first time this month — and agreement is exactly what makes the week hard to read. When everything rises, relative strength disappears as a signal; the only discriminating data left is volume and supply flows, which is why this week's most important number (1.008T SHIB to custody) appears nowhere in the price board.
5. Positioning watch
- DOGE's volume on the recovery days ($1.0–1.3B daily, Sep 5–6) ran at squeeze-week intensity — genuine participation, not drift.
- PENGU's ranges compressed under 5% daily through its +2.0% week after August's +41% — the positioning signature of digestion rather than distribution.
- SHIB's exchange reserves near 87.2T (≈14.8% of circulating) and shrinking, while 1.008T moved to custody — sell-side float thinning underneath a rally.
6. What would change next week's board
- BONK giving back more than half of +22.2% on the first red session — the thin-book leader is the week's most honest stress test.
- DOGE losing $0.09 on closes after the three-session test — a failed reclaim converts the recovery leg into a lower high.
- The BitGo SHIB satellites moving to exchanges — the custody overhang becoming live supply.
- A red week for the board overall — which, following 8-of-8 green, would complete the three-week whipsaw pattern and put the August 30 base ($20.11B) back in play.
7. Volume quality board
| Asset | Week's key volume print | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| DOGE | $1.0–1.3B daily on the reclaim days; heaviest since Aug 21 | A- |
| SHIB | $50–80M daily, steady; custody flows invisible at venues | B |
| BONK | Leader on the thinnest books; volume/quality ratio worst on board | C+ |
| PEPE | $150–430M daily; distribution-shaped (Santiment cohort selling) | C |
| PENGU | Compressed ranges on low volume; digestion profile | B+ |
Grades are ours; criteria are printed: depth at decision points, behaviour on recovery days, venue mix. DOGE's A- reflects the only volume profile that matched its price move; BONK's C+ reflects a +22.2% week that would not survive its own first red day on those books.
8. The month so far — and the monthly report
August closed with the board at $20.11B after a month that ran from a mid-August base near $16.8B, through the August 21 squeeze, to a late-month washout. The complete August retrospective — the full board, the squeeze anatomy, the supply backdrop — is the separate August 2026 monthly report. This weekly links to it rather than duplicating it.
Sources
FAQ
Why print exact closes instead of just the percentages?
Because the closes are the evidence and the percentages are arithmetic on them. $0.08210 → $0.09082 is checkable on CoinMarketCap's history page in ten seconds; a bare '+10.6%' is not anchored to anything. Every row in the board can be re-derived from the linked sources.
Why does the price board include a custody flow?
Because in an 8-of-8 green week, prices carry almost no discriminating information — everything rose. The week's real information sat in the flows: 1.008T SHIB to custody, PEPE's cohort selling, PENGU's compression. A price-first column that ignored the only differentiating data would be a press release.
How does the volume quality board work?
Three printed criteria: depth at decision points, behaviour on recovery days, venue mix. The grades (A- to C) are judgment calls on those criteria, but the underlying prints — DOGE's $1.0–1.3B reclaim days, BONK's thin-book leadership — are facts checkable against the linked sources.
Is the +10.4% board figure the whole meme sector?
No — it is our fixed eight members (DOGE, SHIB, PEPE, PENGU, SPX, BONK, FLOKI, WIF), summed on each tracker's own cap at the boundary dates. Sector-wide totals depend on each tracker's inclusion rules and disagree with each other; our board is narrower but fully reproducible.
What is the single most useful thing to watch after this week?
Whether the leaders hold. BONK bought +22.2% on the thinnest books of the eight, and DOGE reclaimed a round number on the heaviest. Both are set up as tests, not trophies: the first red session scores them, and the scoring decides whether this recovery gets a floor or a round-trip.