Meme Coins See Renewed Interest, Benefitting Underlying Blockchains

• Shiba Inu and other meme coins like Dogecoin saw massive speculative price increases in 2021, making some early investors rich. However, prices later crashed leaving many with losses.

• The increases in meme coin prices benefited the underlying blockchain networks like Ethereum that power them, through increased transaction fees and activity.

• Interest in meme coins like Shiba Inu has rebounded in early 2022, with prices rising 400% recently. This is renewing interest in the cryptocurrencies that underpin them.

• Ethereum stands to benefit from any meme coin mania given its dominance in powering decentralized apps and tokens. Solana is also well positioned.

• Some decentralized layer 1 protocols like NEAR, which powers an ecosystem of crypto projects, could also profit from a resurgence in speculative crypto investing.