Catenaa, Tuesday, June 17, 2025- Dogecoin led a widespread meme coin sell-off Friday as rising tensions between Israel and Iran triggered a broad risk-off mood in cryptocurrency markets, with over $1.13 billion liquidated in just 24 hours.
The leading meme coin, Dogecoin, slid nearly 6% to trade below $0.178, bringing its monthly losses to 23%. It now sits more than 75% below its all-time high of $0.73 reached in 2021. Other dog-themed and joke tokens, including Ethereum-based Pepe and Solana’s Bonk and Dogwifhat, dropped more than 9% as panic spread across speculative asset classes.
The crypto rout comes in response to renewed military activity in the Middle East, as Israel conducted airstrikes on Iranian positions late Thursday, reigniting geopolitical uncertainty. While Bitcoin and Ethereum also fell, losing 4.5% and 8.2% respectively, meme coins were hit hardest, declining 9.5% on average.
Solana-native Fartcoin tumbled, slashing odds in a prominent flash prediction market. Myriad Market’s traders dropped Fartcoin’s likelihood of reaching a $1.3 billion cap by Saturday from 51% to just 14%, reflecting rapidly evaporating confidence in the token’s prospects.
SPX6900, a satirical Ethereum token aiming to “flip the S&P 500,” plunged 13% after reaching a record high earlier this week. Other popular meme assets like Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT), Popcat (POPCAT), and Mog Coin (MOG) also saw double-digit declines.
The crash underscores the fragile footing of meme coins in times of global instability, with risk sentiment quickly reversing amid geopolitical flashpoints.
