Top 3 memecoins to watch and their recent performance

Risk assets experienced a wave of massive withdrawals in January, including memecoins — the most speculative group of assets in the market. Below is the performance overview of the top memecoins over the past 4 weeks.

Dogecoin: Downtrend Extends into January 2026

Dogecoin maintained a downward trend throughout Q4 2025 and continued this momentum into January 2026. Although the month started with a positive rebound, unfavorable macroeconomic conditions quickly erased all gains.

During the month, DOGE briefly surged to around $0.15 but closed at $0.10 — a 55% decline from the monthly high and about 11.2% below the opening level.

Dogecoin Price Movement | Source: TradingView At the January low, the price even fell below $0.10 and entered oversold territory, testing the 12-month bottom area — a level that previously saw a rebound in the second week of October last year.

SHIB: Still in the Red, but with a “lighter” decline than DOGE

Shiba Inu also faced difficulties in gaining momentum amid the harsh market conditions in January. SHIB started quite impressively with a 45% increase in the first five days of the month, but the rally was quickly halted as sellers regained control.

From the January peak to the monthly bottom, SHIB corrected nearly 40%. However, from open to close, the price only declined about 1.45% — a generally “more tolerable” weakness compared to Dogecoin.

Shiba Inu Price Movement in January | Source: TradingView Notably, despite five consecutive months of decline, the RSI indicator shows that SHIB has not yet entered oversold territory. Nevertheless, the downward momentum remains concerning as the price retreated to multi-year lows: the January 31 bottom re-tested price levels last seen in June 2023, approaching the all-time low. This could indicate that selling pressure is gradually weakening, making the current price range more attractive to some investors.

PEPE: Ending the Monthly Downtrend

Contrary to DOGE and SHIB, which continued to weaken on a monthly timeframe, PEPE Coin unexpectedly closed January with a modest gain of nearly 3%. However, this increase does not mean PEPE is immune to the overall downtrend.

Most of the profit came from the first four days of the month, when PEPE surged nearly 80%. Afterwards, the price mostly moved sideways, gradually erasing previous gains. PEPE remained in the green thanks to a slight rebound at the end of the month.

PEPE Price Movement | Source: TradingView Closing the month in an upward zone helps PEPE break a multi-month decline streak since August, while maintaining a price above the February 2024 bottom. The early-month breakout generated positive short-term and yearly outlooks, indicating PEPE could still attract significant demand if market conditions improve.

Summary

Overall, leading memecoins were heavily impacted by unfavorable market conditions in January. However, the deep correction could open opportunities to attract capital back as market sentiment shifts and risk appetite (risk-on) returns.

Mr. Teacher