Weakness in bitcoin (BTC) has deferred to other crypto majors from Solana’s SOL to memecoin dogecoin (DOGE), data suggests current levels could prove ripe for risk-on traders. “Crypto's top meme coin Dogecoin has been extremely quiet outside of a temporary run-up at the beginning of the year,” analytics firm Santiment wrote in a Thursday report , citing social metrics and sentiment based on online chatter. “Since its top exactly one month ago, Dogecoin has shed -28% of its market cap. Crowd sentiment has been near its lowest point over the past year. (This) means there is actually some nice upside to be a daring contrarian toward DOGE (in particular) if crypto markets begin to trend upward again,” the firm added, with crowd sentiment on DOGE currently at low levels of 1 out of 5. The sentiment check aligns with a CoinDesk analysis from earlier in the week. Large investors, or "whales," are showing increased interest in DOGE, with transactions over $100,000 spiking to hint at potential price bumps in the short term. Futures markets for DOGE set a new record for open interest late Tuesday, though they have since tapered off alongside a market-wide decline. As such, January has been Dogecoin's best-performing month historically, averaging an 85% return. Technical indicators like the 50-day SMA suggest a bullish trend for DOGE with a short-term target at 50 cents — a more than 30% bump from Friday’s 33 cents level. Sentiment for other majors remains mixed. Bitcoin is neutral after a dip and recovery, now ranging between the low to mid $90,000 levels. Ether sees bearish sentiment despite prices holding above $3,000. XRP is bullish after an 18% rise in the past week, and Binance Coin ($BNB) shows neutral sentiment post-drop below $700. Solana remains semi-bullish despite underperformance, with a loyal community buying dips. Meanwhile, Cardano’s ADA led a market-wide recovery in Asian afternoon hours on Friday with a 5.5% move in the past 24 hours. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 (CD20) rose 1.04%, with Solana’s SOL, BNB Chain’s BNB, ether (ETH), rose as much as 1%. Traders showed a preference for AI Agent tokens Bixby, Cookie DAO’s COOKIE, and ChainGPT rose as much as 50% on Binance spot listings. Viral token ai16z was up 11% and the agents category up was 8% on average, leading growth among all other crypto sectors.
