Earlier this month, the first-ever meme coin launched on the Cardano chain, called Snek (SNEK). Immediately after the launch, SNEK saw significant interest from the Cardano community and surged over 425% in just two weeks. Meme coins are tokens that rely solely on their hype and community traction to grow, with DOGE and SHIB being some of the biggest examples.

SNEK’s Market Cap Up From $275K to $61.6M

SNEK, the first meme coin on the Cardano blockchain, surged nearly 72% in the past week after drawing significant attention from the crypto community. In the meantime, the cryptocurrency reached a new all-time high, with some viewing that as an achievement for SNEK itself and the broader Cardano chain.

Dubbed “the chilliest meme coin on Cardano,” SNEK was founded by a distinguished Cardano community member known as $goofycrisp. The token’s presale was initiated on April 28, during which 50% of its total supply was distributed to early investors and contributors to the Snek project.

Snek lured considerable interest during the presale, resulting in investors raising 112,000 tokens through 519 transactions. After the presale, the meme coin was launched on Sundaeswap, Cardano’s decentralized exchange (DEX), with a starting market cap of $275,000. Since its official launch on May 15, SNEK witnessed a massive price rise of more than 425%, propelling its market cap to $61.6 million.

SNEK’s Rise Boosted By Pepe-led Meme Coin Frenzy

Since it’s the first-ever meme coin launched on the Cardano blockchain, SNEK reportedly lured several new users to the Cardano ecosystem from other chains such as Ethereum, Solana, and VeChain.

However, interest in SNEK also comes partly due to the broader meme coin mania triggered by the rise of Pepecoin (PEPE) at the beginning of the month. Based on the ‘Pepe the Frog’ internet meme, PEPE recorded one of the most extraordinary crypto price rises since its launch in April, soaring by a mouthwatering 5,000,000%.

This unprecedented price surge made PEPE the third-biggest meme coin in the world, behind Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB). On May 5, the meme coin was listed on Binance’s Innovation Zone, but since then, the cryptocurrency lost some of its gains, likely due to investors’ efforts to take profits.

This article originally appeared on The Tokenist

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