Meme coins today are doing something unusual: they are rising while Bitcoin falls. On Friday, November 6, 2026, Bitcoin slipped below $76,000 after a heavy selloff, yet the CoinDesk Memecoin Index led the market with a 4% gain, according to CoinDesk. In a session defined by fear, the market’s most speculative corner became its brightest spot — at least for a day.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Do your own research before investing.
Bitcoin’s Selloff Sets the Scene
The backdrop is a broad risk-off move. The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.5% on Thursday, with CoinDesk attributing the slide to investor fears that Democratic control of Congress will slow the buildout of AI data centers. The selling spread to crypto, where more than $1 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated over 24 hours, according to CoinGlass. Bitcoin fell 5.3% in that stretch, Ether dropped 7.3%, and US spot Bitcoin ETFs recorded $430.2 million in net outflows on November 5, according to Farside Investors.
By Friday morning, Bitcoin had steadied near $76,150, bouncing from a dip to around $75,200 late Thursday, CoinDesk reported. The Fear & Greed Index sits at 28, deep in fear territory, and traders are watching the US jobs report due at 8:30 a.m. EST for the next catalyst.
PEPE Leads the Meme Coin Rebound
Against that backdrop, PEPE is the standout of the meme coin market. The token traded near $0.00000507 on Friday, up 1.32% over 24 hours with trading volume of about $470 million, according to a meme coin screener by Blocfolio, and Finnhub data showed it up more than 6% intraday to around $0.00000509. Its market capitalization stands near $2.1 billion, and its one-month return of roughly 23.7% makes it one of the few major meme coins in positive territory over the past month.
Traders note that PEPE’s resilience is partly a liquidity story: with roughly $330 million in daily volume and turnover equal to about 16% of its market cap, it is the most actively traded meme coin relative to its size, giving buyers and sellers a deep market even in a selloff. CoinPaprika data showed PEPE up 0.61% over 24 hours while most of the market fell, a rare green print on a red day.
Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Hold Their Ground
Dogecoin, the largest meme coin by market value, traded near $0.073 on Friday with a market capitalization of about $11.4 billion, according to Finnhub. The token is down roughly 6.5% over 24 hours on some data sources, yet its intraday action showed a modest recovery, with trading volume surging nearly 48% to about $600 million as buyers stepped in near the lows. DOGE remains about 90% below its May 2021 all-time high of $0.7376, a reminder of how far the sector has fallen from its peak.
Shiba Inu traded near $0.00000459, with a market capitalization of about $2.7 billion. CoinPaprika showed SHIB down about 3.2% over 24 hours, though later intraday data showed a small recovery of around 0.4%. Its 24-hour trading volume rose more than 30% to roughly $50 million, suggesting traders were actively repositioning rather than abandoning the token. SHIB remains about 95% below its October 2021 all-time high.
Why Meme Coins Outperformed on a Red Day
Analysts watching the sector point to a few explanations for the divergence. First, meme coins had already sold off hard in the days before Thursday’s crash, leaving less leverage to unwind — CoinGlass data showed the bulk of the $1.26 billion in liquidations hit Bitcoin and Ether longs, not meme coin positions. Second, the sector’s total market capitalization of about $22.3 billion, per CoinPaprika, is small enough that a modest rotation of capital can move prices sharply. And third, meme coin traders tend to be contrarian: a 4% bounce in the CoinDesk Memecoin Index on a day when the broader market fell 6.5% looks like dip-buying by a community that treats steep drops as buying opportunities.
Smaller names also joined the move. The Blocfolio meme coin screener showed the average meme coin up 3.87% over 24 hours as of Friday afternoon, led by Pippin, Pepe and Useless Coin — a broad-based bounce rather than a single-token story.
What Traders Are Watching Next
The rebound is real, but analysts caution that one green day does not change the trend. The meme coin sector is still down sharply over the past month — DOGE is off about 18.6% and SHIB about 15.8% over 30 days — and the sector remains tightly tied to Bitcoin’s direction. If Bitcoin loses the $75,300 support level flagged by crypto.news, analysts say the next level to watch is $72,000, and meme coins would likely follow lower.
The near-term catalysts are clear: the US jobs report on Friday morning, the direction of spot Bitcoin ETF flows after Thursday’s $430 million outflow, and whether the CoinDesk Memecoin Index can hold its gains into the weekend. Traders also note that open interest in Bitcoin derivatives rose to $22.1 billion even as liquidations hit $1.27 billion, suggesting leveraged traders are rebuilding positions rather than retreating — a setup that could amplify the next move in either direction.
For now, meme coins today tell a story of selective resilience. PEPE leads, DOGE and SHIB stabilize, and the sector’s index posts the market’s best daily gain while Bitcoin steadies below $76,000. Whether that is the start of a rotation or just a one-day bounce is the question the weekend will answer.
This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Do your own research before investing.
Related reading: see our meme coins today update on PEPE’s post-election squeeze, our Bitcoin yield plan for earning income without selling BTC, and our guide to earning free crypto in November 2026.