An image posted by the White House on X showing President Trump with a penguin in a snowy scene sparked a surge in the meme coin market. The Solana-based Penguin token jumped 564% in hours, lifting its market cap from roughly ₩180 million to about ₩197.8 billion. The post quickly spread across social media, igniting interest in community-driven coins. The Penguin token is issued on Pump.fun, with co-founder Alon Cohen describing the rapid ascent as evidence that on-chain activity is alive and awaiting opportunity.
The token’s price sits near $0.13 (about ₩189). Interest in meme coins surged on social media as well. CoinMarketCap data showed the total meme coin market cap rising from about $38 billion in December 2025 to around $47 billion in January 2026, while Santiment noted a spike in meme coin mentions in January 2026. Vincent Liu commented that as the Fear and Greed index recovers toward neutral, meme coins act as a sentiment rebound and a leading indicator.
Still, experts caution that this rebound could be a temporary mix of platform, meme, and imagery rather than a broad, lasting recovery for meme coins, and more time is needed to draw firmer conclusions. The fact that a single image moved billions in market value underscores the current market psychology and liquidity sensitivity. The overall meme coin market cooled to around $39 billion, and the broader market has yet to show a clear directional trend. After a period of decline late last year, meme coins began to rebound in 2026, with CoinMarketCap data showing the total meme coin market cap briefly rising near 23% from late December 2025 to January 2026.
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