ANSEM soars 299% and brings Solana’s memecoin trenches back to life – but do we need it now?

An important story is making waves across the blockchain ecosystem. The Black Bull (ANSEM) is up roughly 299% over seven days, trading with $64. 9 million in 24-hour volume and a market cap near $173 million, per CoinGecko. That size puts ANSEM in a category that traders treat as a read on Solana's broader risk appetite.

Traders are calling the move a sign the trenches are back, and DefiLlama shows Pump. 33 billion in weekly DEX volume and $18. 22 billion over 30 days.

Market Dynamics

July 4 was the first day Pump. fun and PumpSwap crossed $1 billion in daily volume since April 8, and the week of June 29 to July 5 was the first above $5 billion since late March. On July 1, Solana's memecoin factory hit its highest daily numbers for token launches and graduations in 80 days, driven largely by ANSEM.

The token has already spawned competing variants, and copycat dilution is usually one of the first signs that a trench cycle is picking back up. Phemex's July 1 note added that Pump. fun had regained roughly 62% of its Solana launchpad revenue and about 55% of its trading volume over the prior two weeks.

An infographic shows ANSEM up 299% in a week, with Pump. fun's weekly volume at $5. 33 billion and memecoins over 20% of Solana's trading volume.

Market Impact

That pickup is showing up in the wider market too, with Blockworks data putting memecoins at over 20% of Solana's weekly trading volume, the first time since mid-May. Galaxy's research from October 2025 showed Solana memecoins accounting for as much as 50% of weekly volume in the fourth quarter of 2024, so 20% reads as a recovery well short of that old peak. Galaxy's research also explains that memecoins pull retail users into wallets, decentralized exchanges, bridges, and token launchpads faster than more “serious” crypto products usually manage.

They're fast, social, and permissionless, turning attention itself into a tradable asset. The trenches only become a problem when the trading game becomes fast and asymmetric enough that ordinary users end up supplying exit liquidity for the fastest players. That's the tension ANSEM's rally reopens: the same mechanics that bring users in let a small group extract value from everyone who arrives late.

Speed cuts both ways Galaxy's data shows that the median memecoin holding time is now around 100 seconds, down from roughly 300 seconds. Snipers and bundlers capture large portions of a token's supply in its first moments, then sell it once real demand emerges. A 2026 ACM Web Conference paper, “Resisting Manipulative Bots in Meme Coin Copy Trading,” lays out the mechanism behind that speed in a market where copy trading has become a major entry strategy.

This shift continues to shape the digital-asset landscape, with analysts examining its near-term effects.