BTC came close to $64k during early Monday’s Asian hours as traders prepare for a crucial week for U.S econ statistics. Coming soon from the Federal Reserve are the FOMC minutes, as well as data for August on key indicators of the growth rate.

BTC led the movement up by 3% and activated an increase in the rate for other cryptocurrencies, including Ether (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) up to 4%. The broader CoinDesk 20 (CD20) – a basket of 20 largest tokens – was up 3.26%. The so-called memecoin has risen 14% to rank among today’s best-performing tokens; Pepe (PEPE) imitated a frog.

In the U.S., core reports are expected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) where unadjusted CPI for September, PPI for September as well as the initial jobless claims for week ending 5th October is due.

Asian markets also went higher on being up on Monday, as tech heavy Hang Seng Index was up by 3% and South Korea’s KOSPI index by 1%. Recent stimulus measures from China include multiple stimulus measures within a space of about 2 weeks and this has helped uplift the markets. Some further A appreciated stimulus plans from China are believed to be unveiled today s Tuesday morning press conference.

Among the mid-cap tokens ($5 billion and lower in market capitalization), Bittensor’s TAO was the biggest gainer having risen to 14% on the back of surging interest in the artificial intelligence token class. The overall AI token category on CoinGecko has grown by almost 7.5% in total value, individual projects such as NEAR Protocol (NEAR) and Internet Computer (ICP) have also risen.

Memecoins were higher during the weekend due to enhanced social activity and improving risk-on sentiment in the crypto market. The memecoin supercycle theory which suggests meme-themed tokens may lead the next bore market uptrend, found discussions on the social media app X.

Popcat (POPCAT) which is built on Solana surged more than 12% in the last 24 hours alongside Mog (MOG) from the Ethereum platform; Simon’s Cat (CAT), on the BNB Chain, has also risen by 10%. GIGA, SPX6900, a meme stock inspired by the U.S.’ S&P 500 index, and Fwog were the other tokens that exploded more than 20% in value.

Despite the weakening of alts, cat-themed memecoins remain apace with dog-themed ones, and remain the coin of choice if one wants to throw money at the memecoin market. As pointed out by CoinDesk before, it is this trend of the memecoin market to lean towards such choices.

Memecoins are proving popular at a time when other segments of the crypto market are experiencing lower fluctuations, or bear markets in general, including layer-2 solutions and storage tokens. Moreover, there is a changing sentiment regarding tokens funded by venture capital funds, as everyday traders think that tokens are overpriced and a poor investment.

Kaiwen0x, who wrote an essay about the ‘memecoin supercycle,’ explained that he is bearish on memecoins if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election because the regulatory environment in the US could push capital towards utility tokens.