Altcoin & Meme Media Wave (GDELT)
News coverage of NFTs, memecoins, DeFi and other altcoins, stacked in four exclusive layers per 100,000 articles (7-day window) - the speculative narrative intensity.
What is it?
This chart stacks coverage of the non-Bitcoin speculative narratives: NFTs, memecoins, DeFi, and other altcoins (alternative networks named explicitly). The layers are exclusive and follow that priority order, so an article is counted once and the total height measures the intensity of the speculative story. Volumes are per 100,000 articles monitored by GDELT on a sliding 7-day window; the source publishes one file every fifteen minutes from English-language and translated articles. The history starts in February 2015; a day below 75% of its files is not computed and the periods of incomplete or missing publication (October-November 2020, August 2021, 15 June to 1 July 2025) are absent.
How to read
Four stacked layers. The total height measures the intensity of speculative attention; the dominant colours show which narrative leads. Historical markers: total median 17.8 and 5% of sessions above 75.8; the absolute record is 137 on 2022-01-26, at the height of the NFT wave. Layer by layer: NFTs, median 0.3, maximum 98 (2022-01-27); memecoins, median 2.6, maximum 96 (2021-05-14); DeFi, median 7.4, maximum 18.9 (2021-09-01); other altcoins, median 5.5, maximum 32 (2018-01-09).
Key zones
No fixed zones. Regimes are read layer by layer: DeFi holds the floor from 2020 to 2022 (annual median 11.0 in 2021, 11.4 in 2022) and peaks later (maximum 18.9 in September 2021); NFTs go from zero to first place within months (annual median 24.5 in 2021, 35.9 in 2022) then fall back to 3.2 in 2024 and 1.4 in 2025; memecoins return in successive waves (96 in May 2021, 67 in April 2023, 66 in January 2025). Other altcoins rise slowly across the whole period (maximum 32 in January 2018).
What to observe
Rotations between layers tell the sequence of a cycle: DeFi leads in 2020-2021, NFTs take over at the end of 2021 (December month at 79) and peak in January 2022 (month at 98, window total at 137, the highest of the series). Memecoins have their first wave in May 2021 (96) and return in 2023-2025. A narrative that fades is not dead: the same layer can come back months later. The composition of the stack says more than the height alone.
Historical context
January 2018: first peak of other altcoins (32 on 2018-01-09), at the height of the post-2017 mania. September 2021: DeFi top (18.9 on 2021-09-01). May 2021: memecoin top (96 on 2021-05-14). December 2021 to February 2022: NFT wave (79 in December, 98 in January, 93 in February) culminating on 2022-01-26 with a total of 137. Terra/Luna in May 2022 is still an NFT moment (57 on 2022-05-10) before the collapse. April 2023 (67) and January 2025 (66) mark the memecoin returns.
Expert notes
The order NFTs, then memecoins, then DeFi, then other altcoins sets the priority when an article belongs to several families. Some other-altcoin terms require a crypto context to count, because they are ambiguous outside it (network names that are also common words); terms specific to crypto do not have that requirement. The speculative narrative moves fastest of all: the 7-day windows smooth out daily points, so a monthly peak can speak more clearly than the daily curve.
Common mistakes to avoid
Memecoin wave peaking = cycle top ❌. Speculative attention can peak well before the price top, as in May 2021. Layer rotation is not a quality ranking: it is a chronology of attention, and a layer can overtake another several times within one cycle. Finally, total height is not the sum of all narratives: an article appears in a single layer.
Programmatic access
REST API
curl -sS \
'https://api.trinityinsights.io/api/v1/narrative-intelligence/metrics/narrative-gdelt-altcoin-meme-wave/data?timeframe=90d' \
-H 'X-API-Key: $TRINITY_API_KEY'MCP server
{
"tool": "get_chart_value",
"metric_id": "narrative-gdelt-altcoin-meme-wave",
"timeframe": "1y"
}Required tier: free. See the pricing grid for the tier list and the MCP documentation for multi-client configuration.
Related metrics
Institutional disclaimer
Trinity Insights is an educational and analytical tool. The metric above does not constitute investment advice. Trinity Insights is not a Crypto-Asset Service Provider (CASP) registered under MiCA Regulation (EU) 2023/1114. See the full disclaimer.