(Jan 7): Cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who piled into meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu amid the long-time industry rallying call of “to the moon”, are finding this year’s journey back to earth pretty painful.  

Dogecoin, Shiba Inu and other tokens associated more with online jokes rather than actual software products have been hit harder than sector originals Bitcoin or Ethereum during the recent retreat from the record price levels reached late last year. Doge is off nearly 80% from its all-time high of 74 cents in May, and Shiba has declined more than 65% since hitting its peak of fractions of a penny in late October, according to data compiled by Messari.