CMC data mix-up: Meme coins temporarily "top" the global crypto market, with the 243rd ranked coin surpassing a market cap of $127 trillion

On January 6th, the cryptocurrency data platform CoinMarketCap (CMC) experienced a serious data malfunction, affecting two Meme coins. BabyDoge’s market cap was incorrectly calculated as $127.91 trillion, temporarily surpassing Bitcoin to become the largest crypto asset by market cap globally; simultaneously, CHEEMS’s market cap was incorrectly displayed as $194 billion, briefly overtaking USDT and XRP. The “data blunder” has been fixed, but it exposed the risks inherent in data platforms.

Outrageous Data Errors

The bugs encountered by BabyDoge and CHEEMS are extremely outrageous—just look at the comparison:

BabyDoge’s incorrect market cap was nearly 1,000 times higher than its actual market cap. To put this into perspective, Bitcoin’s market cap is $1.87 trillion, yet BabyDoge’s erroneous data exceeded it by 68 times.

Why Meme Coins Are Prone to “Getting Hit”

Risks in Data Calculation

Such bugs usually occur during data aggregation and computation. Meme coins, due to several characteristics, are more likely to become “victims”:

• Extremely large supply (BabyDoge circulating supply reaches 174,871,046,637,383,328 tokens), making decimal calculations prone to errors
• Very low price (BabyDoge priced at the level of $0.000000), amplifying precision issues in multiplication
• Numerous trading pairs and complex data sources, so an error in any link can cause significant deviations
• Relatively low market attention, so errors may not be immediately detected

Platform Data Reliability Issues

This incident reminds users of a sobering reality: even well-known data platforms can experience serious errors. As the world’s largest crypto data aggregator, CMC’s bugs are rare but not unprecedented. For key metrics like rankings, market cap, and price changes, users should not rely solely on data from a single platform.

Summary

This “data blunder” was essentially a technical failure that has been quickly fixed. However, it highlights several important issues: first, the risks in data platform calculations, especially when handling assets with extremely large supplies and very low prices; second, the particularities of the Meme coin market, where data anomalies are more likely; third, the need for users to develop a healthy skepticism towards data—when seeing outrageous increases or ranking changes, verify through multiple sources rather than blindly trusting. Fortunately, the bug was promptly fixed without causing actual trading losses, but it serves as a reminder of the importance of data quality control for platforms.