The market capitalization of the new memecoin Pepe (PEPE) has fallen $1.1 billion from its peak on May 6, although data from the chain shows that it continues to be bought by some crypto whales.
In the past five days, the memecoin price has plunged more than 56%, falling from a high of $0.00000431 to $0.00000193, according to CoinGecko.
PEPE’s price drop has caused the total valuation of the token to plunge from a high of $1.82 billion on May 6 to $820 million at press time.
A May 8 report by researchers at crypto funding firm Matrixport attributes the sharp drop in PEPE’s price to traders selling large amounts of their holdings to new retail investors following the memecoin’s listing on Binance. , the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by daily trading volume.
Furthermore, the report found that the biggest driver of PEPE’s meteoric price action since its inception on April 14 appears to be coming from Asian-based traders. According to Matrixport, buying activity during Asian trading hours contributed a staggering 3,657% to the total 9,071% rally witnessed by the memecoin through May 8.
Another piece of information that could give more validity to the theory is that Ethereum deposits in the 24 hours following the listing of the memecoin on the exchange shot up to maximums not seen since November 2021.
Cryptocurrency market intelligence firm Santiment suggested this was largely because early buyers of PEPE secured profits by transferring their holdings – which were mostly bought via ETH swaps on decentralized exchanges like Uniswap and 1inch – from new to Ether (ETH).
Updating our report on #Ethereum‘s sky-high active deposits, exchange addresses interacting on the network is now at its highest level since November, 2021. As expected, $ETH is showing decoupling signs and on the cusp of breaking $2k once again. https://t.co/zYjY7669yj https://t.co/dQlKsTVyt2 pic.twitter.com/2nMXOUGgYC
—Santiment (@santimentfeed) May 5, 2023
Despite the sharp drop in price over the past week, some of the most well-known and notorious whales in the crypto space are still buying PEPE at subdued price levels.
According to data from the analysis firm, lookonchain“Machi Big Brother”, the online persona of former tech entrepreneur Jeffrey Huang, has bought a total of 73.4 ETH – equivalent to approximately USD 137,000 – of PEPE in the last 4 days, with an average purchase price of USD 0.000002082, which is approximately 3% below the current trading price.
Machi Big Brother bought 6B $PEPE again 30 mins ago.
He has bought a total of 66B $PEPE with 73.4 $ETH ($137K) in the past 3 days, with an average buying price of $0.000002082.https://t.co/8TP6j6unZw pic.twitter.com/Ubmg3ZC1rm
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 10, 2023
While other memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and its dog-themed counterpart Shiba Inu (SHIB) have used their material success to create more applications and use cases for their respective tokens, PEPE seems to be taking a stab at the idea of providing value in absolute.
Essentially, the anonymous PEPE development team has made it clear that the token is “completely useless”, and the humor of this alone is a good enough reason for investors to “jump” at it. The official website for the frog-themed token includes a final disclaimer that describes the token as follows:
“PEPE is a memecoin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. The coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”
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