Crypto craze: Memecoin frenzy boost Pepe coin price by 7000%
Pepe Coin prices have witnessed a substantial rally of nearly 7000% in the 17 days after its launch on April 16, hitting a market value of $1.8 billion by May 5, according to data tracker CoinGecko.
Inspired by an anthropomorphized frog popular in internet memes, Pepe coin hit the market last month and its overall trading volumes jumped to $2.6 billion in the first week of May from $408,000 the week before, as per the data from Dune Analytics.
However, Pepe coin price, which is fractions of a cent, was down 60% from its May 5 peak on Monday. It still has a market cap of almost $740 million, making it the third-largest memecoin after Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Dogecoin commands more than $10 billion market cap, while Shiba Inu has a market cap of over $5 billion.
The rally in Pepe coin has revived the interest in memecoins, an ultra-volatile and hyper-speculative class of cryptocurrencies.
“Memecoins just flare up on occasion, and it’d historically happened when the market’s a bit choppy or sideways,” Todd Groth, head of index research at CoinDesk Indices, told Reuters. “It’s almost like, if the market is not moving up fast enough, traders find these smaller tokens to trade with.”
Indeed, the latest memecoin frenzy comes as bitcoin’s 2023 rally stalls. The No.1 cryptocurrency has slid 6% since mid-April to $27,416.
Also read: Crypto Conundrum: Coinbase’s Love-Hate Relationship With PepeCoin, Love Hate Inu & Ape Brigade
Reuters couldn’t immediately identify pepe’s creators, and its Twitter account didn’t respond to a request for a comment.
As per Pepe’s website, it says the coin was launched “for the people” with “no formal team or road map” and is “completely useless and for entertainment purposes only”.
Despite this, Pepe coin is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency hosted on Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, according to the data firm Messari.
Meanwhile, Binance says on its website that pepe has “no utility” or “value support mechanism”. It also warns users about pepe’s volatility and says the platform “will not be responsible for your trading losses.” Binance didn’t immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Pepe’s leap.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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