PEPE Pump and Dump: From $1.8B Market Cap to $800M in 4 Days, Hype Over?

The crypto market is known for its volatile nature, and the latest victim of this volatility is Pepecoin (PEPE), a trending memecoin that has lost more than half of its value in just four days. PEPE, which saw a meteoric rise in its price after its launch, has now plunged to a market cap of just over $800 million, down from a high of $1.8 billion.

The Binance Listing and the PEPE Frenzy

PEPE started its downward spiral after it was listed on Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange. The news of the listing drove the frenzy around the memecoin, and its price skyrocketed to an all-time high of $0.000004354. However, the token’s price has since plunged roughly 56%, as early investors likely withdrew their profits.

PEPE’s lack of utility and intrinsic value has fueled the belief that the asset’s soaring price is only temporary, making investors doubt if it is here to stay. The decline in PEPE’s price also affected its market cap, which moved from less than a million dollars at its launch in mid-April to more than $1.2 billion on Friday. The asset’s market cap is now just over $800 million, with the token shredding more than $400 million in the past few days.

The Increasing Number of ETH Deposits and PEPE Traders

The price drop is likely aggravated by traders taking profits from their positions and leveraging alternative trading strategies following the release of various PEPE perpetual futures contracts in the past week. On-chain analytics platform Santiment suggested that the increasing number of ETH deposits could be attributed to PEPE traders converting their profits to the digital asset. On-chain data shows that exchange addresses interacting on the Ethereum network are now at a peak seen since November 2021.

The Future of PEPE

Following PEPE’s plunge, speculations have emerged about the token taking the same path its predecessors created. Memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB), which had similar experiences with PEPE, have plummeted significantly from their ATH as the hype around them has died down.

The hype around PEPE is likely to fizzle out soon as investors realize that the memecoin has no real-world utility and its soaring price is only temporary. While it is difficult to predict the future of any cryptocurrency, the fact that PEPE has lost more than half of its value in just four days is a clear sign that the hype is over.