The PEPE coin is off to a good start to the year with massive gains. Experts have already begun making bullish forecasts for the meme coin with many wondering what the reason behind it could be.
PEPE Coin Price Rebounds After Prolonged Slump
The meme coin recorded an intraday jump of approximately 25%, settling at $0.0000052. At the moment, PEPE is trading near 45% of its lows recorded last year, considering it had been on a constant decline for the previous six months.
Meme coins in general experienced a fall out of favor since last July because of reduced risk appetite in crypto markets. PEPE did not escape this downward trend and prices reduced because of lower transacted volumes.
Among the most visible driving forces behind this new surge was the increase in levels of engagement. Retailers on platforms like Robinhood accumulated about 8.3% of the token’s circulating supply.
This trend is also evident in trading, as 24-hour trading volume saw a surge of over 400% to close to $1 billion.
The event saw further momentum as a result of a bullish prediction made by a person named James Wynn. According to Wynn, if the overall bull market is intact, PEPE may become one of the top memes, as was the case with Shiba Inu in the previous market cycle.
“If Shib can do $41bn, PEPE can do much higher. Keep in mind DOGE did $88bn. So my target for PEPE is $69bn,” he said.
If this bull market is not over, which I do not think it is, there is a high likelihood in my mind we see $PEPE at the forefront of memes leading the way as money flows into T1 memes, and proper fundamental altcoins.
This is side by side comparison between $SHIB and PEPE, if… pic.twitter.com/TRW0cn4pNk
— James (Pauly) Wynn (@JamesWynnReal) January 1, 2026
After his statement, PEPE coin’s market cap went from approximately 1.72 billion to as high as 2.2 billion in just 24 hours and eventually eased back to 2.15 billion at the time of writing.
Aside from spot buying, other derivatives statistics also improved. Open interest related to PEPE-linked contracts also increased significantly, with a jump of around 82% to $446.5 million. Market analysts consider this a sign of harmonized activity, particularly among traders and speculators who are obviously geared up for future market volatilities.
Experts Turn Bullish on PEPE Despite Bearish Market Structure
Some experts are optimistic about the future of the coin while other indications continue to send a negative message. According to a CoinGape report, the increasing exchange inflows indicate a possible PEPE coin crash of as much as 82%.
However, most are still predicting a bullish trend. Crypto analyst Curb stated that the PEPE token seems set for another growth cycle. The analyst forecasted it would hit a market capitalization of $10 billion. This would be driven by sustained support.
On the other hand, trader Plazma went all out with a bull post on X.
$PEPE ONLY GOES UP. THOSE OF YOU IN THE OLD SCHOOL WHO BELIEVE IT CAN CRASH SIMPLY HAVE NOT UNDERSTOOD THE NEW MATHEMATICS OF THE MEME COIN MARKETS, OR YOU DID NOT CARE ENOUGH TO TRY. DIPS ARE MATHEMATICALLY IMPOSSIBLE IN THIS NEW PARADIGM.
— Plazma (@Plazma0x) January 2, 2026
On-chain metrics seem to support the optimistic scenario. Net inflows are very positive, as it has been recorded that more than $3.25 million has been flowing in through net buying actions. Large balance accounts accumulated hundreds of billions of PEPE tokens through single transactions.
Source: https://coingape.com/why-is-pepe-coin-rising-today-jan-2/