Pepe: Why Are Holders In A Hurry To Sell?

Once flying high, meme coin Pepe ($PEPE) has plunged rapidly. There is unease among holders as the market sentiment around the token has been shifting dramatically.

Over the past 24 hours, Pepe has experienced a steep 10% plus drop, sending it to a current price of $0.00008681. One of the major players taking the biggest bite of losses is Arthur Hayes, BitMEX co-founder.

He recently made the news for withdrawing and redepositing a large number of both Pepe and MOG ($MOG) tokens back onto the exchange in an apparent effort to stem the losses.

Those who have been following Hayes and the memecoin space will remember the $PEPE, $MOG, and $MOTHER hype he formerly was a part of. Just days after holding the tokens, Hayes tweeted that he deposited 24.39 billion $PEPE or about $230,000 and 167.5 billion $MOG or $223,000 on to major exchanges like Binance and Bybit days later.

Hayes invested $500,000 into these tokens on September 27, bravely posting on it on Twitter. But as the markets started to fall down, he is now $47,000 behind in the venture. There has always been volatility in the meme coin market.

Hayes’ loss is a case in point as anyone jumping on the fame-driven tokens bandwagon could experience a similar predicament. It also brings into question, the long-term sustainability of these tokens. More holders may soon look to liquidate their position to reduce their own losses.

Pepe Down Over 10% in 24 Hours

Pepe’s fall in value’s been nothing short of swift and relentless. The meme coin is clearly taking a hit at -14.16% in the past day. Its overall market cap stands at $3.65 billion.

Trading volume is also down 32% in the last 24 hours to around $1.2 billion. The drop in price and accompanying trading activity tell you all you need to know – market fatigue and a buildup of uncertainty amongst holders.

There are 420.69T Pepe tokens circulating with the total and maximum supply eventually capped at 420.690 Trillion. The token’s fixed supply means, for now, the current market cap equals the fully diluted market cap of $3.65 billion.

Technical Analysis of Pepe

Pepe’s price action over the past week depicts a constant drop, which began after a period of relative stability. Pepe is languishing in a downtrend according to the chart above, and currently sitting at $0.00008681.

Technical analysis also shows growing bearish momentum, as the coin fails to obtain high support to prevent the fall. Against Tether (USDT) at Binance Pepe is confined to a descending price channel, lower lows, and lower highs, as the chart below from TradingView in the 4-hour timeframe shows.

The chart also shows that there is more than one touchpoint on the descending resistance and support lines, meaning that the token is in a clear downtrend. The most immediate area of support zone appears between the green box that ranges from $0.000080 to $0.000075.

If Pepe can’t keep this, it could lead to a sharper drop, flushing the price down to $0.000065.

4-hour PEPE/USDT | Source: TradingView

Looking at the upside, the nearest resistance level is located around $0.000110 to$0.000115 (red box on the chart). If bulls somehow manage to defend the current support, break out of the descending channel and have somewhere to turn, then the key test for this to become a trend reversal will be this resistance zone.

Still, above it would require significant buying pressure, which isn’t there now. On the chart, the Average Directional Index (ADX) is at 36.78, which is just what we would call a strong bearish trend.

The ADX is a technical indicator used to measure the strength of overall trend and readings above 25 are generally considered strong. The rising ADX accompanied by declining price suggests the current downtrend is accelerating and is not exactly a good sign for those holding, hoping for the price to rebound.