APE: Volume, whales, sentiment- Decoding rug pull theory’s authenticity

As the market turned green, many coins and tokens saw a gentle 24-hour recovery – nothing too dramatic or drastic. However, one token shot to high heaven even as those watching scratched their heads and wondered what kind of monkey business was going on.

An extra-large banana split

At press time, ApeCoin [APE] was trading at $16.30 after an astronomical rally of 30.20% in the last 24 hours and rising by 2.52% in the last week. This comes shortly after investors speculated that APE might be a rug pull, so what gives?

Well, for starters, APE supply on exchanges was already up high and moving sideways as investors continued to sell, but the latest rally saw more APE returning to exchanges.

This suggests a heavy amount of profit-taking activity is going on. Shortly after its rally, APE noted some slight corrections but was still on its way up at the time of writing.

Source: Santiment

Naturally, investors had to swing over to get in on the action and Santiment data revealed that APE volumes were spiking before press time. However, they were still a long way from the volumes seen in the first days of APE’s launch.

Source: Santiment

Furthermore, it wasn’t just monkey lovers getting excited to buy or sell again, as even whales joined the fun. Whale transactions above $100,000 began to see small spikes as APE rallied from 18 April.

That being said, there were less than 300, and they were far lower than the spikes APE saw even when its price was less than $15. This appears to indicate a loss in trader interest over time.

Source: Santiment

APE previously has been criticized by crypto journalists and researchers alike for its token allocation, with claims that insiders were getting far more profits than smaller traders who invested in the project to support the Bored Ape Yacht Club. However, APE’s latest rally does go a long way in fighting back against accusations that it was just an elaborate rug pull.

That being said, the weighted sentiment was still in negative territory at press time, and the rally doesn’t seem to have boosted spirits by a lot. This indicates that doubts surrounding the project are still strong.

Source: Santiment

Bored Ape is bored no longer

At press time, the Bored Ape Yacht Club was the third-largest NFT collection in terms of 24-hour sales, seeing a 79.21% rise in the last day. Above it were Moonbirds and the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which saw admittedly less impressive 24-hour changes.