Gokhstein Says He’s Still Long Term Shiba Inu Holder Despite PEPE Epic Surge

Gokhshtein to purchase PEPE, but Shiba Inu is his preferred long-term investment.

Popular cryptocurrency podcaster David Gokhshtein has expressed his long-term support for Shiba Inu (SHIB) despite the epic price surge of PEPE, the latest meme coin sensation.

Since its launch mid-last month, PEPE has grown close to 40,000%, drawing a lot of attention from investors. The token has continued to gain, surging over 1600% in the last two weeks, despite SHIB mainly remaining flat.

However, despite PEPE’s epic returns, Gokhshtein has voiced his continued loyalty to Shiba Inu although disclosing he is investing some money into PEPE. Today, the pundit highlighted a mysterious shift in the meme coin economy, noting that SHIB positions are currently being swapped for PEPE.

“Looking at the data, people have been swapping their SHIB positions into PEPE,” Gokhshtein tweeted, adding, “I still like SHIB long term.”

Investors FOMO into PEPE

The pundit comments come hours after on-chain analytics firm Nansen reported that 3,350 wallets hold SHIB and PEPE, with the latter token amassing over 54,000 holders in just two weeks. Nansen also highlighted a large holder, “Wintermute 0x2800” who received 1.2 billion SHIB on Feb. 23 and 46.5 billion PEPE on April 20. The whale currently holds a balance of 15.2 billion SHIB and 81.6 billion PEPE. Notably, this whale has been swapping PEPE for other coins and vice versa to make a profit.

Many investors have also been FOMOing into PEPE, expecting to catch favorable moves. On April 30, crypto investor “Waleed Eth” tweeted that he had doubled his money after swapping his $17,000 worth of SHIB to PEPE a day earlier. He also encouraged others to do so, sharing a chart showing PEPE’s price going parabolic.

Launched less than a month ago, PEPE became an internet sensation, particularly after early investors of the frog-themed token made astounding profits in less than a week. On May 1, the tokens trading volume nearly doubled that of Shiba Inu after rising to nearly $358 million compared to SHIB’S $125 million.

Today Bitmex also listed PEPE with 50x Leverage.

🐸PEPE Perpetual Swaps coming 🐸

Tomorrow, 3 May at 04:00 UTC, two new perpetual listings will arrive at BitMEX$PEPE $USD$PEPE $USDT

Both with up to 50x leverage.

More info & contract spec: https://t.co/I24u414Zi5

What direction will you trade them? Let us know below 👇 pic.twitter.com/N11jN2268O

— BitMEX (@BitMEX) May 2, 2023

That said, despite PEPE’s growing popularity, it bears mentioning that there is no guarantee its price will continue to increase given that it has no specific use case. Notably, the meme coin’s official website states that it should not be considered an investment opportunity and was merely designed as a meme coin with humor in mind.

On the other hand, SHIB continues to gain new utility in payments and boasts several developments in payments and its upcoming metaverse.