PEPE in the green as whales load: The market watches for next moves

Key Takeaways

PEPE surged 10% in 24 hours as whales resurfaced as top holders added more, yet the token stayed locked in an accumulation triangle with derivatives still neutral.

Memecoins could finally be back after the previous day’s performance, where altcoins continued to outperform Bitcoin.

Pepe [PEPE], a leading memecoin on the Ethereum [ETH] blockchain, rose 10% in 24 hours, extending yesterday’s run.

The memecoin’s strong community positioned the token as an ETH beta, implying its gains often tracked Ethereum.

For context, ETH led the surge across crypto markets. Yet, PEPE’s price remained inside an accumulation pattern.

PEPE still in accumulation 

The daily chart showed PEPE trading inside a symmetrical triangle that formed in early May, now nearing its apex.

The Accumulation Strength Index was flat, indicating PEPE was consolidating. This trend has been in place since the low in March, hinting that buyers started longing then.

At press time, PEPE traded at $0.00001157. A breakout above $0.00001366 could flip the structure bullish. A breakdown, however, could negate the bullish bias that started after the double-bottom pattern.

Source: TradingView

The RSI showed a slight uptrend after equal lows, following a dip into a fair value gap. This same zone previously triggered 20% returns after a sharp July–August decline.

Whales return after inactivity 

Following the bounce, whales were making their way back into memecoins.

A legendary trader with a 100% strike rate on PEPE was back after 5 months of inactivity. He bought and withdrew tokens worth $2 million from the Binance exchange.

According to EyeOnChain, this wallet still held 1.31 trillion PEPE at an average cost of $0.00001683, meaning a $7.25 million paper loss.

Source: EyeOnChain

Despite a 69% drawdown since June 2024, the whale did not fold, continuing to add more tokens.

Meanwhile, the top 100 addresses holding PEPE added their holdings by 1.50% this month. The overall transaction count was at 6.819 million, with buyers accounting for 1.206 million while sellers only had 851K transactions.

In short, big players and retail were loading more PEPE into their cold wallets.

Why its spot traders are driving the pump

A keen look into what was really driving the surge narrowed down to spot trading. Data from CryptoQuant showed that Futures Taker CVD was neutral in the last three months.

Despite being an ETH beta, it contrasted with ETH’s leverage-driven rally.

Absence of leverage traders in PEPE hinted that the market was yet to define its next destination. Thus, a breakout was needed to lure them.

Source: CryptoQuant

In conclusion, PEPE finished the day in green but lacked the volume to trigger a sustained breakout. For a stronger rally, derivatives participation must rise.