The meme coin PEPE is currently experiencing a spectacular rise that hardly any other altcoin, apart from Shiba Inu, has experienced. Within just two weeks, the meme coin, which is based on a cartoon character created by Matt Furie back in 2005, has (almost) broken into the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap. At press time, PEPE was ranked #101.
And as on-chain analytics platform Nansen shared in a recent analysis, the two meme coins share other similarities: namely, numerous holders. According to Nansen, PEPE has more than 54,000 holders after just two weeks. While this sounds impressive, it is still small compared to the 1.3 million Shiba Inu holders.
Every 16th PEPE Holder Also Owns SHIB
It is worth noting, however, that one in 16 PEPE holders also owns Shiba Inu (SHIB). As Nansen analyzed, there are over 3,350 wallets holding both meme coins. So before PEPE can even come close to competing with SHIB, the holder base will have to expand substantially.
54,000+ $PEPE holders in just 2 weeks? 🤯
Impressive, but let's not forget the 1.3 million $SHIB holders out there!
And did you know that over 3,350 wallets hold both memecoins?
Let's dive into the top holders of these two 👇 pic.twitter.com/VmJPdJZQEY
— Nansen 🧭 (@nansen_ai) April 30, 2023
An analysis of the largest holders shows that the two exchanges MEXC and Gate hold large amounts of both memecoins. “But did you know Wintermute also has 2 contract addresses trading both tokens?” notes Nansen.
Wintermute is a leading global crypto market maker that works with the world’s top crypto exchanges and projects to provide liquidity. Wintermute has an estimated on-chain valuation of $230 million, with Arbitrum ($54 million), Optimism ($47 million) and DYDX ($32 million) being the largest holdings.
Nansen also writes, “Keep in mind that this wallet holds over $37.8 million in tokens, the majority of which are WETH, WBTC and stablecoins, so $SHIB and $PEPE only make up a tiny percentage of their portfolio.” However, Wintermute actively trades both meme coins.
Wintermute’s address first received 1.2 billion SHIB on Feb. 23 with a current balance of 15.2 billion. Remarkably, the account was actively trading on the chain with a realized PnL (DEX trades) between -$46,300 and $53,700. It also frequently sends SHIB to its exchange deposit addresses.
But not only SHIB, PEPE is also actively traded by the Wintermute address. It first received 46.5 billion PEPE on April 20 and currently has a balance of 81.6 billion. The address has a realized PnL (DEX trades) between -$87,000 (on 4/21) and $170,000 (today). Its last transaction was the exchange of 5,200,712,114 PEPE for 1.67 WETH.
Remarkably, PEPE’s 24-hour trading volume already outperformed SHIB by a factor of two, according to data by CoinGecko. Within the last day, PEPE reached $257.8 million, compared to $131.6 million for Shiba Inu.
PEPE About To Break Into The Top 100
PEPE has risen over 93% in the last 24 hours, reaching an all-time high of $0.000001158. The market cap has risen to over $435.9 million, bringing the meme coin to 101st place on Coingecko.
However, as NewsBTC Can Meme Coin PEPE Get Into The Top 100? Read This Before Buying, there are some red flags. As quickly as PEPE’s price has risen, it could fall again. More than 20 wallets spent an amount of about 0.02 ETH on Fixed Float and Changenow to buy the new meme coin shortly after PEPE started trading.
Now these PEPE are worth several million dollars. It has not yet been conclusively determined whether these are insiders. However, analysts warn that potential buyers should keep an eye on these addresses to avoid a rug pull, especially because the creators are unknown.
At press time, the PEPE price stood at $0.00000109139.
