PEPE falls nearly 5% as whale selling and exchange outflows rattle memecoin

Meme-inspired cryptocurrency PEPE slipped nearly 5% in the last 24-hour period under a wave of liquidations and record-setting trading activity.

The token dropped from $0.000012023 to $0.00001119 as bears overwhelmed attempts at recovery. At one point, trading volume spiked to 6.91 trillion tokens in a single hour, setting a ceiling near $0.000011692, according to CoinDesk Research's technical analysis data model.

The selling pressure wasn’t isolated. Late-session trading saw further rejection at $0.000011549, while volumes surged past 85 trillion tokens, forcing the price toward a session low.

Even when PEPE approached what looked like support at $0.000011525, the lack of meaningful buying activity underscored market reluctance. That level failed to attract enough interest to reverse course, signaling possible further declines.

The memecoin has underperformed the wider cryptocurrency market, as measured by the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index, which dropped 1.35% in the past 24 hours. The memecoin sector, based on the CoinDesk Memecoin Index (CDMEME), plunged 6%.

The market’s reaction shows just how volatile memecoins remain, especially when large holders decide to exit. Nansen data shows that over the past week whale holdings dropped by 0.1%, while PEPE on exchanges dropped by 0.5%.

The charts shows a pattern of lower highs and heavier selling, a combination that usually spells more pain ahead.