PEPE rises 24% despite profit taking by whales

PEPE, a frog-themed memecoin with a market capitalization of over $4.4 billion, has noted a significant increase in its price in the past 24 hours. The gains are likely catalyzed the meme coin sector-wide rally inspired by GameStop trader Roaring Kitty’s return on X. 

Meme coins ranked the top 30 by market capitalization and Solana-based meme coins with the name of “ROAR” and “GME,” not affiliated with the firm or the trader, noted massive gains. 

PEPE records new all-time high, rallies despite profit taking

PEPE hit a new all-time high fifteen hours ago at $0.00001119 on Binance. In the past 24 hours, the frog meme inspired token added 24% to its value. 

PEPE rallied alongside Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), Dogwifhat (WIF), Popcat (POPCAT), Floki (FLOKI), Bonk (BONK), Roaring Kitty (ROAR) and GameStop (GME), among other meme coins. 

On Monday, the legendary trader behind the 2021 rally in GameStop, Roaring Kitty, posted an image on X. It was interpreted by traders as a return of the trader and ignited a rally in meme coins.

PEPE’s gains have sustained despite profit-taking by large wallet investors. Data from SpotOnChain shows that whales and early holders of the meme coin started taking profits as the meme coin hit its new all-time high. Early holder 0x647 deposited 250 billion PEPE worth $2.69 million to the centralized exchange Binance. 

The whale continues to hold another 42.4 billion PEPE with an unrealized profit of $3.96 million. 

Another whale 0xa4f realized 20.5% profit on PEPE holdings within three days of holding the meme coin, 123.7 billion PEPE sold at 1.31 million USDC. 

Typically, profit taking by whales increases the selling pressure on an asset and negatively impacts the price. PEPE price has resisted a decline and continues to climb higher on Tuesday. At the time of writing, the meme coin trades close to the all-time high around 0.00001100.