The rising popularity of PEPE has renewed investors’ interest in the memecoin space of the crypto industry. The hype around the frog-themed token has brought the memecoin narrative into the limelight and paved the way for mainstream adoption of this hyper-speculative and ultra-volatile asset class.
According to a report by Reuters, the days following the April 16 launch of PEPE saw the memecoin gaining almost 7000% in merely 17 days. On the eighteenth day, the frog-themed memecoin achieved a market capitalization of a whopping $1.8 billion.
The unprecedented growth in price and market capitalization captured the interest of opportunistic traders and speculators, who lined up to participate in the memecoin frenzy by scooping PEPE. The memecoin has gained more than 60% since the beginning of this month, going from $0.000000998 to its current trading price of $0.000001693.
Earlier this month, PEPE reached an all-time high price of $0.0000042, marking an increase of nearly 7000% since its launch last month. At the time of writing, the memecoin had a market capitalization of $665 million, making it the 65th largest cryptocurrency in the world. PEPE recorded its highest-ever daily trading volume on May 6, 2023, when over $3 billion worth of PEPE changed hands.
As the world’s third largest memecoin following Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, PEPE’s considerable growth has encouraged traders around the world to test the risky waters surrounding memecoins. The prospect of exponential returns in a short period is arguably the most appealing attribute of this asset class.
Speaking on the risks associated with memecoins like PEPE, MarketVector Indexes’ product strategist Martin Leinweber revealed that the investment in them is driven by people’s natural tendency to gamble. He commented that “human beings love to speculate”, adding that he would “still be very cautious to buy them” Leinweber further pointed out that “it’s gambling in its purest form”.
As per the analysis, PEPE is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency hosted on Ethereum. Data from Coinglass shows that the total open interest on PEPE futures has gone down by more than 11% over the past 24 hours.
