The meme coin market is experiencing a significant downturn in the first week of 2025, with Pepe (PEPE) leading the decline. Following a period of volatility and several critical moments where “smart money” seemingly orchestrated comebacks, PEPE is now facing a wave of selling pressure from whales.
Data from Spot On Chain reveals that a large whale recently deposited 210 billion PEPE (approximately $4 million) to Kraken. This follows a massive offload of over 427 billion PEPE (approximately $8.45 million) within the last 48 hours. Despite these sales, the whale still holds a substantial position of over 1 trillion PEPE tokens (approximately $18.4 million).
This significant selling activity coincides with a sharp 11% drop in the PEPE price within the last 24 hours, suggesting a strong correlation between the whale dumping and the price decline. The whale’s profits from these transactions exceed $13.45 million, including a substantial $11.4 million from the initial sale.
The broader meme coin market is also experiencing a significant downturn. The cumulative market cap of meme tokens has plummeted by over 11% in the last 24 hours, while trading volume has surged by 52% to reach $15.22 billion. Other prominent meme coins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) have also suffered substantial losses, plunging by 12% and 11%, respectively.
This bearish trend highlights the inherent volatility of the meme coin market and the significant impact that large whale movements can have on prices.
January 2025, Cryptoniteuae
