Pepecoin jumps 7,000% since launch – 05/16/2023 – Tech

“Memecoins”, the hyper-speculative, ultra-volatile and somewhat quirky class of cryptocurrencies, are back in the spotlight after the latest digital token hit the market with stratospheric gains.

Pepe, a cryptocurrency inspired by an anthropomorphized frog popular in internet memes, jumped nearly 7,000% in the 17 days after its launch on April 16, reaching a market cap of $1.8 billion on May 5, according to the CoinGecko data tracker.

The cryptocurrency’s rise has sparked renewed investor interest in memecoins as a whole, with overall trading volumes jumping to $2.6 billion in the first week of May from $408,000 the previous week, data from Dune Analytics shows.

“Memecoins pop up every now and then, and this has historically happened when the market is a bit choppy or sideways,” said Todd Groth, head of index research at CoinDesk Indices. “It’s almost like the market isn’t rising fast enough, traders find these smaller tokens to trade.”

Indeed, the latest memecoin frenzy tracks bitcoin’s slowdown, which has dropped 6% since mid-April to $27,416.

Pepe, which trades for fractions of cents, is down 60% from its May 5 peak on Monday, though it still has a market cap of nearly $740 million. The value makes it the third largest memecoin after dogecoin and shiba inu, both born as internet jokes referencing a Japanese dog breed, which command more than US$ 10 billion and US$ 5 billion of the market, respectively.

Reuters was unable to immediately identify the cryptocurrency’s creators, and the Twitter account did not respond to a request for comment.

Pepe’s website says it was released “for the people” with “no formal team or roadmap” and is “completely useless and for entertainment purposes only”.

The memecoin is the fastest-growing cryptocurrency hosted on Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, data firm Messari said.

Pepe’s rise in popularity has been amplified by its quick listings on major centralized exchanges, including major platform Binance, said Chase Devens, an analyst at Messari.

Binance says on its website that the cryptocurrency has “no utility” or “value support mechanism”. The platform warns users of the memecoin’s volatility and says that the platform “will not be responsible for your trading losses”. Binance did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pepe’s jump.