The popular meme coin Pepe experienced a significant decline, causing its market cap to drop below the $1 billion mark during today’s early trading hours. The coin’s value plummeted by nearly 100% from its all-time high, leading to a decrease of over 15% in the last 24 hours, with PEPE trading at $0.000002187 at press time.
This drastic downturn resulted in PEPE’s market cap shedding over $300 million, falling to as low as $840 million from the previously reported figure of $1.21 billion. As the meme coin reached its peak bull run, it created several millionaires who may now be capitalizing on their profits.
According to blockchain analytics firm Santiment, PEPE traders have been converting their profits into Ethereum, which contributed to an 18-month high in active deposits on the network, surpassing 20,000 on May 5.
On the same day, blockchain sleuth Lookonchain reported a whale that purchased 4.23 trillion PEPE tokens with 422 ETH and 200,000 USDC and subsequently transferred them to Binance. At the time of the transaction, the whale’s estimated profit amounted to approximately $14.5 million.
Furthermore, today saw another whale, Master Ventures, selling its entire PEPE holdings for $770,000, resulting in a profit of around $470,000. Additionally, this whale offloaded other meme coins it held, including WOJAK and SPONGE, generating an additional profit of $44,000.
In contrast, four whales who acquired 8.7 trillion PEPE tokens immediately after Binance listed the coin are still holding their positions. Lookonchain reveals that these whales’ gains have multiplied more than 100,000 times, showcasing the substantial returns they have achieved thus far.
