PEPE Falls 6% Amid Market Sell-Off as Whales Accumulate
Meme cryptocurrency PEPE lost nearly 6% of its value over the past 24 hours, dropping to $0.0000107, even as large holders continued to increase their stakes. The decline came amid a broader crypto market pullback, with the CoinDesk 20 (CD20) index sliding 1.8%, while memecoins were particularly hard hit.
Trading volumes surged into the trillions of tokens as PEPE struggled to maintain support amid intense selling pressure. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index fell almost 5% during the period, compared with a 0.8% drop for bitcoin, underscoring the volatility faced by meme assets.
The drop follows renewed altcoin optimism fueled by speculation that an upcoming Federal Reserve interest rate cut could boost risk assets.
On-chain data from Nansen shows that the top 100 non-exchange Ethereum wallets holding PEPE increased their holdings by 1.38% over the past week, now totaling 307.33 trillion tokens. Exchange wallets, in contrast, reduced their stakes by 1.45% to 254.4 trillion tokens, indicating accumulation by long-term investors.
Technical Analysis
According to CoinDesk Research’s technical model, PEPE’s price action signals a market under pressure. The token fell from $0.000011484 to $0.000010782, with sellers dominating trading. Price briefly tested resistance at $0.000011732, where volume hit 5.5 trillion tokens before reversing.
Support levels weakened as PEPE brushed $0.000010746, with trading activity rising to 7.7 trillion tokens, reinforcing bearish sentiment. The token’s intraday swings reached 9%, reflecting ongoing uncertainty over whether support levels will hold.
