Pepe Rose 20% in a Month While Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Lost 11% to 14%. Are Meme Coins Dead?

Pepe (CRYPTO: PEPE) rose 15.9% over the last 30 days, while Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) fell 15.6% and Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) fell 12.8%. This raises the question: are meme coins losing their touch, or is Pepe’s rise driven by one significant wallet?

Pepe has surged 12.7% in 24 hours to $0.00000488 as of 9:06 a.m. ET. This marks its largest one-day gain in a month. The previous notable increase was a 9.6% rise on October 20, and Pepe’s total gain over the past two weeks stands at 19.9%.

Wallets Linked to Justin Sun Hold a $51 Million PEPE Position

The surge in Pepe’s value can be traced back to a specific wallet. On October 18, an address linked to Tron founder Justin Sun received an astonishing 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens, valued at around $28 million, from a Poloniex multisig wallet that requires multiple keys to approve transfers. It was the address’s first PEPE activity since June 2024.

Wallets linked to Justin Sun are now building a $51 million PEPE position through withdrawals from Poloniex, making it the largest single PEPE position outside exchanges. However, because Poloniex is Justin Sun’s exchange, some of these transfers may reflect internal movements among accounts he already owns, meaning no new capital entered the market. Public records do not clarify how much of this position originated from direct market purchases.

Despite this uncertainty, traders reacted positively. When a “whale” (a large holder capable of influencing prices) withdraws coins from an exchange, it often signals a long-term commitment. Coins stored in a private wallet can’t be sold with a click, so this behavior likely spurred more buying on the exchange.

Pepe Has Passed Its October Closing High, but Sellers Keep Showing Up

Pepe has surpassed its highest closing price in the past month, $0.00000463 on October 21. This level could serve as support, where buyers previously showed interest and may return.

However, selling pressure remains a concern. In the last 24 hours, Pepe hit $0.00000503 before retreating and dropping 1.8% in the past hour. On October 23, the price reached $0.00000511 during the session, but it ultimately closed at $0.00000456.

In the past day, Pepe traded around $630 million worth of tokens, significantly more than Dogecoin’s $524 million. This is noteworthy given that Dogecoin ranks 12th in market value, while Pepe ranks 48th. By contrast, Shiba Inu traded only about $63 million in that same timeframe.

Dogecoin’s market indicators, however, appear weaker. With Dogecoin trading at $0.079, it’s below its 20-day average of $0.08 and its 50- and 200-day averages of $0.09. This suggests that many recent buyers are facing losses.

Pepe’s Small Size and Fixed Supply Helped It Outrun Bigger Meme Coins

Pepe’s rise coincided with a broader decline across major cryptocurrencies, suggesting its success wasn’t driven by a general market rally. Since September 28, Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) is down 3.4% to $80,634, Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) is down 13.1% to $2,336, and Solana (CRYPTO: SOL) is down 14.7% to $101.

Pepe’s smaller market capitalization helps explain its recent success. With a total market cap of $2.05 billion, a $51 million position can significantly impact its price—far more than in Dogecoin, which has a $12.4 billion market cap.

Moreover, Pepe benefits from a fixed supply of 420,690,000,000,000 tokens, meaning no new tokens will be created. This creates a competitive environment for buyers. In contrast, Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have no maximum supply, allowing more coins to be generated in the future.

Interestingly, despite news about Shiba Inu’s utility—like booking rental cars through Travala at over 50,000 locations—this hasn’t significantly raised its price. The ShibPayment project supports SHIB and three other tokens across 14 networks, but many users sell SHIB to pay for rentals, diluting buying pressure.

Travala has accepted SHIB for hotel and flight bookings since 2021, and adding car rentals hasn’t sparked significant new demand. Nevertheless, speculative interest in meme coins remains vibrant, driven by fresh developments. Another meme coin gained 44% in a week, suggesting traders are quickly shifting focus to news-driven coins.

Are Meme Coins Dead, or Is Pepe Just a Temporary Spike?

Meme coins aren’t dead, but they seem more selective and active. Pepe’s rally hinges on one investor’s activity, and sustaining its gains will require a broader base of buyers. Additionally, Pepe remains significantly down from its peak—82.6% lower than its high of $0.00002803 on December 9, 2024—while Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have lost 59.1% and 51.1% over the past year, respectively.

Moving forward, watch the October 21 close of $0.00000463. A daily close below that level, or further transfers of PEPE back to Poloniex, could signal a downturn.

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