One thing has really stood out in the market over the past couple of days: meme coins like PEPE, which have no cash flow whatsoever, have ranked among the top tokens by trading volume and even briefly broke above Bitcoin’s two-year downtrend line. A lot of people are wondering what’s actually driving this thing.

First: The essence of meme coins is attention, sentiment, and liquidity

PEPE originated as an internet meme based on Sad Frog. It has no protocol revenue, no cash flow, and pays no dividends. That’s not the same as Bitcoin or Ethereum (ETH)—at least those two have uses on their networks, while PEPE has no business activity at all. So where does its price come from? Simply put, it’s the combined force of three things: attention, sentiment, and liquidity.

There’s a real-world example that makes this clear. Around 2026-11-01, public reports said that an address linked to an exchange sold about 7.77 trillion PEPE tokens, worth roughly $31.66 million. The price fluctuated by about 5.68% over 25 hours, then was pulled back up by speculative buying. This rise and fall perfectly illustrates its high-beta nature: the slightest ripple can send it surging or plunging several times more dramatically than major coins. You may think it’s rising, but behind the scenes, sentiment and liquidity are battling it out.

The second thing: how the narrative shifts from memes to relative value

Pepe (PEPE) started out as a community meme coin. But community narratives evolve. Lately, market discussions have shifted from how funny it is to whether it’s outperforming Bitcoin. Public data shows that the PEPE-to-BTC exchange rate briefly broke above a two-year descending trendline, as funds shifted within the meme coin sector from Shiba Inu (SHIB) to PEPE.

The takeaway is this: for meme coins, the community narrative itself is the fundamental. It doesn’t matter if nobody uses it or it has no revenue—as long as enough people believe in it, talk about it, and trade it, the price has support. So when you look at meme coins, you’re not looking at what product they’ve built, but at how many people are willing to believe their story. Ethereum (ETH) is the underlying blockchain it runs on, but the underlying chain itself doesn’t determine whether PEPE rises or falls.

The third thing: which indicators everyday investors should—and shouldn’t—watch

If you just want to understand this market, rather than jump in, watching three things is enough.

Trading volume. CoinMarketCap puts PEPE’s recent 24-hour trading volume at about $823 million, higher than Dogecoin (DOGE) at around $472 million. This shows that money is indeed rotating within the meme coin sector, rather than flowing into just one coin.

Relative strength. Its performance against BTC tells you more than its absolute percentage gains or losses. A price increase doesn’t necessarily mean it’s strong—you need to see whether it’s actually outperforming the broader market.

Liquidity depth. The size of the buy and sell orders determines whether you can get in and out smoothly. With a thinly traded coin, there might be no buyers when you want to sell.

As for claims like “it’s guaranteed to go 100x” or “just buy without thinking,” take them with a grain of salt. Meme coins have no cash flow to support their value; they can rise quickly and fall just as fast. There’s no such thing as a sure bet. If you really want to dabble, first ask yourself whether you can handle losing everything before considering anything else.

Understanding matters more than guessing right

Back to the question at the beginning: what makes Pepe (PEPE) move? The answer lies not in technology, but in people’s minds. It’s a mirror reflecting where the market’s attention is focused, which way sentiment is tilting, and which pools of liquidity money is flowing into.

It’s much safer to treat it as something to observe than as a chance to get rich. Verify market data yourself on public platforms, and don’t rely on just one person’s account.

Do you usually look at meme coin trading volume to gauge interest? Let’s talk in the comments.#meme板块关注热点 #FBI确认朝鲜应对币安被盗事件负责 #币安SAFU基金完成7499枚BTC转移