In a major move that continues to accumulate funds over the month, Ethereum ($ETH) whales have pumped over $1 million into the meme-inspired cryptocurrency $PEPE, a competitor to other meme tokens including $SHIB.
According to data from Lookonchain, a popular blockchain analytics service, an anonymous trader named OSF bought up to 173 billion PEPE with 141 ETH, or about $261,000. Since June 14, the trader has invested a total of 536 ETH, or nearly $1.04 million, to buy 613 billion PEPE tokens.
PEPE, a token inspired by the infamous meme and cartoon character Pepe the Frog, was introduced to the market on April 17, 2023. Despite warnings that contract owners may have the ability to modify transaction taxes and blacklist features, PEPE’s market has thrived. After multiple centralized exchange listings, it is now among the top 100 digital assets.
Earlier, one lucky cryptocurrency investor appeared to have turned a 0.125 ETH PEPE investment into a staggering $1.14 million in just a few days by buying PEPE at the right time.
Using PEPE’s derivative $PEPE2, one savvy memecoin trader also managed to increase an initial investment of around $12,000 to a whopping $1.05 million in just 10 days.
While trading memecoins can be lucrative, there are significant risks that should not be underestimated. These tokens can be highly volatile, with their value either skyrocketing or collapsing dramatically in a short period of time. They often lack the underlying technology or utility that supports more established cryptocurrencies.
In other notable trading activity, Lookonchain hinted that some institutions may be holding large amounts of Curve ($CRV), the native token of the decentralized finance (DeFi) stablecoin lending project.
Over the past week, Lookonchain observed four newly created wallets withdrawing a total of 10.2 million CRV, equivalent to $8.12 million, from top cryptocurrency exchange Binance. These wallets appear to contain only CRV.