In a significant move that has caught the attention of the cryptocurrency world, a notable crypto whale has executed a series of strategic trades involving popular meme coins, Shiba Inu (SHIB) and Pepe (PEPE), amid a wider bullish trend on the market. The transactions were first brought to light by the prominent cryptocurrency analyst Lookonchian, who detailed the whale's activities on social media.
According to Lookonchian's tweet, the unidentified investor moved a staggering 1.97 trillion PEPE tokens, valued at approximately $6.07 million, to Binance, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. This move resulted in a profit of $3.49 million for the whale, showcasing the investor's acumen and timing in navigating the volatile crypto market. Following this significant profit-taking, the whale shifted their focus to another popular meme coin, Shiba Inu, withdrawing 75.9 billion SHIB tokens, equivalent to $893,000, from Binance just three hours later.
Meme coin resurgence
This sequence of transactions comes as the cryptocurrency market experiences a resurgence, with Bitcoin breaking past the $62,000 mark. The market's bullish sentiment appears to have positively influenced other cryptocurrencies, including SHIB, which has seen a substantial increase in its value. Over the last 24 hours, SHIB's price surged by 26.37%, with its 24-hour trading volume also spiking by 114.80%, reaching $2 billion.
Conversely, Pepe experienced a slight downturn, with its price dropping by 4.47% over the same period. Despite this dip, PEPE has recorded a significant rise of 146.73% over the past week. The meme coin's trading volume, too, has seen a significant uptick, with an 18.66% increase, bringing the 24-hour figure to $1.9 billion.
The whale's maneuver between PEPE and SHIB amid these market dynamics underscores the high-stakes nature of cryptocurrency trading, where large-scale investors can have substantial impacts on market movements and coin valuations. These events also highlight the growing interest and speculative investment in meme coins, which, despite their playful origins, have become a significant part of the crypto ecosystem.