coindesk.com
Top performing traders have increasingly been reducing their pepecoin ($PEPE) holdings, a sign that the bewildering meme coin mania of the past weeks may be losing steam.
Data by crypto intelligence firm Nansen shows that “smart money” wallets – crypto accounts of individual traders or institutions who are known for their profitable moves – have decreased their $PEPE stash by $3 million in the past 24 hours, Nansen data shows.
The total amount of $PEPE held by smart money has almost halved since late April, per Nansen.
$PEPE, a new token based on the “Pepe the frog” meme, has skyrocketed in popularity since it debuted about a month ago, attracting swarms of traders to gamble on its price. The token reached a staggering $1.8 billion market capitalization last Friday within a few weeks, with some early investors pocketing millions of dollars in profit after buying $PEPE for a pittance.
However, the token’s price has dropped 66% since hitting an all-time high on May 5, with its market cap falling below $600 million, according to Coinmarketcap.
During the price decline, blockchain data showed that three large $PEPE investors had been buying up the token in bulk, raising hopes that a bump in price might be nearing.
Still, the number of tokens held by smart money wallets has been dropping fast, showing no signs that top performing traders are anticipating a bounce.
Smart money balance currently stands at 6.9 trillion $PEPE, down from more than 13.5 trillion near the end of April, according to Nansen data. The number of smart money accounts holding $PEPE has fallen to 111 from a peak of 135 on May 4.
One example of an early investor appearing to ditch $PEPE is pseudonymous crypto trader “vxv.eth.” The wallet has accumulated 1.3 trillion tokens since its initial purchase on April 17, Nansen data shows. Early Thursday, the account transferred its $PEPE stash worth $2.1 million to crypto exchanges Gemini and UniSwap, completely exiting its position.