Ethereum Meme Coin Pepe Surges 16% on Coinbase Perpetual Futures Listing

The cryptocurrency market is starting the week on a relatively calm note following the buzz around the Bitcoin halving, with the global crypto market cap sitting at $2.56 trillion, a 2.7% change in the last 24 hours according to data from CoinGecko.

Bitcoin and Ethereum are both up less than 3% today, and the trend is pretty similar among the biggest tokens in the crypto industry. However, the Ethereum-based PEPE, one of the most popular meme coins of 2024, is defying market trends and is one of the best performers in the top 100 coins by market cap today.

In the last 24 hours, the price of PEPE went from $0.00000572 to its current price of $0.00000666 for a 16% spike, and a sizable 30% jump in the last seven days. Although it's down nearly 13% in the last 30 days after suffering a major correction, the token's technical indicators suggest that it's recovering and could be bouncing back to a bullish trend.

The price surge comes after Coinbase International, the global branch of the largest U.S. crypto exchange, announced the listing of PEPE perpetual contracts. This move is significant as it adds liquidity and increases the asset's exposure.

The opening of Coinbase's 1000PEPE-PERP market was originally planned for April 18, but was delayed for technical reasons. Trading will now begin on Tuesday, April 23.

And of course, such an event was met with enthusiasm—and memes—all over Crypto Twitter. Coinbase also announced perpetual futures around Dogwifhat (WIF), a leading Solana meme coin, with trading set to begin on April 25.

In addition to the Coinbase announcement, PEPE's technical indicators suggest a positive trend. The coin's price trend has finally broken past the EMA55 mark (the average price of the last 55 days), indicating a potential recovery from the previous crash and a possible return to bullish behavior.

The EMA10 (the average price of the last 10 days) is also on target to surpass the EMA55 mark. This event, known as a golden cross, is usually a confirmation of a bullish phase in which prices tend to go up faster with time.

Image: Tradingview

The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is currently at 51, suggesting a balanced market with neither bears nor bulls dominating (more accurately, 51% buyers and 49% sellers). The Average Directional Index (ADX) at 20 is also weak, showing that the power of the bearish correction is starting to diminish. The Squeeze Momentum Indicator, which is used to determine which phase the markets are in, suggests that the bearish trend has lost force and the price is compressing in preparation for a bullish impulse.

In an optimistic scenario, PEPE could continue its bullish momentum and meet a first resistance at around $0.00000754 (for a 14.5% growth) or $0.00000882 (for a 33.6% growth, green line). However, in a pessimistic scenario, PEPE could fail to maintain momentum and test again the support of the last week at around $0.00000468 (for a -29% dip, red line).

Edited by Andrew Hayward