Pepe price has remained in a deep bear market as sentiment in the cryptocurrency industry worsens.
The token has crashed by almost 40% from its highest point in June, bringing its market cap to $4.5 billion, down from the year-to-date high of over $7.1 billion.
This decline happened at a time when most cryptocurrencies are under heavy selling pressure. Bitcoin has dropped from last month’s high of $72,000 to $60,000.
Other meme coins like Iggy Azelia’s MOTHER, Jason Derulo’s JASON, and Dogwifhat have also dropped by double digits.
Fundamentally, there are some positives about Pepe’s price action. Open interest in the futures market has remained steady in the past few days. It stood at $131 million on Wednesday, similar to where it has been since June 8.
Pepe futures open interest
Pepe’s daily volume has also held better than other altcoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. It has averaged above $500,000 in the past few days, making it the most popular meme coin in the industry.
DOGE and SHIB, which are significantly bigger than Pepe, have averaged daily volume of about $600 million and $200 million since June.
Pepe is also owned by more people than most meme tokens. Data by DEX Tools shows that the token has over 254,577 holders. The biggest address holds over 92.9 trillion tokens worth $967 million while the second one has 19.9 million coins worth $207 million.
There are signs that true believers are optimistic that the Pepe token will bounce back. On Monday, a whale moved Pepe tokens worth $14.7 million from Binance to an unknown wallet.
On X, many PEPE holders expressed optimism that the token will bounce back. Besides, this is not the first time that the token has moved into a bear market. Between March 14th and April 13th, the token was down by over 62%. It then bounced back and reached an all-time high.
— Jameson (@JamesonEth) July 1, 2024I went ALL IN on $PEPE last year at the stone cold lows KNOWING it would be the best performing alt this cycle
My conviction has paid off big time, but I did not come this far to sell before the REAL moves come
Next few months will be INSANE for alts, just hold with CONVICTION. pic.twitter.com/ZQAGNJXv1M
Pepe also dropped by over 40% between December 2023 and January 2024 and then bounced back as the crypto winter ended.
Pepe price chart
Technically, Pepe has found substantial support at the 100-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA). A drop below that level could signal more pain in the near term before the eventual comeback.