Certain traders have recently been selling NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Collection (BAYC) at a discount to invest in the now trending memecoin – PEPE.
The asset has been among the best performers in the crypto market of late, as its price has risen more than 600% in the past two weeks before cooling off in the last 24 hours.
Shift from NFTs to PEPE
Popular Twitter user Cirrus recently revealed that some traders sold 14 BAYC NFTs below their floor price over the weekend. They used the 672 ETH (worth over $1.2 million at the time) obtained from the deals to buy PEPE.
The crypto community was somewhat divided on that move, with some arguing that dealing with the memecoin could become quite profitable at this point. Others believe that the hype around the token has reached such a high level that an imminent crash seems inevitable.
Cirrus has before claimed that people are likely to part with their below rock bottom price digital art to enter the PEPE ecosystem.
If CryptoPotatoreported Last week, crypto whales also shifted their attention to the memecoin. One such holder traded $590,000 in WBTC, $90,000 in CULT, $235,000 in UNI, and $37,000 in ETH (almost all of their assets in this wallet) to get 1.72T PEPE.
PEPE has become a real sensation in the crypto world, increasing its market cap from less than a million dollars in mid-April (the launch date) to over $1.7 billion (according to CoinMarketCap) on May 5. It is worth noting that even celebrities joined the general mania. An example is American rapper DeAndre Cortez Way (better known as Soulja Boy), who said he “done got rich off PEPE.”
Is PEPE starting to lose steam?
Despite the massive PEPE craze and near-daily price spikes, the asset has been in a downtrend for the past 24 hours. The drop comes a few days after Binance – the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange – noted the coin in its Innovation Zone.
We have yet to see whether PEPE will mimic the performance of well-known memecoins, such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, which have attracted a significant number of investors in recent years. During its 2021 peak, DOGE skyrocketed to nearly $0.75 and reached a market cap of nearly $90 billion. It is currently among the top 10 largest cryptocurrencies.
Nevertheless, investors should keep in mind that the PEPE mania may be a temporary event, meaning it may not get rich overnight (as most would wish).