- No other ERC-20 token recorded faster growth than PEPE.
- Most of the meme trading has now moved to centralized exchanges.
Pepes [PEPE] an unprecedented surge has made it more attractive for investors to look toward memes, a May 20 Messari report revealed.
How many Worth 1,10,100 PEPEs today?
The platform mentioned that after the first two weeks of emergence, when it seemed like the broader market overlooked the token, participants’ eyes opened to the possibility of replication in other memes.
Stories from early @pepecoineth buyers getting rich off small initial investments have made it more attractive for the fringe user to speculate on other newly launched meme coins.
After $PEPEIn the first two weeks, we started to see material interest in other meme coins. pic.twitter.com/8eTQuvdnRD
— Messari (@MessariCrypto) May 19, 2023
Now familiar with the game
However, there were reasons for this change in sentiment. According to the crypto market information provider, PEPE became the fastestgrowing ERC-20 token in the existence of the market.
This was not just limited to the rapid run-up to a Market cap of $1 billion. Instead, holder growth took just 22 days to cross the 100,000 mark. Pepe lasted a much shorter period of time than Shiba Inu [SHIB] to reproduce such a performance.
So it was clear that despite initial skepticism, market participants caught wind of PEPE’s potential earlier than any other meme.
Source: Messari
Meanwhile, that wasn’t the only reason that caused the shift in perception.
Messari noted in the same report that the notoriety of crypto market participants since then Dogecoins [DOGE] and the emergence of SHIB in 2021 also played a part in the rapid holder addition.
And as this fueled PEPE’s popularity, it also led to growth in market cap per holder similar to SHIB’s. The same interest floated Ethereum [ETH] gas rates to new highs in 2023.
Letting retail run its course
ETH was the underlying asset of PEPE. And therefore, this created higher volatility and increased demand for the cryptocurrency. Typically, increased demand for ETH leads to congestion, and usually to an inevitable rise in gas rates.
This was the case since early adopters traded the meme on decentralized exchanges (DEXs) pending PEPE’s listing on centralized exchanges (CEXs).
Source: Messari
But since MEXC led the way to listing and Binance also passed the baton, most PEPE trading now took place on CEXs.
Is your wallet green? Check the Pepe profit calculator
Needless to say, this has helped PEPE adoption since May 8. And consequently, its adoption has been fueled by off-chain market making, retail participation, and derivatives trading in particular. Furthermore, Messari failed to mention that,
“PEPE derivatives volumes have already surpassed daily spot trading volumes.”
After the release of PEPE, a number of memes have appeared on other networks. The most surprising part of the lot was Bitcoin [BTC]of which the BRC-20 standard is the to beat of replaceable meme tokens.
Source: Messari