Pepe leads memecoin rally with blistering 118% surge over 48 hours

Popular memecoin Pepe surged 118% over the past two days to hit a 10-month high on Feb. 27.

The memecoin was trading at $0.0000026, up 58% over 24 hours, as of press time. The token hit a high of $0.0000029 before giving up some of the gains over the last two hours, based on CryptoSlate data.

Pepe’s market cap currently stands above $1 billion, with a 24-hour trading volume of $1.38 billion — up 480% over the past day.

Memecoins are one of the top sectors on CryptoSlate today, showing 11.8% in 24 hours and 16.91% in weekly gains.

Coinglass data shows the rally caused almost $4.4 million in shorts to be liquidated over the past 24 hours.

Market Momentum

Pepe Coin’s journey to a 10-month high was bolstered by the crypto market’s overall recovery momentum over the past two days, which saw several digital assets receive a significant uplift as Bitcoin reclaimed price levels last seen in 2021.

Pepe’s OI-Weighted Funding Rate saw a significant uptick, moving from 0.0169% to 0.12%, indicating a bullish sentiment among traders. The funding rate has since retreated to 0.06% amid the retracement.

However, the increase still suggests a growing willingness to pay more for holding long positions, with expectations of higher future prices.

Bitcoin’s recent rally has benefitted Pepe and led to increased interest and investment in other memecoins, indicating a renewed enthusiasm for these niche digital assets.

Memecoin frenzy

Popular memecoin Floki Inu (FLOKI) and recently launched Dogwifhat (WIF) were up over 30% over the past 24 hours, with the latter surging almost 60% before a retracement.

GROK and LADYS also recorded gains of 22% and 19.9% over the past day, while other small-cap memecoins like Akita Inu and SNEK also posted similar gains.

Meanwhile, the original memecoin DOGE was up roughly 12% over the same period, while SHIB and BONK followed close behind with an approximately 10% rise.

Google trends data shows that retail interest in crypto is resurging, with crypto-related searches up more than 200% across the board.

The resurging interest is bolstered by the introduction of institutional money in the industry through the recent launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs by TradFi giants like BlackRock. The record-breaking performance of the Newborn Nine ETFs is forcing investment managers to rethink their stance toward crypto.