Last Updated on May 1, 2023 by Bitfinsider

Almost no other altcoin, with the exception of Shiba Inu, has seen a rise as spectacular as the one the meme coin PEPE is currently experiencing. The meme coin, which is based on a cartoon figure made in 2005 by Matt Furie, has nearly cracked the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market valuation in just two weeks. PEPE was ranked #101 at the time of publication.

Additionally, as the on-chain analytics platform Nansen revealed in a recent analysis, the two meme coins have a lot of holders in common. Nansen claims that in just two weeks, PEPE had more than 54,000 subscribers. Although it sounds impressive, there is a massive 1.3 million Shiba Inu owners in total, so this number is still modest.

The fact that 1 in every 16 PEPE holders also owns a Shiba Inu (SHIB) is noteworthy. There are over 3,350 wallets holding both meme coins, according to Nansen’s analysis. Therefore, the holder base will need to significantly increase before PEPE can even begin to compete with SHIB.

The two exchanges MEXC and Gate are found to possess significant amounts of both memecoins according to an investigation of the major holders. Nansen adds: “But did you know Wintermute also has 2 contract addresses trading both tokens?”

Wintermute is a top-tier international cryptocurrency market maker that collaborates with prominent exchanges and projects to offer liquidity. The top holdings of Wintermute are Arbitrum ($54 million), Optimism ($47 million), and DYDX ($32 million), with a total estimated on-chain valuation of $230 million.

Keep in mind that this wallet owns more than $37.8 million worth of tokens, the most of which are WETH, WBTC, and stablecoins, thus $SHIB and $PEPE only make up a small portion of their portfolio, advises Nansen. Wintermute, however, deals in both meme coins frequently.

With a current balance of 15.2 billion SHIB, Wintermute’s address first received 1.2 billion SHIB on February 23. Surprisingly, the account was active on the chain, with realized PnL (DEX trades) ranging from -$46,300 to $53,700. It also routinely sends SHIB to the addresses for the exchange deposits.

The Wintermute address also actively trades PEPE in addition to SHIB. Its balance is at 81.6 billion after first receiving 46.5 billion PEPE on April 20. The realized PnL (DEX transactions) for the address ranges from -$87,000 on 4/21 to $170,000 today. The trade of 5,200,712,114 PEPE for 1.67 WETH was its most recent transaction.

Surprisingly, according to data from CoinGecko, PEPE’s 24-hour trading volume already outperformed SHIB by a factor of two. PEPE reached $257.8 million in the most recent day, as opposed to Shiba Inu’s $131.6 million.

PEPE Breaking Into The Top 100

PEPE has risen over 93% in the last 24 hours, reaching an all-time high of $0.000001158. The market cap has risen to over $435.9 million, bringing the meme coin to 101st place on Coingecko.

However, there are red flags looming. As quickly as PEPE’s price has risen, it could fall again. More than 20 wallets spent an amount of about 0.02 ETH on Fixed Float and Changenow to buy the new meme coin shortly after PEPE started trading.

Now these PEPE are worth several million dollars. It has not yet been conclusively determined whether these are insiders. However, analysts warn that potential buyers should keep an eye on these addresses to avoid a rug pull, especially because the creators are unknown.

At press time, the PEPE price stood at $0.00000109139.

How to Buy or Trade SHIB on Scallop Exchange

You can buy or trade SHIB on Scallop. As Scallop frequently holds campaigns and events, you should check out its official Telegram group here to see if you can participate and win rewards as you trade.

On Scallop, you can trade SHIB as a spot pair (SHIB/USDT) in 3 simple steps:

1. Sign up and register an account on Scallop 
2. Buy USDT via Scallop One-click Buy (Follow the step-by-step guide from step 1 to 6) 
3. Trade SHIB/USDT at Scallop Spot