‘Smart Money’ Traders Reduce Pepecoin Holdings by $3M as Meme Coin Mania Cools

Top performing traders have increasingly been reducing their pepecoin (PEPE) holdings, a sign that the bewildering meme coin mania of the past weeks may be losing steam.

Data by crypto intelligence firm Nansen shows that “smart money” wallets – crypto accounts of individual traders or institutions who are known for their profitable moves – have decreased their PEPE stash by $3 million in the past 24 hours, Nansen data shows.

The total amount of PEPE held by smart money has almost halved since late April, per Nansen.

PEPE, a new token based on the “Pepe the frog” meme, has skyrocketed in popularity since it debuted about a month ago, attracting swarms of traders to gamble on its price. The token reached a staggering $1.8 billion market capitalization last Friday within a few weeks, with some early investors pocketing millions of dollars in profit after buying PEPE for a pittance.

However, the token’s price has dropped 66% since hitting an all-time high on May 5, with its market cap falling below $600 million, according to Coinmarketcap.

During the price decline, blockchain data showed that three large PEPE investors had been buying up the token in bulk, raising hopes that a bump in price might be nearing.

Still, the number of tokens held by smart money wallets has been dropping fast, showing no signs that top performing traders are anticipating a bounce.

Smart money balance currently stands at 6.9 trillion PEPE, down from more than 13.5 trillion near the end of April, according to Nansen data. The number of smart money accounts holding PEPE has fallen to 111 from a peak of 135 on May 4.

One example of an early investor appearing to ditch PEPE is pseudonymous crypto trader “vxv.eth.” The wallet has accumulated 1.3 trillion tokens since its initial purchase on April 17, Nansen data shows. Early Thursday, the account transferred its PEPE stash worth $2.1 million to crypto exchanges Gemini and UniSwap, completely exiting its position.