Pepe (PEPE), a large-cap meme coin on Ethereum, has entered its sixth consecutive week of decline. However, on-chain data shows that smart money accumulation remains intact.
As meme coins lose favor amid weakening market liquidity, questions are rising over whether PEPE can stage a recovery.
Top PEPE Whale Wallets Bet on a Bullish Reversal
Last month, James Wynn, a well-known trader on Hyperliquid with large PEPE long positions, predicted that PEPE’s market capitalization could reach $69 billion by 2026. This forecast came just before a sharp rally. Two weeks later, he confirmed that he had closed all positions and sold his entire PEPE holdings.
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Despite this exit, other investors have continued to accumulate PEPE. On-chain data from Santiment shows a notable shift in behavior among the top 100 largest wallets. Over the past four months, following the broader market sell-off in October, these wallets have accumulated approximately 23.02 trillion PEPE.
Santiment noted that large wallets often play a decisive role in reversing altcoin trends and triggering strong price rallies.
“Smart money wallets play a huge part in altcoins eventually reversing course and going on major runs. Retail sentiment is very bearish at the moment toward Pepe and meme coins, but expect that coins with heavy accumulation will inevitably have another breakout once Bitcoin is able to see some sustained bullish momentum.” — Santiment reported.
Analysts expect PEPE’s price to rebound in the near term. However, caution remains, as a potential new local bottom could form before any sustained recovery.
PEPE’s recovery appears to have some fundamental support. Still, investors remain hesitant to allocate capital to meme coins under current market conditions.
Market analyst Benjamin Cowen warned that, in a tightening liquidity environment, meme coins are likely to suffer the most severe impact. Some may even disappear entirely.
Data on meme coin dominance in the altcoin market, which measures meme coin market capitalization as a share of total altcoin capitalization, remains low.
A sustained rebound in this dominance ratio would provide a clearer signal of a broader recovery for PEPE and the meme coin sector as a whole.