Since this is the first major rally in PEPE, it is still possible that it is undervalued, especially considering Dogecoin’s past performance
HODLers have been accumulating, but whales are still adding to the selling pressure
Should you hold PEPE in your portfolio, or has it exhausted its potential upside by 2025? Many cryptocurrency investors looking to get some memecoin exposure may be pondering this question.
In fact, PEPE has risen 4,300% from its all-time low to its highest level in December. This performance seems to indicate that PEPE may have limited untapped upside in the next bull run.
However, if we look at the gains made by the king of the memecoin space, Dogecoin, during its first major bull run, this may not be the case.
DOGE has achieved gains of more than 13,000% between 2020 and 2021. By this metric, PEPE may have a higher ceiling than its latest price levels. On the chart, the memecoin recently rebounded to key Fibonacci levels (0.5 and 0.618, respectively) from the November low to the December high.
Furthermore, at the time of writing, PEPE still appears to be down around 27% from its December highs, with a price of $0.00002028.
Are investors still interested in PEPE?
Nonetheless, it’s worth noting that despite the selling pressure in December, memecoin has still managed to hold on to a significant portion of the gains achieved in November — suggesting that a significant number of investors are still optimistic about its performance in 2025.
The number of addresses of long-term HODLers peaked at 91,210 before mid-November, and then dropped sharply in December. This seems to indicate that a large number of HODLers took profits.
However, they subsequently resumed accumulation, and by January 3, 2025, the number had reached 91,490 HODLer addresses.
There has also been a significant rise in the number of wanderers (swing traders) since December 12th. This shows that as prices fall, accumulations rise significantly. The number of cruisers increased from 188,650 addresses on December 12 to 225,950 addresses on January 3. This may have contributed considerably to the recovery in price levels.
Meanwhile, the number of addresses of short-term traders has dropped to 61,450 at press time, down from 82,060 on Dec. 10, indicating a shift toward longer-term trading periods.
Now, while these observations may be positive, it is worth noting that whales are still focused on short-term profit-taking. In fact, on January 2, net inflows from large holders reached $377.4 billion in PEPE — suggesting that whales have been selling.
Selling pressure from whales may limit PEPE longs in the short term.
However, memecoin may still have huge potential upside in the coming months. But only if whale and institutional activity works in its favor.