Ethereum-based meme coin Pepe (PEPE) surged 27% in the past 24 hours to a new all-time high on news that the United States may approve a spot Ethereum ETF.

Cryptocurrency trader Matthew Hyland claimed that “PEPE could be the best meme coin for an Ethereum ETF.” Another pseudonymous cryptocurrency trader “Kaleo” added that Ethereum’s trend is very interesting, and PEPE is now one of the most obvious post-trade.

Ethereum has risen 23.28% over the past two days to $3,785, rekindling hopes that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will approve an Ethereum ETF before its May 23 deadline, an unexpected turn of events for analysts and the crypto industry.

PEPE is trading at $0.00001387, up 23.48% in the past 24 hours. Anonymous cryptocurrency trader "Plazma" believes that PEPE's upward trend will continue, but expects short periods of volatility along the way.

“Price discovery for PEPE should continue over the coming weeks with a few days of normal rest and the usual pullback,” Plazma wrote in a May 21 post. “We’re on track to 2x-3x in just a few weeks.”

PEPE's open interest (OI) has increased by 40% in the past 24 hours to $172.96 million. Rising OI usually indicates that traders are more confident about future positions, and the data shows a large number of long positions. If the price of PEPE drops by 6%, $10 million of long positions will be liquidated.

PEPE has led the pack among the top 10 memecoins by market cap over the past 24 hours, but other top memecoins have also seen significant price increases over the past week. BONK is up 40.80%, FLOKI is up 21.94%, and BOME is up 25.04% this week.