The crypto market has seen a sharp drop in the past 24 hours, with memecoins taking the biggest hit. According to CoinGecko, the total value of cryptos has fallen by over 15%, while that of memecoins has declined by over 12% to $113.32 billion as whales exited their positions.
The declines among major memecoins were particularly severe. Popular memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu suffered major declines on the 24-hour chart, reducing the market value of memecoins.
DOGE was trading at $0.33 after falling 8.5% in the last 24 hours. Simultaneously, Shiba Inu recorded a drop of over 7% in the same period.
All top 10 memecoins by market cap have seen significant liquidations. Source: CoinGecko
Whales creating crash waves
It appears that the overall drop in the memecoin market was caused by whales exiting their positions.
According to crypto analytics platform Spotonchain, one such whale deposited 210 billion Pepe tokens, worth around $3.95 million, on the Kraken exchange. Over the past two days, the whale has sold around 427 billion Pepe coins.
Overall, this whale deposited 427 billion PEPE into Kraken at an average price of $0.00001987 ($8.49M) over the past 2 days, leaving 1 trillion PEPE ($18.5M) behind with an estimated total profit of $2.15M (+8.67%) on this second PEPE trade, Spotonchain said.
This move may have further amplified the bearish sentiment. Pepe also recorded losses of over 10% on the 24-hour chart.
PEPE Weekly Price Chart. Source: BeInCrypto
Pepe has become the third-largest memecoin as it has gained popularity on social media and viral trends. Still, the recent sell-off could indicate that large investors are recalibrating their positions.
Similarly, another whale sold 74.483 billion MOG tokens for 177,736 USDC. This large-scale liquidation further signals that the memecoin market may be losing its appeal.
As these whales continue to unload their positions, the resulting selling pressure has likely had a cascading effect on memecoin prices, contributing to the overall market decline. At the same time, another whale purchased $18 million worth of memecoins over the past day, including WIF and POPCAT. However, the whale’s purchases did not boost memecoins, as the price charts for both were in the red.
However, it is important to note that memecoins have always been volatile. While they often attract attention due to their meme-based culture, their price movements are notoriously unpredictable.
As the dust settles, some may see this dip as a buying opportunity as the coins may recover later.
The article Memecoins crash as whales sell off was first seen on BeInCrypto Brasil.
