$PEPE
Ether rose more than Bitcoin over the weekend amid renewed optimism about the second-largest cryptocurrency.
• Two tokens of the Ethereum ecosystem, PEPE and MOG, rose to new highs on the back of US ETF deposit approvals, with traders treating them as beta bets.
• Open interest in currency futures has increased, suggesting new money is entering the market, although PEPE's long-to-short ratio suggests traders are betting on further price appreciation.
Two of the Ethereum ecosystem's tokens rose to record highs on Monday, buoyed by last week's approval of major Ethereum (ETH ) exchange-traded fund (ETF ) deposits in the US that convinced some traders to view the tokens as beta bets.
Shares of frog-themed Pepe (PEPE) and cat-themed mog (MOG) have jumped 11% and 45%, respectively, in the past 24 hours as the beta betting narrative shows no signs of slowing down. Demo betting is a way to learn about key assets by investing in related networks or protocols. Trading volumes for PEPE across spot and futures were more than $1.8 billion, compared to the usual range of $400 million to $600 million.
The gains came as Ethereum rose nearly 5% over the same period, leading the way among major coins as Bitcoin (BTC) fell 1%. The broad-based CoinDesk 20 {{CD20}} index, an index of the largest tokens, excluding stablecoins, lost 0.3%.
Futures data shows that open interest in Pepe and Mog tracked instruments has risen in the past 24 hours. Open interest for PEPE rose to $720 million from $550 million last week, while the number for MOG rose to $8.3 million from $5 million. A rise in open interest is a sign of new money entering the market, which may herald more price volatility.
However, the buy-to-sell ratio for PEPE is skewed in favor of bears at 54%, data from Coinalyze shows, showing that traders are selling, or betting on further price rises.
As CoinDesk reported last week, traders have been considering PEPE and MOG as an effective way to gain exposure to ether. The rally in the two tokens began when analysts raised the odds of Ether ETFs being approved for trading in the US.
PEPE even zoomed in on the top 20 tokens by market capitalization over $6 billion, resulting in some early investors receiving millions of dollars on an initial purchase of just $460.
Since 2023, tokens — typically considered to have no intrinsic value, but nonetheless enjoying a massive following — have recently emerged as an experimental bet on whatever ecosystem they rely on.
Several Solana-based memes soared from December to March with the launch of the network's SOL tokens – contributing to the growth of the ecosystem and attracting attention. Also in December, the Avalanche Foundation, a non-profit organization that maintains the Avalanche blockchain, said it would invest in tokens built on the network in recognition of online culture and the meme value such tokens can spark among investors.
