Ethereum meme coins PEPE and MOG are racing to new records.

Two Ethereum ecosystem tokens soared to record highs last week with the approval of Ether (ETH) exchange-traded fund (ETF) applications in the US.

Frog-themed PEPE and cat-themed MOG are up 11% and 45% respectively in the last 24 hours. PEPE's trading volumes in spot and futures transactions normally ranged between 400 million and 600 million dollars, but rose to over 1.8 billion dollars following the developments.

The gains came as Ether rose nearly 5 percent in the same period. Ether led the rise among major tokens as Bitcoin (BTC) lost 1 percent in value. CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) lost 0.3% in the same period.

Futures data shows #PEPE and #MOG open interest has increased over the last 24 hours. PEPE open positions increased from $550 million recorded last week to $720 million, while for MOG this figure increased from $5 million to $8.3 million. An increase in open positions usually indicates new money entering the market, which can be a sign of volatility.

However, according to data from Coinalyze, the long-short position ratio for PEPE appears to be in favor of the bears with 54%. This shows that traders opened short positions against the price increase.

As CoinDesk reported last week, traders see PEPE and MOG as a leveraged way to gain exposure to Ether. The tokens' rally began as analysts raised their expectations for trading confirmation of #Ether ETFs.

PEPE approaches the top 20 tokens with a market cap of over $6 billion, earning some early investors millions of dollars with an initial purchase of just $460.

Since 2023, meme tokens, which are generally considered to have no real value but still have massive followings, have continued to stand out no matter what ecosystem they are in recently.
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