Meme Coin Market Reacts to Whale Sell-Offs

The total crypto market cap dropped to $3.42 trillion on January 8 as most leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, recorded losses.

The value of the cryptocurrency market has fallen sharply over the last 24 hours. However, meme coins have taken the biggest hit.

According to CoinGecko, the total crypto market cap fell by over 15%, while the market cap of meme coins dropped by more than 12% to $113.32 billion as whales exited their positions.

Total crypto market cap fell to $3.42 trillion on January 8 as most leading cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, recorded losses.

The losses among the top meme coins have been especially severe. Popular meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu witnessed large drops on the 24-hour chart, pushing down the meme coin market cap.

DOGE was trading at $0.33 after dropping 8.5% over the past 24 hours. Meanwhile, Shiba Inu recorded a fall by over 7% over the same period.

The overall downturn in the meme coin market appears to be a result of whales exiting their positions.

One such whale, tracked by the crypto analytics platform Spotonchain, deposited 210 billion Pepe tokens, valued at approximately $3.95 million, into the Kraken exchange. Notably, this whale sold around 427 billion Pepe coins over the last two days.

“Overall, this whale deposited 427 Billion PEPE to Kraken at an average price of $0.00001987 ($8.49 Million) over the past 2 days, leaving 1 Trillion PEPE ($18.5M) behind with an estimated total profit of 2.15 Million (+8.67%) from this second PEPE trade,” Spotonchain noted.

This move could have further amplified the bearish sentiment. Pepe also posted losses of over 10% on the 24-hour chart.

Pepe became the third-largest meme coin after riding high on social media hype and viral trends. However, this recent sale might indicate that major investors are adjusting their positions.

In another instance, a whale sold 74.483 billion MOG tokens for 177,736 USDC. This large-scale liquidation further suggests that the meme coin market may be losing its charm.

As these whales continue to offload their positions, the selling pressure is likely having a cascading effect on the prices of meme coins, contributing to the overall market downturn.

On the other hand, one whale purchased $18 million worth of meme coins over the last day, including WIF and POPCAT. However, the whale’s purchases failed to uplift the meme coins, as both coins were charting losses on the price chart.

It is worth noting that meme coins have always been volatile. While they often gain attention for their meme-driven culture, their price movements are known to be highly unpredictable.

As the dust settles, some might view this drop as an opportunity to buy since the coins could later rebound.