Pepe Price: Whale Demand and Rising Open Interest Fuel 25% Weekly Rally

TLDR

• PEPE is up 25% this week, gaining 12% in the past 24 hours
• Seven whale transactions over $1 million each occurred on Thursday, the highest since March 16
• Exchange supply dropped from 82.75T to 81.30T PEPE while top holder wallets grew to 84.04T PEPE
• Futures Open Interest hit a three-month high of $250 million with a bullish funding rate
• Spot market demand remains behind, with $2.65 million in net sales recorded August 18–19

Pepe has posted back-to-back gains of 11% on Wednesday and Thursday, bringing its weekly total to 25%. The meme coin is trading above its 50-day and 100-day Exponential Moving Averages (EMAs), and momentum indicators are pointing upward.

PEPE currently has a market cap of $1.19 billion, making it the fourth largest memecoin. It had been flat over the past 30 days before this week’s move.

Seven large transactions, each worth over $1 million, were recorded on Thursday. According to Santiment data, that is the highest number of such whale transactions since March 16.

The supply held on crypto exchanges has fallen. Between August 12 and now, exchange-held PEPE dropped from 82.75 trillion to 81.30 trillion. At the same time, top non-exchange wallets grew from 80.50 trillion to 84.04 trillion PEPE.

This pattern, where supply moves off exchanges and into large wallets near a price low, often signals that big buyers are accumulating.

Derivatives Market Turns Bullish

PEPE futures Open Interest rose from $209 million to $250 million, a three-month high. The OI-weighted funding rate sits at 0.0095%, meaning traders are paying a premium to hold long positions.

Before this week’s move, the perpetual market had seen $17 million in outflows over 15 days. That has now reversed. Total perpetual inflows reached roughly $84.44 million, with net inflow coming in at $1.10 million.

CoinMarketCap’s price sentiment score for PEPE hit 4.89, which is rated as very bullish.

Spot Market Lagging Behind

The spot market has not fully caught up. Between August 18 and 19, net PEPE sales totaled $2.65 million. Around $2.31 million of that came on August 19 alone.

In the past 24 hours, spot net accumulation has reached roughly $660,170. That buying is positive, but it does not yet offset the recent selling.

On the technical side, PEPE has broken above the June 15 high of $0.00000314. The next level to watch is the 200-day EMA at $0.00000363. A confirmed break above that could open the path toward the May 10 high of $0.00000459.

The MACD line has crossed above its signal line and moved into positive territory, with a fresh bullish histogram forming above the zero line.

If spot demand continues to grow, it would confirm that the rally has broader support beyond the futures market.

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