The crypto market has seen a sharp decline over the past 24 hours, with meme coins being hit the hardest.
According to CoinGecko, the total crypto market cap fell more than 15%, while the meme coin market cap fell more than 12% to $113.32 billion as whales exited their positions.
Meme Coin Market Reacts to Whale Sales
The total crypto market cap fell to $3.42 trillion on January 8 as most major cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, posted losses.
Declines among the first coins were particularly serious. Popular meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu saw sharp declines on the 24-hour chart, pushing down the market cap of the meme coins.
DOGE was trading at $0.33 after down 8.5% in the last 24 hours. At the same time, the Shiba Inu recorded a decline of more than 7% over the same period.
It appears that the general downturn in the meme coin market was caused by whales withdrawing from their positions.
According to the crypto analysis platform Spotonchainone of these whales deposited 210 billion Pepe tokens, worth approximately $3.95 million, on the Kraken exchange. Over the past two days, the whale has sold approximately 427 billion Pepe coins.
“In total, this whale deposited 427 billion PEPE on Kraken at an average price of $0.00001987 ($8.49 million) over the last 2 days, leaving behind 1 trillion PEPE ($18.5 million of dollars) with a total profit estimated at 2.15 million dollars (+8.67%). this second PEPE exchange,” Spotonchain said.
This decision could have further amplified the bearish sentiment. Pepe also recorded losses by more than 10% on the 24-hour chart.
Pepe became the third largest meme coin as it topped social media hype and viral trends. Nonetheless, the recent sell-off could mean major investors are recalibrating their positions.
Likewise, another whale sold 74.483 billion MOG Tokens for 177,736 USDC. This large-scale liquidation further indicates that the meme coin market may be losing its appeal.
As these whales continue to shed their positions, the resulting selling pressure has likely had a cascading effect on meme coin prices, contributing to the overall market slowdown.
At the same time, another whale bought $18 million worth of meme coins in the last day, including WIF and POPCAT. However, the whale’s purchases did not increase the meme coins, as the price charts of both coins were in red.
Nonetheless, it is worth noting that meme coins have always been volatile. Although they often attract attention due to their meme-driven culture, their price movements are notoriously unpredictable.
As the dust settles, some might view this dip as a buying opportunity as coins could rebound later.
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