PEPE Price Rally Fueled by Whale Demand and Rising Derivatives Open Interest

PEPE, the meme coin, has experienced a significant surge in value over the past week, rising by 25%. This upward trend is fueled by whale demand and increasing open interest in the derivatives market. On Thursday alone, seven large transactions worth over $1 million each were recorded, the highest number since March 16.

The supply of PEPE held on crypto exchanges has decreased from 82.75 trillion to 81.30 trillion between August 12 and now. Meanwhile, top non-exchange wallets have seen an increase in their holdings, growing from 80.50 trillion to 84.04 trillion PEPE. This pattern often indicates that big buyers are accumulating the asset.

The derivatives market has turned bullish, with futures open interest reaching a three-month high of $250 million. The OI-weighted funding rate is currently at 0.0095%, indicating that traders are paying a premium to hold long positions.