Pepe is up 34% from its mid-December lows, with Elon Musk’s new X profile picture adding a tailwind.
New developments surrounding Pepe alternatives Pepe Unchained and Wall Street Pepe continue to emerge.
Pepe surges as Elon Musk turns from dogs to frogs
Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and avid memecoin fanatic, recently recalibrated his focus to Pepe coin. His shift from Dogecoin aligns with Pepe’s political affiliation.
Pepe was popularized as a political meme during Donald Trump’s 2016 electoral campaign. Throughout the 2024 US elections, Musk was at President-Elect Donald Trump’s side. He’ll even co-chair the new Department Of Government Efficiency after Trump’s inauguration.
Musk has rebranded his X profile this week, changing his name to Kekius Maximus and his profile image to Pepe the Frog sporting gladiator attire.
Kekius Maximus will soon reach level 80 in hardcore PoE pic.twitter.com/Cg5ttuqjvX
— Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) December 31, 2024
The Pepe price was already rising, having created a local bottom on 24 December. However, Musk’s new profile look caused a rapid spike in interest.
From lows of $0.0000144 set on 24 December, Pepe rallied 51% to highs on Tuesday, peaking at $0.000021857.
It remains up 34% from the lows, currently trading at $0.000019211.
Trader hails Pepe as “the DOGE Of the 2024-2025 Cycle”
Analyst Max Schwartzman believes that Pepe is the breakout meme of this cycle, noting Elon’s support and relative strength as reasons why.
He said many people don’t realize how significant it is that Pepe trades at an $8 billion valuation while Ethereum trades below $3.5K. The analyst alludes that Pepe could generate significant momentum as Ethereum rallies in the bull market.
Its pretty unbelievable that $PEPE is trading at 8.7B MC while $ETH is still under 3.5k USD... I don't think that many people realize how significant that is.
— Max (@MaxBecauseBTC) December 31, 2024
We also have Elon soft shilling #PEPE by changing his PFP to PEPE. It just further reinforces the notion that $PEPE is… pic.twitter.com/anAYlkC9i8
According to Schwartzman, Pepe could climb to highs between $40 and $125 billion in the 2025 bull market.
It’s also worth noting that Pepe has flipped Dogecoin’s trading volume today. While Pepe’s 24-hour trading volume is $3.8 billion, Dogecoin’s is $1.9 billion. It’s the Musk effect playing out in real time.
New Pepe alternatives make ecosystem developments
As Pepe grows in price, trading volume, and global notoriety, other Pepe-themed cryptos are vying for some of the attention.
Pepe Unchained, a Pepe-themed memecoin with its own layer 2 blockchain, is preparing to launch Pepe Pump Pad. This new feature, similar to Solana’s Pump.fun, allows users to launch a memecoin without coding and in seconds.
Pepe Pump Pad is expected to build on Pump.fun’s setup, providing anti-rug protection and a refined user experience.
The Pepe Unchained layer 2 blockchain offers cheaper and 100x faster transactions than the Ethereum main network. These capabilities are foundational for the forthcoming launch of Pepe Pump Pad.
Analyst RJ from Cryptonews recently covered a Pepe Unchained “dev update” about its memecoin factory launch.
As Pepe Unchained moves toward the Pepe Pump Pad launch, another new Pepe alternative, Wall Street Pepe, shows strong momentum in its presale.
It features artwork that mixes Pepe coin and Jordan Belfort’s characteristics, which fits the project’s overarching premise. Wall Street Pepe is building a professional trading insights ecosystem for memecoin fanatics.
It’ll offer trading signals, memecoin picks, a trading insider group, staking, and trading rewards.
Wall Street Pepe’s presale got off to a fast start, raising $38.5 million in its opening month.
Prominent trader ClayBro pointed to Elon Musk’s recent Pepe-fueled antics as “the boost it needs,” alluding to the fact that Pepe’s rising tide could benefit the Wall Street Pepe presale.
The presale operates in stages, and each stage brings a slightly higher price. The next stage will begin later today.