Can the Pepe coin price rise 35% as smart money holders sell?

Pepe coin price continued its strong recovery after falling to a monthly low of $0.0000144 in December.

Pepe (PEPE), the third-largest meme coin in crypto, rose to $0.00002175, its highest since December 18. The token is up nearly 50% from its December lows.

Pepe’s recovery coincides with the broader recovery in meme coins. Dogecoin (DOGE), the largest meme coin, is up over 20% over the past seven days, while ai16z, Fartcoin, and SPX6900 are all up more than 50%. The total market cap of all cryptocurrencies has now reached over $125 billion.

Pepe’s rise also coincides with signs of accumulation. According to Nansen’s data, the total number of tokens held on exchanges decreased by 0.70% last week to 235.85 trillion. The total supply on exchanges is now down to 56%.

However, the decline in smart money participation in Pepe in recent weeks remains a significant risk. Nansen data shows that the number of smart money holders has fallen from 107 in November to 87 today.

Pepe smart money trends | Source: Nansen

The number of tokens held by these investors also decreased, falling to 6.9 trillion tokens, its lowest level since January last year.

One possible reason for this decline is that many meme coin investors started to switch to other tokens. Additionally, there are now thousands of meme coins, with new projects like Pudgy Penguins, Fartcoin, and Peanut the Squirrel gaining market share.

Pepe price analysis Pepe price chart | Source: crypto.news

The daily chart shows Pepe falling as low as $0.0000144 in December, forming a hammer candlestick formation. This pattern has a small bullish body with a long lower shadow and is often seen as a reliable reversal signal.

This hammer pattern was important as it formed part of a break-retest setup in which the token fell to $0.00001720, the top of the cup and handle formation.

Pepe also considered staying above the 50-day and 200-day Exponential Moving Averages as a positive sign. Additionally, the token is crossing the weak stop-reverse point on the Murray Math Lines indicator.

Therefore, the coin is likely to continue rising as bulls target the all-time high of $0.00002840, which is around 35% above the current level. A move above this level could push the price to the $0.00002980 overshoot point.