How a Small $3,000 Investment in $73 Million Pepe Netted Crypto Trader: Data

A savvy crypto investor has reportedly turned a modest $3,000 investment in the popular frog-themed meme coin Pepe (PEPE) into a $73 million profit.

According to Lookonchain, which first revealed the feat in a December 10 post on X, the unidentified trader first bought 4.1 trillion Pepe tokens on April 15, 2023.

Strategic sales amid market highs

According to the chain’s data, the investor sold just over 3 billion Pepe’s, pocketing about $27.5 million in the process. However, with 1.88 trillion tokens still in his wallet, with a market value of $45.66 million, his total profit now stands at $73 million.

An analysis of the trader’s activities shows that they timed their sales during market peaks, especially when Pepe soared to an all-time high (ATH) of $0.000028 on December 9, 2024.

The sharp rise in prices allowed the investor to maximize profits before the value of the meme coin fell, demonstrating a good understanding of market cycles. At the time, its largest transaction was the sale of 100 billion Pepe tokens for $2.8 million.

Pepe’s volatile nature has made it a favorite among speculative traders, especially considering that its price has seen extreme swings since its launch in early 2023, with gains of over 1,487% alone in the last 12 months.

At the time of writing, the meme coin, number 23 on the list of cryptocurrencies with the highest caps, was trading at $0.00002436, down 4.2% from 24 hours ago. However, it is still up 20.7% in seven days and 103.3% in one month.

Although Pepe is currently trading 12.9% below its ATH, it is still more than 44,000% higher than its all-time low, reached on April 18, 2023, just days after for the mysterious merchant to buy his deposit.

The coin has outperformed the broader crypto market, which is down 1.70%, as well as similar memes, which are generally up 12.70% per CoinGecko data.

Crypto Success Stories

Spectacular profit stories are not new to crypto. Recently, a viral squirrel incident led to the creation of a meme coin called Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT). One investor capitalized on its booming popularity to turn $450,000 of Solana (SOL) into nearly $8 million in profit.

According to Lookonchain, the trader bought 16 million PNUT tokens at $0.045 and sold them for $1.34 a piece days later, making a 1,772% return on his investment.

Earlier this year, another investor made more than $46 million from the Pepe trade. As of April 2023, the trader bought 4.9 trillion tokens when the meme coin barely registered on people’s radars. However, as its price catapulted, the investor sold some of his holdings, netting about $7.4 million in profit.

Still, they had more than 3.5 trillion Pepe Coins, valued at more than $39 million, turning their bet into a $46 million windfall.

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