Crypto Whale's $20B PEPE Dump Fuels Market Rout

The crypto market has been experiencing a downturn, with a significant event being the liquidation of 20 billion $PEPE tokens by a large holder, often referred to as a "whale." This action has contributed to the negative sentiment surrounding the broader crypto market.

The $PEPE whale, who had acquired a substantial amount of $PEPE tokens in late 2024, found themselves in a difficult position as the market turned against them. Initially, they had bought 351.3 billion $PEPE tokens at an average price of $0.00001722 per token. However, as the market declined, the whale was forced to sell off a significant portion of their holdings to minimize losses.

In early January 2025, the whale reduced their position by about 40%, selling some of their $PEPE at a price of $0.00002066. Although this sale was at a higher price than the subsequent sales, the market continued to decline. In the last 24 hours, the whale sold off the remainder of their holdings, with the average sale price being around $0.00001413.

The final sale of 20.12 billion $PEPE tokens has exacerbated the negative sentiment in the crypto market. Large liquidations like this can cause prices to drop in the short term, and the timing of this sale over the weekend did not help matters. The crypto market was already in a state where investors were looking for reasons to be bearish.