The price of new memecoin PEPE has plunged more than 42% only days after reaching its all-time high on May 6, leaving at least one investor with hundreds of thousands in paper losses. According to blockchain analytics service Lookonchain, one crypto “whale” purchased 962.3 billion PEPE using 70 Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) and 470 Ether (ETH) for an average price of $0.000003122 on May 5. PEPE has, however, fallen 42% from its all-time high since then, according to CoinGecko. The crypto investor’s PEPE holdings are now estimated to be worth only $2.4 million, marking an unrealized loss of more than $600,000.A whale bought 962.3B $PEPE($2.46M currently) with 70 $WBTC ($2.07M) and 470 $ETH ($937K) in the past 2 days, with an average buying price of $0.000003122.He has lost ~$541K at the current price!https://t.co/GDBdXcVyGt pic.twitter.com/7s1Ns90OOc— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 7, 2023

Despite the recent price decline, PEPE still holds a market capitalization of just over $1 billion, making it the 45th-largest cryptocurrency by overall valuation. Price action of PEPE since inception. Source: CoinGeckoSince its inception on April 14, PEPE has attracted widespread attention, witnessing over $636 million in trading volume within the last 24 hours, and single-handedly burning more than 5,000 ETH in related gas fees via Uniswap trading as of May 5. I downloaded 413,283 PEPE Uniswap transactions from @DuneAnalyticsPEPE traders have burned ~5,300 ETH ($10M) in gas over the past 3 weeks 1/ pic.twitter.com/9lZxGGjtT5— Alex (@thiccythot_) May 5, 2023

While the memecoin has witnessed extreme volatility in its price, the number of individual holders has increased steadily over the past three weeks. According to data from Dune Analytics, there are 144,534 individual holders of tokens at the time of publication. Related: Memecoin mania: Social relevance, speculation drives PEPE surgeIndividual holders of the Pepe token. Source: Dune AnalyticsThe advent of memecoin mania has also driven fees on the Bitcoin network to surge to their highest levels of the last two years, following an enormous spike in Bitcoin activity involving BRC-20-related transactions. Memecoins have played a role in the cryptocurrency industry since the creation of the most widely recognized meme-based cryptocurrency, Dogecoin (DOGE), back in 2013. It’s worth pointing out that due to the inherent lack of any fundamentals, investment in memecoins can be an incredibly risky trading strategy, with vast sums of wealth being made and obliterated in equal measure.Asia Express: Justin Sun’s SUI-farming sins, PEPE’s wild run, 3AC’s oyster philosophy