Large investors have become active again in the Ethereum meme coin market. Wallets that had been quiet for several months transferred 2.27 trillion PEPE, worth $10.19 million, simultaneously. Their actions have once again drawn traders' attention back to the network's main speculative assets: PEPE and Shiba Inu coin Shiba Inu ( SHIB ).
However, the market did not experience the expected price collapse; instead, it responded with a rapid rise, bringing the market values of these two projects even closer together.
After a long period of silence, funds began to flow again. The first address had been inactive for a year and was previously used to top up Coinbase; this time, it transferred tokens worth $6.53 million. The second wallet, after remaining silent for four months, completed a transfer of $3.66 million. Generally speaking, the movement of such funds indicates that investors may be preparing to realize profits on the exchange.
Lookonchain wrote on platform X: "Two silent PEPE whales transferred 2.27 trillion PEPE (10.19 million US dollars) today."
But this time, the buyers ignored the relevant risks: 84% of the total trading volume in the past 12 hours occurred in the last 6 hours – that is to say, the shares released by these “whales” were completely absorbed by the market within a few hours.
Billion-dollar competition: PEPE closely chasing SHIB
In this context, the chart from TradingView shows that PEPE experienced a one-day increase of over 10.8%. This momentum was quickly transmitted to Chai Dog Coin ( SHIB ), which rose by 1.66% and further consolidated its position after a strong September. The current round of active trading has completely rewritten the power balance within the sector: the market capitalization gap between Shiba Inu and PEPE has narrowed to a historical low of 1.06 billion US dollars.
The report suggests that meme coins have once again diverted speculative liquidity from other segments of the crypto market, and the rivalry between these two major tokens is becoming the main driving force behind the entire Ethereum network.
The main risk of this round of increase lies in the extreme concentration of tokens in the hands of a few individuals. The latest data from Arkham Intelligence confirms this point as well. The data shows that while these “awakening” whales are making moves, Tron’s founder, Justin Sun, is also actively increasing his holdings, having accumulated 2.82% of the total supply of PEPE over the past 10 days, worth $51.25 million.
With major players still controlling up to 94.66% of the supply of PEPE, and the fate of this multi-million-dollar sector almost entirely dependent on just over twenty wallets, the actions of the largest holders have altered the balance of power and narrowed the market gap between the leading projects in the industry.
