PEPE Surges 30% as Ethereum Heats Up and Retail Traders Jump In

Ethereum’s sudden rally is sending waves through altcoins—and PEPE is riding high. Retail traders are pushing prices higher, while big wallets pull back.

Ethereum’s price climbed over 6% in a day, sparking fresh optimism across the altcoin markets. And right in the thick of it is PEPE, a meme coin that’s once again hogging the spotlight. As the market tilts bullish, something interesting is happening: retail investors are swarming in, while whale activity is falling off a cliff. Could this be a rare moment where the little guys are leading the charge?

Ethereum Back in the Driver’s Seat

Ethereum’s performance lately has been more than just a solid bounce. It’s a message.

With a 6.2% daily gain, Ethereum pushed through the $3,250 mark and settled around $3,361—finally breaking its sluggish streak and pulling focus from Bitcoin, which is still stuck playing the range game around $120,000. This shift is making Ethereum the new playground for retail investors, especially those circling meme coins like PEPE.

Two things are driving this:

• Leadership changes at the Ethereum Foundation

• New upgrade proposals floated by Vitalik Buterin that have given the ETH community something real to be excited about

Traders who felt ETH was lagging during the early bull cycle are now racing back in—and taking smaller, riskier coins with them.

PEPE Rockets 30% as Whales Step Aside

PEPE isn’t just moving. It’s sprinting.

The token spiked 30% this week, largely on the back of surging activity from retail wallets. That’s a sharp contrast to the whale-dominated rallies of earlier this year. According to blockchain tracking data, large PEPE transactions (those above $100,000) dropped by a jaw-dropping $83 million from their recent peak. That’s a massive cooling-off from institutional and whale investors.

And yet, prices have surged. That’s a clear sign: this rally isn’t being driven by market movers behind the curtain—it’s retail.

One trader summed it up on X (formerly Twitter): “Feels like PEPE is finally in the hands of the people again. No whale games. Just vibes.”

Technicals Say It’s Heating Up

From a technical point of view, PEPE is on the edge of a breakout.

The meme coin is now testing resistance at the top of the Bollinger Bands, sitting right at $0.0000135. It briefly punched above that mark on Wednesday before pulling back slightly to $0.000014. If bulls can sustain pressure, analysts are watching $0.000016 as the next likely target.

A few more key technical insights:

• RSI is hovering around 69—not yet overbought, but getting close

• Volume surged by over 40% in the last 48 hours

• Price remains above the 20-day moving average, hinting at continued momentum

One sentence here: It’s bullish, no doubt, but not without some resistance.

Retail Wallets See a Spike in Activity

The number of wallets holding between $100 and $5,000 worth of PEPE has increased dramatically in the last five days. Blockchain analytics firm Santiment noted a 17% rise in these “small but active” wallets since Monday.

That kind of shift rarely happens without a wider trend forming. The key reason? Ethereum’s rise has historically lifted smaller tokens sitting on its back.

Here’s a quick table summarising wallet activity this week:

It’s rare to see a meme coin rally so strongly with whales backing off. Usually, it’s the other way around.

What’s Fueling the Hype?

PEPE’s rise isn’t happening in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader meme coin revival happening across Ethereum.

This week’s pump feels more organic than the algorithm-churned rallies of months past. Community sentiment is high. Social media mentions of PEPE have tripled since Sunday, and Google Trends shows a marked increase in searches for “PEPE coin.”

Also worth noting: the Ethereum gas fees—often a barrier for small-scale traders—have remained relatively tame, sitting under 30 gwei on average, according to Etherscan.

That’s opened the door for smaller players to get in without being penalised for simply transacting.

Bitcoin Lags Behind—And That’s Fine

Interestingly, Bitcoin’s consolidation just below $120,000 is barely getting a mention anymore.

While BTC posted a modest 2% gain, it’s Ethereum that’s setting the pace. The narrative is flipping—again. That’s typical of this phase of the market cycle, where Bitcoin cools down and ETH plus alts step into the limelight.

A meme coin like PEPE taking off while BTC is stagnant? That’s not weird. That’s textbook alt-season behaviour.

One sentence again: Timing, it seems, couldn’t be better for PEPE.