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| PEPE |
A cryptocurrency investor turned an initial investment of about 3 million won into approximately 15 billion won by investing in the meme coin Pepe (PEPE). This staggering profit of about 4,700 times the initial investment has become a hot topic.
Analysis of the Pepe Coin Investment Phenomenon
On the 30th (local time), the on-chain analysis platform Lookonchain reported on X (formerly Twitter) that "This trader bought 1.5 trillion tokens with 2,184 dollars (about 3 million won) in the early Pepe market last year. They then sold about 1.02 trillion of those tokens for 6.66 million dollars (about 9.79 billion won). The remaining 493 billion tokens are worth 3.64 million dollars (about 5.3 billion won) at the current price, bringing the total estimated profit to about 10.3 million dollars (about 15.1 billion won)."
Factors Behind the Explosive Profit
According to CoinTelegraph market data, this trader realized profits of over 10 million dollars despite Pepe's price falling more than 74% from its all-time high of $0.00002825 on December 9, 2024. This success story highlights the extreme price volatility and market sentiment that can be exploited in the highly speculative meme coin market. In fact, another early Pepe investor turned $27 (about 30,000 won) into $52 million (about 76.4 billion won) last May, a profit of 1.9 million times.
Concerns and Regulatory Movements
Meme coins are considered high-risk assets with little to no technical substance, their prices driven by liquidity and community trends. Therefore, the surge in the meme coin market can negatively impact the existing cryptocurrency market. According to reports, Solana (SOL) fell by 51% after the launch of the Trump coin (TRUMP).
Dan Hughes, founder of the decentralized finance platform Radix, said in an interview with CoinTelegraph, "Meme coins tend to suck funds from within the existing cryptocurrency ecosystem rather than attracting external funds." He pointed out that this concentration of liquidity can distort the market.
Meanwhile, regulatory moves are underway to address fraud in the meme coin market. New York State, for example, introduced a bill in March to protect cryptocurrency investors following allegations of insider fraud involving the LIBRA token, which was backed by Argentine President Javier Millay.
A $PEPE OG sold 150B $PEPE($1.14M) again 5 hours ago.
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) March 29, 2025
This OG spent only $2,184 to buy 1.5T $PEPE($43M at the peak) in the early stage.
He sold 1.02T $PEPE for $6.66M, leaving 493B $PEPE($3.64M), with a total profit of $10.3M(4,718x).https://t.co/tyzLr10sGj pic.twitter.com/FD6fFpyqCi