Arthur Hayes, the co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX, has recently made a splash in the cryptocurrency market by investing heavily in memecoins, particularly with his acquisition of Pepe (PEPE). His enthusiasm for memecoins was evident in a recent social media post on X (formerly Twitter), coinciding with a significant surge in PEPE’s value and reflecting a broader resurgence of interest in the crypto market.
Hayes’ investment of $250,000 in PEPE, purchasing approximately 24.39 billion tokens on Binance, has propelled the token to its highest price in nearly three months at $0.0000109. According to CoinGecko data, PEPE has seen impressive gains of 34%, 45%, and 38% over the past week, two weeks, and month, respectively. The recent price movements are supported by a 41% increase in trading volume over the last 48 hours, reaching nearly $2.5 billion.
The uptick in trading activity indicates heightened investor interest, likely spurred by a bullish sentiment following the US Federal Reserve’s decision to cut interest rates on September 18. Currently trading at $0.0000107, PEPE has seen a 17% increase in the latest trading hours but remains 37% below its all-time high of $0.0000171 in May. Despite this decline, Hayes’ endorsement continues to attract investor interest.
In addition to PEPE, Hayes has expressed support for other memecoins such as Mog Coin (MOG) and the Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token linked to Australian singer Iggy Azalea and built on the Solana blockchain. While it is unclear if Hayes has invested in these tokens as he did with PEPE, his endorsement has positively impacted MOG’s price, currently trading at $0.00000165 with a gain of over 10% following his announcement.
MOG has seen a staggering year-to-date surge of 10,398%, along with a 5.70% increase in trading volume, although it remains 32% below its peak in July. On the other hand, the MOTHER token has faced challenges in maintaining momentum, trading down nearly 14% in the past 24 hours. Despite this, it has seen significant gains of 75% over the last week and 176% in the past two weeks, indicating continued investor interest despite recent volatility.
Overall, Hayes’ support for the memecoin sector underscores the growing traction in this market segment, outperforming some of the largest cryptocurrencies by a significant margin. The investment trends and market dynamics in the memecoin sector, as exemplified by Hayes’ recent moves, highlight the evolving landscape of the cryptocurrency market and the diverse opportunities it presents for investors.