The cryptocurrency market’s third most valuable memecoin by market capitalization, Pepe, has finally retracted today.
$PEPE embarked on one of its strongest trends in recent memory on January 1st, gaining as much as 83% in value in just a few days. Indeed, most memecoins in the market also saw similar results — but the sheer weight of Pepe’s movement since the start of 2026 completely redefined the memecoin narrative, dragging the entire sector into one of its sharpest collective rallies in months.
BONK, DOGE, and SHIB followed suit with double-digit gains, yet none matched the velocity or liquidity surge seen in PEPE.
The collective market capitalization of memecoins is up by over 23% in this year’s first week, signaling that both retail and institutional traders were ready to kickstart 2026 with a liquidity injection into risky markets.
Pepe Crosses “Bullish” MACD Zone For the First Time in Months
Over the week, the memecoin went from $0.00000402 on Wednesday to as high as $0.00000718 on Sunday. During that run, $PEPE grew by around 80% in value and completely broke an 8-month-long downward trend, marking one of the first and most hopeful signals for buyers in months.
This sudden show of strength by bulls can also be seen in Pepe’s weekly MACD signal. The technical indicator, often used to measure momentum shifts and trend strength, has flipped decisively into positive territory for the first time since mid‑2025.
While the memecoin market is notorious for its volatility, this strong start to 2026 increases hopes of a longer-term trend for these assets this year.
In this scenario, traders holding “legacy” memecoins like Pepe could see substantial gains. Meanwhile, some are betting on lower-cap coins for the potential for even greater gains in the likelihood of a “meme season”.
