PEPE’s big 10% price hike – Here’s one reason to thank Dogecoin

• PEPE rose 10% on the news of the listing but dropped soon after.
• The decision to list PEPE follows the news of upcoming launch of DOGE futures on Coinbase.

Frog-themed token Pepe [PEPE] recorded a sharp spike during after U.S. trading hours on 11th April, on what looked like as a response to its listing on Coinbase International Exchange.

PEPE gains entry on a marquee platform

The fourth-largest memecoin rose 10% to $0.000075 in the five hours following the announcement via an X post, according to CoinMarketCap. However, profit-taking pulled the coin lower, and it was trading at $0.000071 as of this writing.

For the curious, Coinbase International Exchange allows institutional users based in eligible jurisdictions outside of the U.S. to trade perpetual futures. The exchange said that trading for PEPE perps would commence on or after 9:30 a.m. UTC on the 18th of April.

The listing on a prestigious trading platform was a testament to the giant strides taken by the $3 billion-plus market cap token. PEPE peaked at $0.00001 during last month’s memecoin frenzy, and has exploded more than 5x since 2024 began.

PEPE’s futures market expands

The rally generated considerable buzz in the derivatives markets, leading traders to speculate on its price movements.

According to  AMBCrypto’s analysis of Coinglass’ data, the Open Interest (OI) in PEPE futures rose 322% in the past two months, totaling $76 million at press time.

Source: Coinglass

However, majority of the traders were positioned for price declines, as the Longs/Shorts Ratio was less than 1 at press time.

Memecoins come into mainstream

The decision to list PEPE comes hours after Coinbase announced the upcoming launch of futures products tied to Dogecoin [DOGE], the first and the largest memecoin in the market, after gaining approval from the U.S. futures regulator.

Read PEPE’s Price Prediction 2024-25

These developments marked a decisive shift in the perception of memecoins in world’s largest financial market, which has earlier been apprehensive of their rise.

Note that PEPE lacks any utility or expectation of financial return, as per the creators’ own admission.