Ethereum Degens Dump $5M Into Meme Coins—PEPE Steals the Spotlight (2025 Edition)
Degens go brrr: Ethereum's meme coin casino sees another $5 million flood—with PEPE leading the charge like a frog on amphetamines.
Who needs fundamentals when you've got vibes?
The usual suspects: Retail traders pile into speculative trash while institutions 'wait for regulatory clarity'—translation: they missed the pump again.
Bonus cynicism: At this rate, Wall Street will start packaging meme coin ETFs right after they finish shorting their own clients.
A quiet wave of high-risk meme coin accumulation is stirring on Ethereum. In the last fortnight, a handful of aggressive “degen” wallets have injected over $5 million into meme coins, with Pepe commanding the lion’s share.
Here’s a DEEP dive report into the key players behind the moves, unfolding patterns, and what it could mean next.
Who’s Pulling the Trigger?
On-chain data revealed that while PEPE racked up $24 million in total volume, only a fraction came from the handful of degen wallets we tracked. These wallets collectively deployed around $5 million across the meme coins’ spectrum.
This includes early allocations to smaller tokens like RESOLV ($2.8 million), ZEUS ($2.5 million), and IRIS ($1.4 million). They hint at a rotation into fresher bets beyond the usual meme majors.
Pattern Analysis: Volume vs. Performance
Performance charts over the past two weeks confirm that not all meme coins are equal. While BOBO led with a modest +11.7%, many others are bleeding: FOLKI outperformed as the lowest with a −33% loss, Elon-token shed −19%, and even mid-tier coins like BODEN and POPCAT lost 5–8%.
This sharp contrast suggests that while degens are piling in, they’re also experiencing significant churn.
The speed and scale, trading volumes measured in millions of dollars, underscore both the opportunity and the risk baked into this trend.
The Rise of Shiny New Tokens
RESOLV and ZEUS aren’t just token names; they’re front-runners in the new generation of meme coin assets. Combined, these two logged around $5.3 million in degen trades.
The swift capital inflow into freshly launched coins underscores a shift from established memes to next-gen speculative assets.
This dynamic creates a crucible for price discovery and potential knock-on effects across decentralized exchanges, where early accumulators could aim for quick flips or yield farming.
What the Concentration Tells Us
The meme Stacks remain highly concentrated. PEPE alone accounts for nearly 20 times the volume of BOBO and five times the volume of Bitcoin.
This dominance signals that while capital is flowing into many tokens, it remains focused on a few market leaders, likely driven by liquidity, recognition, and herd psychology.
Such concentration could exacerbate volatility: sudden sharp moves or capital rotation out of PEPE could Ripple through the meme coin layer.
Investigating the Wallet Behavior
Digging into top addresses, a handful of wallets stand out, hovering NEAR $5 million in cumulative meme coin volume each. Dozens to hundreds of trades were noted across tokens like PEPE, SHIB, and BOBO.
Although not institutional in scale, these are clearly strategists with coordinated or copycat behavior. Their activity doesn’t rely solely on one token; they’re diversifying across multiple meme coin plays.
What remains unclear is the source of initial capital: are they recycling profits from early PEPE trades or injecting fresh ETH to exploit the wave?
This isn’t the old “alt-season”; it’s a meme coin micro-cycle driven by high-conviction, rapid-turnover degens. The flames may burn bright, but they burn fast.
For now, tracking wallet-level volume, token concentration, and timing across multiple meme coin cohorts will be the best early indicators of what comes next.
