Pepe Memecoin Burns $5.5M Tokens Prompting 31% Rise

The pepe memecoin (PEPE) bucked the trend of bitcoin (BTC) dominance over the past 24 hours, rising by 31% following a 6.9 trillion ($5.5 million) token burn.

Burning permanently removes tokens from supply and is done by sending them to an address not controlled by anyone.

The popular frog-themed memecoin is now trading at a two-month high as the burn quells concerns over the team's token holdings. The team now holds 3.79 trillion tokens ($3.72 million), which would have minimal impact if sold on the open market as 24-hour trading volume has surged to $397 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

"A new team of advisors have been brought on to guide Pepe forward," a post on the pepe X (formerly Twitter) account said. "Uses for the remaining 3.79T tokens attributed to the original team CEX multi-sig wallet for strategic partnerships and marketing opportunities are currently being explored."

The decision to burn tokens came after a handful of rogue pepe developers executed a series of unexpected transfers out of the project's multisignature wallet, effectively stealing millions of dollars worth of pepe, as alleged by a team member.

The tokens burned equate to 1.6% of the memecoin's total supply.

The rise in PEPE coincided with bitcoin rallying to a 17-month high of $35,000, fueled by optimism around the potential approval of a spot exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Bitcoin dominance is at its highest point since April 2021, with the original cryptocurrency outpacing the majority of altcoins aside from pepe.