PEPE Climbs 7% While Bitcoin Slides — Meme Coins Refuse to Follow the Market Down

Intro

While Bitcoin slid more than 5% toward $75,000 and over $1.27 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated on Thursday, PEPE did the opposite. The frog memecoin climbed 7.02% to about $0.00000508 during the recovery, and by Friday it was trading near $0.0000050–$0.0000051 — holding its ground while the rest of the market bled. In a week when fear ruled crypto, the memecoin crowd refused to panic.

PEPE's defiant week

PEPE's recovery began during Wednesday's broader rebound, when Bitcoin briefly reclaimed $80,000 and speculative tokens attracted renewed attention. When the market turned again on Thursday, PEPE dipped to an intraday low near $0.00000479, then climbed back toward $0.0000051 — a round trip that left it up on the week while Bitcoin and Ethereum were deep in the red.

The numbers behind the move are striking. PEPE's market capitalisation sits near $2.08–2.11 billion, and around $477 million changed hands in 24 hours — nearly a quarter of its entire value. Its four-hour relative strength index sat near 57 during Friday's session, suggesting modest positive momentum without an overbought reading. The immediate test is resistance at $0.0000051–$0.0000052, where sellers have repeatedly interrupted recovery attempts. Above that sits the November 4 squeeze high of $0.00000533; a daily close above it opens the road to $0.0000057, about 13% higher. Below, the post-squeeze base holds near $0.0000046, with $0.0000042 under it — and PEPE still holds above its 200-day average near $0.0000039, a sign the longer trend still points up.

It is worth keeping perspective: PEPE still sits about 82% below its December 2024 record of $0.00002825. This is a bounce inside a much larger drawdown, not a return to the highs.

The rest of the meme pack

PEPE was not alone in refusing to follow Bitcoin down. BONK added about 9% over 24 hours, trading near $0.0000029, and faces resistance at $0.00000367, about 20% above its current price. The CoinDesk Memecoin Index led Friday's bounce with a 4% gain, even as the broader CoinDesk 20 index fell more than 6% over the same period.

Dogecoin, the original memecoin, is having a harder time. DOGE traded near $0.0726, down 6.78% over seven days, with a market capitalisation of about $12.31 billion. It formed its first daily death cross of 2026 on October 28, when the 50-day moving average crossed below the 200-day line. Technical resistance sits near $0.0786, with support at $0.0723 and a deeper zone near $0.0677. Dogecoin futures open interest has fallen to 13.62 billion DOGE from 14.52 billion on Monday, and Dogecoin-focused ETFs have recorded no inflows since October 14. The ecosystem story continues — Dogecoin Labs has taken over commercial coordination of the MyDoge wallet, the DogeOS platform and the Such App payments solution — but for now the chart, not the news, is in charge.

The mood shift behind all of this is measurable. The Fear & Greed Index read 50, neutral, on November 5 — up from 26 just two days earlier, and the first neutral reading since October 29, the day of the Binance theft. The total meme coin market capitalisation stands near $36 billion.

• PEPE: ~$0.0000051, +7% on the day; resistance $0.0000052, support $0.0000046
• BONK: ~$0.0000029, +9% in 24 hours; resistance $0.00000367
• DOGE: ~$0.0726, −6.78% over 7 days; death cross formed October 28
• Meme sector: ~$36 billion market cap; Fear & Greed back to neutral at 50

What this tells us about memecoins

Memecoins are the market's risk appetite in its purest form, and this week they split in two. The coins with the biggest, most liquid crowds — PEPE and BONK — bounced hard on the first sign of relief, while DOGE, the largest memecoin, is weighed down by a death cross and fading derivatives interest. That split is the story: in a fearful market, traders are not buying "memecoins" as a group. They are picking the names with momentum and leaving the rest behind.

None of this makes PEPE safe. A token with no product and no revenue behind it can fall as fast as it rises, and the 82% gap to its record high is a reminder of how far these moves can reverse. But the week's action does show one thing clearly: when Bitcoin fell toward $75,000, the frog did not follow it down. For the memecoin crowd, that is the whole ball game.

For the background on how PEPE took the lead in the last meme rotation, read our earlier report on PEPE leading the meme-coin rotation as Dogecoin hit a rough patch: https://zimbuck.com/blogs/1088/PEPE-Leads-the-Meme-Coin-Rotation-as-Dogecoin-Hits-a. And if you are new to this corner of the market, our guide to trading memecoins without getting rekt (https://zimbuck.com/blogs/1241/How-to-Trade-Memecoins-Without-Getting-Rekt-Slippage-Liquidity-Locks) covers slippage, liquidity locks and the traps that catch beginners. KuCoin's report on PEPE's 7% rise is here: https://www.kucoin.com/news/flash/pepe-rises-7-amid-bitcoin-s-drop-toward-75k — and more discussion can be found on the Zimbuck News page at https://zimbuck.com/pages/zimbucknews and in the Zimbuck Market News group at https://zimbuck.com/groups/zimbuckmarketnews. Join the discussion on Zimbuck, the finance social platform for traders and investors, at https://zimbuck.com.

This article is market news and general information only. It is not financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decision.