Bitcoin Hovers at $62K While Pepe Hits Record High as GameStop Extends Rally

• Crypto markets were relatively stable in the past 24 hours, with only meme coins posting significant gains.
• Bitcoin (BTC) gained just over 1%, ether (ETH) lost 0.5%, while BNB Chain’s BNB and Solana’s SOL dropped as much as 3% in 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows.

Crypto markets were little changed over the past 24 hours with only some meme coins posting huge returns as the effects of GameStop’s (GME) share-price rally earlier this week continued to play a hand in some tokens.

Bitcoin {{BTC}} gained just over 1%, ether {{ETH}} lost 0.5%, while BNB Chain’s BNB and Solana’s SOL dropped as much as 3% in the past 24 hours, CoinGecko data shows. The CoinDesk 20, a broad-based index of the biggest tokens, minus stablecoins, was down 0.17%.

Dog-themed floki (FLOKI) zoomed 12%, the highest among the top 50 tokens by market capitalization, while pepe (PEPE) jumped 5% to a new lifetime peak.

Meme tokens started to rally earlier in the week after Keith Gill's first X post since 2021 boosted risk-taking sentiment among traders. Gill is a retail trader whose online persona and investment strategies contributed to a short squeeze on video-game retailer GameStop's stock in 2021.

A mere picture posted by Gill sent the stock skywards, nearly doubling in value on Monday despite multiple trading halts, even though he did not directly mention the company. The rally showed signs of slowing, however. The stocks is down 13% in pre-market trading on Wednesday.

Some traders expected his influence to cause rallies in meme stocks and tokens, as reported.

Various cat-themed tokens – which refer to Gill’s online @TheRoaringKitty persona – and top meme coins have surged as much as 50% in the past few days. A joke GameStop (GME) token on the Solana blockchain hit $100 million capitalization earlier Wednesday, up more than 700% in the past week.

Meanwhile, some traders say that the overall environment for bitcoin and major tokens looks weak, despite the meme-coin rallies.

“Neither the meme mania in equities, the overall positivity in stock indices, nor the weakening dollar seems to be helping cryptocurrencies right now,” said Alex Kuptsikevich, the FxPro senior market analyst, in an email to CoinDesk.