PEPE leads the market with a 28% single-day jump Pepe coin ($PEPE) posted the biggest gain in CoinMarketCap's top 100 on September 21, climbing nearly 28% over 24 hours to trade around $0.000
Pepe coin ($PEPE) posted the biggest gain in CoinMarketCap's top 100 on September 21, climbing nearly 28% over 24 hours to trade around $0.000005041. The move pushed its market cap to $2.08 billion, while daily trading volume rose 44% to $784.5 million, a sign that fresh money was actively chasing the token rather than existing holders simply marking up thin books.
The single-day gain is the latest leg of a broader run. $PEPE has now advanced roughly 45% over the past week, significantly outpacing most large-cap peers. That kind of relative strength from a memecoin points to where speculative capital tends to flow when risk appetite opens up: into high-beta assets with no fundamental ceiling to cap the move.
The backdrop is a recovering crypto market. $BTC rose nearly 6% on the day to around $85,700, with Coinbase reporting that Bitcoin briefly crossed $84,000 on September 21, its first trip to that level since January 31. The move liquidated $262.30 million of short positions in a single hour, according to CoinGlass. That kind of short squeeze amplifies upward momentum across the market, and tokens with thinner liquidity profiles, like $PEPE, tend to feel the effect most sharply.
Elsewhere in the top 100, $SUI and $SEI each gained over 20% on the day, confirming that the rally was broad-based rather than isolated to one corner of the market. Still, $PEPE stood apart, topping the leaderboard by a meaningful margin.
The context for the wider move includes an improving macro picture. Crypto majors climbed alongside equity futures, with Brent crude falling for a fourth straight session and traders positioning ahead of a Trump-Xi summit later this week, according to CoinDesk. Falling oil prices tend to reduce inflation fears and support risk assets broadly, giving crypto an additional tailwind.
For $PEPE specifically, the session underlines how quickly sentiment can shift in the memecoin segment. The token had been consolidating for several weeks before this week's push, and the combination of a strong $BTC move and a risk-on macro mood appears to have been enough to unlock a sharp repricing.
Sources:Coinbase: Bitcoin Price and NewsBlockchain.News: PEPE Price Analysis, September 2026
