The rivalry between Shiba Inu and Pepe is intensifying as the battle for the second-biggest meme coin position narrows. Shiba Inu has long held the spot behind Dogecoin, but its dominance is increasingly under threat. Pepe’s recent market movements have brought it within striking distance of overtaking its rival. Market data now highlights how quickly momentum can shift in the volatile meme coin sector. Shiba Inu Faces Pressure from Pepe’s Growth Since the beginning of 2022, Shiba Inu has been the second-largest meme coin. The most recent statistics, however, reveal that it has lost a significant part of its lead over Pepe. Pepetoshi Nakamoto, the proponent of meme coins, has stated , according to the statistics of CompareMarketCap, that Pepe was just 1.69x behind Shiba Inu in the market cap. The figures showed Pepe trading at $0.000010 with a valuation of $4.51 billion, compared to Shiba Inu’s $0.000012 price and $7.62 billion market cap. Based on these numbers, analysts said Pepe needed a 69% surge to overtake Shiba Inu and become the second-biggest meme coin. Such a move would place Pepe’s price around $0.000018, narrowing the gap in ranking further. Source: X The challenge for Shiba Inu has been its persistent decline in value over the year. Reports indicated that SHIB has lost 42.7% since January, with additional drops of 9.13% over the past month and 10.96% in the past week. This sustained downturn has created room for rivals like Pepe to threaten its position. Pepe’s Position Amid Market Volatility Pepe has also faced steep losses in recent months, though its year-long performance tells a different story. Data showed the frog-themed token has declined 51.2% year-to-date, including a 15.7% drop in the last 30 days and 13.7% in the past week. Despite these setbacks, Pepe has managed to post an 18.13% gain over the past year, contrasting with Shiba Inu’s 17.67% decline in the same timeframe. This trend shows the changing momentum between the two meme coins. The long-term gains of Pepe in the market were observed by investors following the market development, which has made the company remain competitive even amid contraction in the short run. The two tokens have attracted massive attention in the competition, which has caused they to trade closely. Recent market data, however, shows that Pepe’s progress has slowed. The latest figures from CompareMarketCap indicated that the gap has widened to 1.74x. With Pepe’s price falling by 0.71% in the last 24 hours to $0.0000097 at the time of writing. Its market capitalization dropped to $4.09 billion. This means Pepe now requires a 74% rally to surpass Shiba Inu’s valuation. As of this writing, Shiba Inu is exchanging hands at $0.00001224, up 0.81% over the past 24 hours. The token’s market capitalization sits at $7.21 billion.
