The American version of global crypto exchange Binance, BinanceUS, has announced that it will list PEPE, the third largest meme coin by market cap. PEPE entry comes just as BinanceUS enters the final stretch: a live trial that starts on March 25th, before the United States security sandbox is announced first quarter of 2019, allowing Binance to offer services to US consumers.
This comes on the heels of broader relaxing of regulatory reins within the crypto sector, following Donald Trump’s re-election as U.S. President on November 6. Since Trump’s victory, big exchanges like BinanceUS and Coinbase have set an aggressive listing schedule for meme coins in response to U.S. investors’ increasing appetite.
For instance, Coinbase has launched a number of meme-themed tokens including Giga Chad, Turbo, Dogwifhat and Floki. The moves highlight the growing popularity of the meme coin sector, which has been among the faster growing parts of the overall digital asset market.
Binance Listing of PEPE Fuels Meme Coin Momentum
The PEPE listing announcement saw the price soar 10 percent, but we don’t know whether it was just sparked by the news or the general market trending. The total cryptocurrency market rose by 2.6 percent at press time ($3.7 trillion valuation).
This uptrend was also mirrored by Meme coins as they added over $100 billion to the sector’s market cap bringing it up to $133 billion, just below stablecoin darling Tether’s $134 billion market cap.
The listing of PEPE on BinanceUS will only add to the recent frenzy in meme coins, with gains in the price of these coins often seen in the run up to and after listing on major centralized exchanges. They estimate that the trend will continue with the growing US crypto market in a more favorable political and regulatory environment.
As PEPE gains popularity, its arrival on BinanceUS is a sign that meme coins are playing a larger role in the cryptocurrency space and how exchanges balance user demand as compared to regulatory compliance.
