Why Whales Are Buying FLOKI, PEPE, SHIB

Whale transactions worth over $100,000 in FLOKI (CRYPTO: FLOKI), PEPE (CRYPTO: PEPE), and Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) exploded by 950%, 620%, and 111% respectively this week, as meme coins added $14 billion in market cap in 2026.

Meme Coins Dominate Whale Activity Rankings

Market intelligence firm Santiment tracked a surge in transactions worth $100,000 or more—the type of size that indicates institutional or wealthy individual investors rather than retail traders.

Meme coins dominated this activity, taking four of the top ten spots among all crypto projects with at least $500 million market caps.

FLOKI on Ethereum led with a 950% surge, followed by PEPE at 620% and FLOKI on BNB at 550%.

Additionally, Shiba Inu rounded out the meme coin presence at 111%, beating out AI tokens, real-world asset platforms, and established DeFi protocols for whale attention. 

The pattern suggests large holders are rotating capital away from Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), into higher-volatility meme coins.

Meme Coin Performance Reverses 2025 Losses

FLOKI surged 41.7% over the past week while PEPE emerged as the strongest performer with a 67% weekly rally, breaking out from descending wedge patterns.

Shiba Inu climbed 28.7% over seven days, up nearly 48% from its late December lows. 

Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) reclaimed the $0.15 level with a 30-33% rebound from December, and benefiting from renewed institutional interest through ETF inflows.

Collectively, these four meme coins posted 25-67% gains in the first week of 2026, reversing months of losses that saw the sector collapse 61% throughout 2025.

Meme Coin Market Cap Surges 37% In Eight Days

Meme coins added $14 billion in market cap since January 1, rising from $38 billion to $52 billion—a 36.8% surge in just eight days. 

The rally significantly outperformed the broader altcoin market.

Darkfost on CryptoQuant noted that memecoin dominance within the altcoin market hit a historical low in December 2025. 

In November 2024, meme coins accounted for 11% of total altcoin market cap. By December 2025, that ratio fell to 3.2%. The last time memecoin dominance reached such low levels, it preceded a massive memecoin season. 

Over the past few days, major meme coins posted strong gains, potentially marking the beginning of a memecoin comeback.

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