Been tracking PEPE's moves and that February surge was wild—30.6% in 24 hours, volume hitting nearly $830M. What caught my eye was how uniform the gains were across every single trading pair, which usually signals coordinated buying rather than random retail FOMO. The token was actually outperforming Bitcoin at the time, gaining 28.73% against BTC specifically, so it wasn't just riding the broader market.

Looking back though, the warning signs were all there. No real catalyst, no protocol updates, just pure sentiment and momentum. Meme tokens breaking free from chains usually means they're running on fumes—and that's exactly what happened. By April, we're seeing -2.67% and volume has cratered to $10.36M. The $2.08B market cap that looked so impressive in February has already compressed to $1.41B. Classic pattern: the speculative interest that drove those gains evaporated just as fast.

The lesson? Those 30%+ rallies in meme coins rarely hold. If you caught that move, good timing. If you're thinking about chasing similar plays now, remember the correction came hard and fast. Volume tells the real story—when it dries up while price is still elevated, that's your exit signal.