PEPE a Top Traded Asset Among High Volume Investors

The past six months in the crypto sphere have been simultaneously uneventful and full of surprises. While the price of most coins has remained more or less stagnant, this has done little to stop traders…well…trading. 

With several big projects introducing major upgrades and institutional products continuing to roll in, investors have remained engaged with the crypto market.

But according to Swyftx OTC data – the most-traded coins might not be what you think.

Related: SOL Traders Push Positive Social Sentiment Up, With 6 Bullish Posts Vs 1 Bearish

Bitcoin Dethroned as OTC Investors Turn to Altcoins

If you had one guess about the project with the highest trading volume on Swyftx OTC, you’d probably choose Bitcoin, right?

In an interesting change of priorities, this would actually be wrong. 

According to Swyftx’s six-month OTC figures, Bitcoin is trailing Solana as the most-traded coin by OTC investors – albeit only by a small amount.

This suggests that the early 2024 hype surrounding BTC and the introduction of spot ETFs is starting to settle, and the community is building a greater appetite for altcoins.

Rounding out the top three is, to nobody’s surprise, Ethereum. However, the statistics for Ether have slowed substantially, with the volume of trades significantly lower than Bitcoin and Solana. 

It’s been a topsy-turvy year for the DeFi kingpin, and without a clear narrative driving investment and positive sentiment, the coin has largely underperformed as investors consider alternative ecosystems.

Meme Coins Dominate Top Ten OTC Assets

But perhaps the most interesting dataset came from the swamp. Swyftx’s OTC data revealed that frog-based meme coin PEPE slid its way into fourth position – beating out major projects like USDC and XRP.

In fact, the top ten most-traded coins on Swyftx OTC include three meme coins: Pepe, Dogwifhat and Dogecoin.

This shows that high-volume investors (those that typically use OTC services) are engaged with the meme coin sub-sector.

Related: SOL Traders Push Positive Social Sentiment Up, With 6 Bullish Posts Vs 1 Bearish

In a way, this does make sense. Traders heavily involved in the crypto scene, with lots of cash to spare, are more likely to take on higher-risk assets in their portfolio than casual investors.

Crypto Over-the-counter (OTC) trading is an alternative method of executing trades, primarily benefiting high-net-worth investors making larger transactions exceeding $50,000.

This approach grants them access to deep liquidity pools, enabling the efficient and confident execution of their orders.