A savvy crypto investor has reportedly turned a modest $3,000 investment in the popular frog-themed Pepe (PEPE) meme coin into a $73 million profit.

According to Lookonchain, who first revealed the feat in a December 10 post on X, the unidentified trader first bought 4.1 trillion Pepe tokens on April 15, 2023.

Strategic Sales Amid Market Highs

Per on-chain data, the investor sold off just over 3 trillion Pepe, pocketing about $27.5 million in the process. However, with 1.88 trillion tokens still held in their wallet, boasting a market value of $45.66 million, their total profit now stands at an eye-popping $73 million.

An analysis of the trader’s activities shows that they timed their sales during market peaks, especially when Pepe skyrocketed to an all-time high (ATH) of $0.000028 on December 9, 2024.

The sharp price rally allowed the investor to maximize profits before the meme coin’s value dropped, demonstrating a keen understanding of market cycles. At that time, their largest single transaction involved the sale of 100 billion Pepe tokens for $2.8 million.

Pepe’s volatile nature has made it a favorite among speculative traders, especially considering that its price has registered extreme swings since its launch in early 2023, with gains of more than 1,487% in the last 12 months alone.

At the time of writing, the meme coin, #23 on the list of highest-capped cryptocurrencies, was trading at $0.00002436, a 4.2% drop from 24 hours ago. However, it is still up 20.7% across seven days and 103.3% over a month.

While Pepe is currently trading at 12.9% lower than its ATH, it is still more than 44,000% higher than its lowest-ever recorded price, attained on April 18, 2023, only days after the mysterious trader bought his stash.

The coin has outperformed the broader crypto market, which is down 1.70%, as well as similar meme tokens, which are generally up 12.70% per data from CoinGecko.

Crypto Success Stories

Stories of dramatic profits aren’t new to crypto. Recently, a viral squirrel incident led to the creation of a meme coin dubbed Peanut the Squirrel (PNUT). One investor took advantage of its booming popularity to turn $450