PENGU surges 17% as meme coin market sees 60% volume surge

A new wave of optimism in the broader cryptoasset market has sparked interest in meme coins, with trading volume in this sector increasing by 60% in the past 24 hours.

Leading the way is Pudgy Penguins (PENGU), which has increased by 17% today, becoming the best-performing cryptoasset in the market.

PENGU Breaks Free from Stagnation as Buyers Return

PENGU's price has struggled to create significant momentum recently. Poor performance has diminished investor sentiment and triggered an increase in short-selling positions. Even during intraday recoveries, traders remained largely unconvinced, not betting on price increases.

However, the current situation seems to be changing, as new buying pressure and improved technical indicators suggest buyers are finally regaining control.

PENGU's funding rate has turned positive for the first time since early July, indicating that traders are increasingly placing long-term bets. At the time of writing, this rate was 0.0042%.

The funding rate is a periodic payment exchanged between long-term and short-term traders in perpetual futures contracts to keep prices aligned with the spot market. When positive, long-term traders pay short-term traders, indicating optimistic sentiment and higher demand for leveraged long positions.

Amid this new surge, whale activity around PENGU has increased. According to Nansen, wallet addresses holding over $1 million in PENGU have slightly increased their balance by 1% in the past 24 hours.

This group currently holds 2.15 billion tokens, representing 2.8% of the meme coin's circulating supply. Although the accumulation is small, the increasing presence of whales suggests growing confidence and could provide short-term price support if this trend continues.

Price Increase Signals Intensify as PENGU Breaks Through the Cloud

At the time of writing, PENGU was trading at $0.018. Indicators from the PENGU/USD daily chart show the meme coin trading above the Ichimoku Cloud.

At the time of writing, the Leading Spans A and B of this indicator form support below PENGU's price at $0.01405 and $0.0135, respectively.

Ichimoku Cloud tracks an asset's market trend momentum and identifies potential support/resistance levels. When an asset trades above this cloud, it reflects upward price pressure in the market. This means demand is strengthening, with downward pressure kept low.

If accumulation continues, PENGU may extend its rally to $0.0203.

However, if buying activity decreases amid increasing profits, PENGU could reverse its current trend and drop to $0.0140.