Tron founder Justin Sun has accumulated nearly 3% of PEPE’s supply, with blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence identifying approximately $51.25 million worth of the memecoin across his known and suspected wallets.
Summary
- Arkham Intelligence has identified Justin Sun as the largest individual PEPE holder, with wallets linked to the Tron founder holding approximately $51.25 million worth of tokens, representing 2.82% of the total supply.
- Two major withdrawals from Poloniex on October 17 and October 26 transferred a combined $48.76 million worth of PEPE into wallets attributed to Sun.
- Arkham traced the tokens through Binance, Poloniex and HTX, while identifying another $77 million in stablecoin transfers from Sun linked wallets to Poloniex between October 15 and October 25.
- Sun’s growing PEPE holdings could attract investor attention, although such a large concentration of tokens in individual wallets could create selling pressure if a significant portion is liquidated.
According to an October 27 Arkham Intelligence report, the tokens entered Sun-linked wallets over the previous 10 days, making him the largest individual PEPE holder outside cryptocurrency exchanges.
The firm estimated his combined holdings at 2.82% of PEPE’s supply, although some wallets included in its calculations were attributed to Sun through blockchain analysis.
At the time, PEPE had a market capitalization of approximately $1.81 billion, with exchanges controlling several of the largest known holdings.
Binance held $337.5 million worth of PEPE, representing 18.7% of the supply, followed by Robinhood with $150.9 million, or 8.37%. Coinbase and OKX accounted for another 5.03% and 4.15%, respectively.
Unlike Sun’s attributed holdings, exchange balances generally include assets held on behalf of customers, meaning their large positions do not necessarily represent investments made by the platforms themselves.
Justin Sun’s PEPE holdings grew through two large transfers
A substantial portion of Sun’s recently identified PEPE holdings came through two withdrawals from Poloniex, an exchange associated with the Tron founder.
Arkham traced the first transaction to October 17 at 14:29 UTC, when approximately 7.2 trillion PEPE tokens worth $28.44 million were transferred from Poloniex to a wallet linked to Sun.
The second withdrawal occurred on October 26 at 15:54 UTC, involving another 4.65 trillion PEPE valued at $20.32 million.
Together, the transactions amounted to $48.76 million at the time of transfer, accounting for nearly all of the PEPE attributed to his wallets.
Before October 17, Sun held approximately 68 billion PEPE worth $267,000, according to Arkham. The earlier tokens had been received from Binance in December 2023 and Poloniex during 2024.
By October 27, the two wallets identified in the analysis held approximately $51.01 million worth of PEPE, leaving the position with an unrealized gain of more than $2 million compared with the reported value of the recent transfers.
Arkham traced PEPE transactions through Binance and Poloniex
Further examination of the transactions suggested that the tokens had originally moved through Binance before reaching Poloniex and eventually Sun-linked addresses.
On October 16, approximately $20.2 million worth of PEPE entered Poloniex deposit addresses from Binance’s hot wallets in several transactions worth roughly $3.1 million each.
Another $20.3 million followed on October 26, this time through transfers worth approximately $6.76 million each.
Arkham found that some of the tokens subsequently passed through HTX before returning to Poloniex, from where they were withdrawn into wallets attributed to Sun.
The analysis identified one address beginning with 0x721 as potentially belonging to the Tron founder. The wallet was initially funded on June 16 using ETH and spUSDT transferred from addresses already associated with Sun.
At the time of the report, the address held approximately $284.35 million in cryptocurrency assets, including $200 million in USDD and $42.35 million in sUSDS.
Arkham separately identified $77 million in stablecoin transfers from Sun-linked wallets to Poloniex between October 15 and October 25.
The transactions consisted of three $20 million USDT transfers, followed by USDC transfers of $7 million, $7 million and $3 million.
Blockchain records examined by Arkham showed that the USDT had been withdrawn from Spark and Aave shortly before being sent to Poloniex, while the USDC originated from Sky.
The analytics firm did not establish that these stablecoin transfers were used directly to purchase the PEPE tokens subsequently withdrawn from the exchange.
What could this mean for PEPE investors?
For PEPE investors, the accumulation could draw more attention to the memecoin, particularly because Sun is a prominent figure in the cryptocurrency industry and has substantial holdings across several digital assets.
However, having nearly 3% of a memecoin’s supply concentrated in wallets linked to one individual presents potential risks, since any decision to sell a large portion of those holdings could put downward pressure on its price, depending on market liquidity.
PEPE remains a speculative cryptocurrency whose trading activity is heavily influenced by investor sentiment and demand for memecoins.
During September, PEPE recorded a 45% weekly rally, while derivatives open interest approached $400 million, showing how quickly speculative trading activity can grow around the token.
Earlier in October, crypto.news reported that Canary Capital had amended its PEPE ETF registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, following its initial application in April.
As of press time, Sun has not formally acknowledged the information.
Arkham valued Sun’s total on-chain portfolio at approximately $2.29 billion, with the newly identified PEPE holdings accounting for around 2.2% of that sum.
