Ecological Precipitation VS Cultural Carnival: Who Will Reach the Top of the Next Meme Hit, PEPE or SHIB?
In the meme coin track, the competition between SHIB and PEPE is essentially a struggle between "ecological value" and "cultural speculation." As of December 2025, SHIB firmly occupies the top three with a market value of $4.195 billion, 2.5 times that of PEPE ($1.645 billion), with liquidity covering over 110 exchanges, showing significant advantages.
SHIB has long since detached from its purely meme attribute, with the Shibarium layer two network supporting over 200 DApps, flourishing in payment, metaverse, and DeFi scenarios. The cumulative destruction of 41% of the initial tokens has formed a strong deflationary mechanism. The participation rate of its "SHIBArmy" community governance exceeds 40%, institutional holdings are stable, and the proportion of long positions in futures reaches 68%, highlighting its resilience against downturns.
PEPE, on the other hand, relies on the viral spread of the Sad Frog IP, with rapid growth among Gen Z users, but an ecological closed loop has yet to form, with 90% of applications concentrated in NFT derivatives. Its passive destruction mechanism has an annual destruction rate of only 0.8%, and the top 10 addresses control 18% of the circulation, with recent large sell-offs triggering selling pressure risks.
In a bull market scenario, both have the potential for over 300% price increases, but SHIB's ecological certainty is better suited to the transformation trend of meme coins "from speculation to value." While PEPE has strong short-term explosive power, it is limited by a fragile structure dominated by retail investors.
In summary, with its ecological accumulation and compliance advantages, SHIB has a higher probability of becoming the next hit, while PEPE needs to break through its reliance on a single culture to leverage long-term growth.
