Popular meme coin pepe (PEPE) jumped on the news that Coinbase International Exchange, the U.S.-based crypto exchange's off-shore arm for institutions, will open a perpetual futures market for the token next week.

The exchange said in an X post that it will list PEPE perps on Coinbase International Exchange and Coinbase Advanced and commence trading on or after 9:30 a.m. UTC on April 18.

The news sparked hopes among traders that it could foreshadow a potential spot listing for the fourth largest memecoin, boasting a $3 billion market capitalization.

PEPE gained as much as nearly 10% immediately after the announcement before paring most of the gains. At press time, the token had pulled back to about a 3% advance over the past 24 hours.

Pepe Coinbase perpetual contracts meme coin

Krisztian Sandor

Krisztian Sandor recently graduated from NYU's business and economic reporter program as a Fulbright fellow and worked with Reuters and Forbes previously. Originally from Budapest, Hungary, he is now based in New York. He holds BTC and ETH.