ApeCoin (APE) is down 12.2% to $1.2300 this week, retreating after a sharp 141.9% surge during October 19-21. In comparison, Bitcoin (BTC) is also declining by 3.4% to $66,400.

APE’s price surge over the weekend was driven by the release of Apechain on October 19, which enables cross-chain transactions across Ethereum, Arbitrum, and ApeChain networks for assets like ApeCoin (APE), Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), and Dai (DAI). A key factor behind this rise is the incorporation of LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard into the ApeChain mainnet. LayerZero, a cross-chain interoperability protocol, allows APE to serve as a governance token for the ApeCoin DAO and handle transaction fees across multiple blockchains.

This integration boosted investor confidence and spiked demand for APE, but the rapid rise led to an overbought condition, causing a pullback. To resume upward momentum, APE needs to maintain support above $1.0000, which could pave the way for a climb towards the $1.5000 resistance.