What Is PEPE Memecoin? Story Behind Digital Frog

In the world of crypto meme coins, perhaps one of the most well-known is the PEPE coin PEPE $0.000007 24h volatility: 0.5% Market cap: $3.08 B Vol. 24h: $855.63 M . Based on PEPE the Frog meme, this token represents a very specific niche of meme coin; its success has sparked many copycats.

What Is PEPE Coin?

PEPE is a meme coin that was built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain and released in 2023. PEPE coin was founded by Zachary Testa, who was outed online a few months after the project was launched. As the name would suggest, the PEPE token is based on the popular meme of Pepe the Frog. The meme is of a green humanoid frog and has been floating around the internet for years.

The meme was created by artist Matt Furie for a comic book and it eventually became widely used on the internet and in popular culture, just like any other tokens of this type. You can explore how it works and the reasons behind that in the meme coin basics guide.

It is worth noting that the ERC-20 token, unlike some of its contemporaries, has no practical utility behind it. It is simply an asset based on Internet culture and thus, there is no realistic basis for expectation of future profit or performance. Many people buy the token speculatively or based on their love for the meme.

When PEPE first hit the market, it had no ‘traditional’ project roadmap attached to it. Usually, crypto projects would propose a roadmap of upcoming side projects, upgrades to the ecosystem, and so on. This is one of the things that helps new projects gain the trust of investors. In the case of PEPE, the major selling point was the meme itself and the community it had cultivated. The three phases of the project included:

• The launch of the token and listing on market aggregators in phase one.
• The creation of a digital newsletter, Discord groups, and listing on CEXs in the second phase.
• The release of merchandise and various tools in the third phase.

PEPE gained a lot of attention online and had hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter/X in just a few days of its launch. This initial hype helped the token in its early days and led to more media attention.

With this success has come criticism that PEPE was not built to last and even some have called it a pump-and-dump scheme. Nevertheless, it has seen a lot of investment and popularity in the market.

PEPE Coin: Milestones

PEPE coin has had a rather eventful journey in the time it has been in the market. When the PEPE coin was first released, its founder remained anonymous, in the same vein as the founder of Bitcoin (BTC). However, in August 2023, Jeremy Cahen, the founder of NotLarvaLabs, alleged on X that Zachary Testa was the founder of the PEPE coin based on some of his research.

While Testa’s identity has been made public, other members of the PEPE token team have been kept anonymous. But despite this, the team does engage with the community via social media. For example, in August 2023, the PEPE team faced one of its biggest challenges when 16 trillion PEPE tokens worth about $15 million at that time were taken out of its multi-signatory wallet. It was confirmed that a rogue team member was responsible for the theft after tricking the rest of the team.

In response, the price of PEPE saw a temporary 15% dip in value. The team also burned a significant number of tokens and brought on new advisors to avoid such a situation happening again. Usually, this sort of scandal would tank such a new project but PEPE was still riding the wave of hype it had seen since its market debut.

The PEPE token also saw some very quick progress as the PEPE listing on Binance took place on May 5, 2023, and the PEPE listing for perpetual futures took place on Coinbase on April 23, 2024. Notably, the token crossed the $1 billion market cap point in less than a month of its operations, showing just how high in demand it was.

In all this, it is worth noting that the PEPE token exists essentially for entertainment purposes and its management structure is not as formal as with other tokens. Much of its demand is fueled by buzz on social media and the enduring popularity of the PEPE the Frog meme.

Some of the major milestones PEPE has reached are as follows:

• April 17, 2023: PEPE is launched.
• April 19, 2023: PEPE begins trading at $0.0000002823.
• April 19, 2023: PEPE sees more than $90 million in volume on Uniswap.
• May 5, 2023: PEPE is launched on Binance.
• April 23, 2024: PEPE perpetual futures launched on Coinbase.
• August 24, 2023: PEPE sees a $15 million theft from its multi-sig wallet from a rogue team member.

Understanding PEPE Coin

From the outside, it is a bit of a mystery that the PEPE coin has done as well as it has given that it has little practical use. But in reality, the PEPE coin has a rather intricate pricing system.

First, it operates based on a deflationary mechanism that burns a certain number of tokens with each transaction. This helps to control the supply of the token and creates a scarcity that boosts its price. As we have seen many times in the industry, a low supply of a token relative to its demand tends to lead to a spike in price, which is how the PEPE coin’s deflationary mechanism benefits the ecosystem.

PEPE holders are also incentivized to invest long-term through its redistribution system which gives a portion of the value of each transaction to existing token holders. This has been criticized, however, as some feel that this distribution system is unfair.

The first iteration of the PEPE coin also stood apart from many popular meme coins because it operated on a no-tax policy. This meant that transactions did not have additional costs attached to it. Transaction costs are one of the biggest inconveniences for crypto users and being able to avoid them is a major perk.

Another notable development in the meme coin space was the emergence of PEPE 2.0. This token was created by wallet addresses that were blacklisted by the original PEPE token creators and acts as a competitor to the original. PEPE 2.0 is notable thanks to some of its differences from PEPE and most of all its tax policy. Unlike the original, it charges a 1% tax on all transactions, with the funds used for marketing, liquidity, and community development.

Tokenomics

PEPE has a total and maximum supply of 420,690,000,000,000 tokens.

Benefits and Concerns

PEPE coin boasts the following benefits:

• It is an ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum network, which means that it is secure and has a flexible pricing mechanism.
• The token is compatible with a wide variety of applications thanks to its Ethereum-based foundation.
• It operates under a deflationary mechanism, which can help ensure high prices for the token by creating an artificial scarcity.
• Its redistribution system rewards long-term investors and incentivizes users to hold on to the token.
• The token acts as a source of entertainment for its community and anyone who likes memes.

At the same time, there are a few concerns to keep in mind regarding PEPE:

• The lack of transparency about its team could be an issue for some investors.
• The token has little practical use, which might harm its longevity.
• Its deflationary mechanism could negatively impact its circulating supply over time.
• The token has been known to be highly volatile, partially owing to its lack of practical use.

Buying PEPE

Given how popular the token has become, many crypto investors will want to get their hands on it. The good news is that PEPE has been listed on many major platforms despite being a relatively newer token.

If you want to buy the token on a centralized exchange, platforms like Binance, KuCoin, Bybit, and OKX have it listed. Some decentralized platforms like Uniswap also offer PEPE for sale.

You may also choose to buy the token from peer-to-peer platforms depending on your unique tastes.

Conclusion

PEPE is one of the most notable success stories in the crypto industry. While all meme coins leverage virality to some extent, PEPE has the added advantage of being based on one of the most popular memes of all time. Given its lack of use cases, some have argued that its status as a meme token is the sole reason for its success.

Either way, its runaway success is a testament to the power of online communities, meme hype, as well as its creative tokenomics strategies. While some still believe that the PEPE coin will fall by the wayside over time, others have more faith in it.