To be sure, cryptocurrencies, especially meme coins, are highly volatile, and remain largely unregulated.

Compared with Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, whose market capitalization stands at $9.8 billion and $5.1 billion, Pepe coin is still relatively small. It’s hard to say what’s next for Pepe coin, noted Devens. For example, Shiba Inu’s price peaked in October 2021 at around $0.000018, after Coinbase listed the coin in September 2021, but has then lost half of its value to about $0.0000086 on Thursday. It’s relatively common for meme coin prices to spike as they are listed on major exchanges, and fall afterwards, noted Devens. Pepe coin’s price peaked on May 5 at around $0.000004, after Binance said it would list the token, but has since fallen more than 70% to about $0.000001 on Thursday. “While the crypto market overall might be stuck in an elongated winter, viral dynamics follow their own logic,” Mei said.īitcoin has gained over 60% so far this year, but is still down over its all-time high in 2021, according to CoinDesk data. The support of so-called whales, or individuals or entities that hold large amounts of Pepe coin, also helped with the rally, Mei said. Jeff Mei, chief operating officer at BTSE, said the rise of PepeCoin was largely driven by investors’ fear of missing out, which is often referred to as a crypto slang called “FOMO.” It also contributed to the crypto’s rally that the meme of Pepe the Frog was already popular on the Internet, noted Devens. “So when Pepe coin popped up, it was relatively easy for people to be like, this is something interesting, and to start directing their attention towards it.” “I would say that in the past month or so, there hasn’t really been anything too noteworthy happening in crypto,” Devens said in a phone interview. Rise of Pepe coinĬhase Devens, senior research analyst at Messari, attributed Pepe’s rise to a “perfect storm of conditions.” On Thursday, Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase, tweeted an apology to the Pepe coin community, saying that the exchange’s newsletter didn’t provide the whole picture of the history of the meme.įind me on Twitter at to share any thoughts on crypto, this newsletter, or your personal stories with digital assets. Does that mean the entire character is racist and condones hateful speech and behaviour? No, it doesn’t.” “Was the narrative taken away from Matt Furie for a moment? Yes, it was. “Pepe The Frog is a lot of things, but it is definitely not an alt-right hate symbol,” Twitter user a supporter of Pepe coin wrote. It has since sparked outrage from the meme tokens’ supporters on Twitter.

Which, in a newsletter Wednesday said the Pepe the Frog character has been “co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups,” citing Anti-Defamation League. Most recently, crypto enthusiasts are eyeing the tension between the Pepe coin community and digital asset exchange Coinbase Pepe’s surge also inspired a buying frenzy of several other meme coins, which together contributed to the congestion of the Ethereum and Bitcoin network. Pepe’s rally reminded investors of the meme coin craze they witnessed in 2021, especially evidenced by the rise of dogecoin and Shiba Inu then. Also read: Why meme coins are trending again

Amp coin stock