Driven by Community not VCs, PEPE Fans’ Comeback on Coinbase’s ‘Ill-Conceived’ Take

Pepecoin (PEPE) made quite a significant upheaval in the sluggish crypto market. From less than $1 million at the launch, its market cap swelled close to $2 billion in just weeks. The frog-themed memecoin in the crypto universe dominated by dog-themed coins is bound to trigger funny memes.

And one such meme attempt by Coinbase doesn’t seem to have landed well, and the crypto exchange is at the receiving end of a “well-deserved” backlash from PEPE fans and holders.

PEPE as a Symbol of Hate   

Apparently, Coinbase, on May 10, sent its investors an email mentioning the frenzy around PEPE and calling it the memecoin of the moment. It said, “Over time, it [PEPE] has been co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League.”

Crypto influencer Borovik.eth shared a screenshot of the email newsletter from May 10 with his 96,000 followers. The newsletter cited a 2016 decision made by the Anti-Defamation League to include the frog-themed character in its database of online hate symbols.

“Why is @coinbase sending out emails telling people that $pepe is an alt-right hate symbol??,” Borovik.eth wrote. 

Although the memecoin has started falling and has shed at least half its market cap so far, it has secured a listing on OKX and Binance – no less! Gemini is also much impressed by its performance and has announced its support.

PEPE Lovers Take on Coinbase   

PEPE continued to receive support as digital artist Beeple and crypto influencers Kenobi and Pauly highlighted the community-driven movement against VC-backed entities hijacking the Web3 movement. Beeple posted a picture of the Pepe Army laying siege to Coinbase.

Meanwhile, after a massive bull run since its launch on April 17 by an anonymous creator, PEPE seems to be settling down to where it belongs. On May 9, CryptoPotato reported that the market cap of the most exciting memecoin was reduced to $800 million, sliding from $1.8 billion in merely four days. A day earlier, the 4-week-old coin had ended the week with a massive 350% gain.

When listed on Binance on May 5, the coin was worth $0.000002023, but the news drove its price to $0.000004354. According to CoinMarketCap, it’s trading at $0.000001615, signaling a dip of 15.82%.

UPDATE: Although it took some time, Coinbase finally addressed the issue through its Chief Legal Officer, who took it to Twitter to apologize for not providing the whole story.

We screwed up and we are sorry.

Yesterday we shared an overview of the $pepe meme coin to provide a fact-based picture of a trending topic. This did not provide the whole picture of the history of the meme and we apologize to the community.

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) May 11, 2023