In recent years, the Meme track in the cryptocurrency industry has emerged as a rising force. With the intentional or unintentional promotion by well-known figures like Elon Musk, Meme has become one of the mainstream tracks and popular narratives in the crypto world. Many influential crypto Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs), represented by Vitalik Buterin, have shifted their attitude from initially not supporting Meme to now acknowledging its value.
Recently, the market value of the popular “Spicy Chicken” Pepe has reached over $4 billion, with a peak of over $7 billion. Pepe has performed exceptionally well in this round of the Meme market. Many people are still unclear about Pepe, so today let’s explore how Pepe has come to where it is today…
Pepe’s Meme Culture
Looking at the development of Memecoins, most of them are based on materials with certain historical origins or popularity on the internet, and Pepe is no exception. Its name comes from the character Pepe the Frog created by American cartoonist Matt Furie, who first appeared in his work “Boy’s Club.”
This comic was serialized on MySpace starting in 2005 and ended in 2010, gaining some attention on the internet. Among the four characters in the comic, the frog Pepe became one of the favorites with its cute image and funny expressions. If you are active in the crypto world, you may have also seen Memecoins related to the other three names (Brett, Andy, Wolf) on various chains, most of which have experienced a surge in popularity.
Pepe’s rise to fame followed a path similar to many internet sensations: it initially gained popularity in subculture forums like 4chan and other niche groups, and then caught the attention of social media opinion leaders (KOLs), causing a sensation. It became popular on cultural forums such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan in 2008, and in 2015, it became one of the most popular internet memes on social platform Tumblr.
On social media, the cost of remixing and spreading is relatively low, and Pepe’s emoticons and internet memes that can cover all emotions can quickly spread and resonate among netizens. It was originally a character expressing happiness, but with the internet users’ remixing and reinterpretation, it gradually evolved into a symbol of sadness and frustration. This transformation is related to the popularity of self-deprecating humor and self-mockery in internet culture.
People found resonance in Pepe’s sad image and used it as a way to express their inner emotions, especially for self-deprecating and expressing the difficulties and setbacks in life. This emoticon has been widely used and has become an important symbol in internet culture. The Sad Frog is also popular in Chinese internet culture and has been selected as one of the “Four Great Emotions of Despair,” becoming an important symbol for expressing negative emotions and a sense of frustration.
The evolution of Pepe’s image on the internet is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon.
In 2015, the Sad Frog became associated with racial remarks and the US presidential election and was used to spread extremist messages. Some supporters of Donald Trump adopted Pepe as their symbol and associated it with anti-political correctness and anti-establishment sentiments. This led to Pepe being misunderstood as a symbol of the “Alt-right” and racial hatred.
This misunderstanding further intensified the negative impression of Pepe’s image, and in order to stop the continued smearing of the Sad Frog, its creator Matt Furie chose to end it and “kill” Pepe.
In fact, even though the Sad Frog is “dead,” it is still popular among internet users. As a widely used emoticon, anyone can freely use it to express their inner emotions, including sadness or frustration.
Pepe Token
Thanks to the rapid rise in the popularity of Pepe the Frog and extensive media exposure, Pepe Token (PEPE) was born in April 2023. It quickly became one of the investment targets for many cryptocurrency enthusiasts. In just one month, the market value of PEPE exceeded $400 million, entering the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
The original intention of creating PEPE was to resist the complex token economic models of “Dog Series” Memecoins. It aims to return to the entertainment spirit of Memecoins, so it avoids complex operations such as presales, burning, and taxes in its token economics. PEPE’s goal is to surpass other Memecoins and become a leader in the Memecoin field.
In addition, PEPE also drew inspiration from former US President Donald Trump’s campaign slogan “Make America Great Again” and adapted it to “Make Memecoins Great Again.”
PEPE’s market operations have adopted some strategies to attract the attention of the cryptocurrency community, including implementing tax exemptions, rewarding long-term holders through a redistribution system, and implementing a deflationary mechanism to maintain the scarcity of tokens. PEPE has a close connection with MAGA (Make America Great Again) culture and attempts to transform this development into a narrative driving token growth.
Currently, the development of PEPE has exceeded the team’s expectations. After the adjustment on BN (a trading platform), it has started to rise again. The market value recently exceeded $7 billion, but it has recently declined. This recent surge may be related to Trump’s cryptocurrency remarks. From the above understanding, we can see that Pepe’s development also has a certain connection with Trump.
Why Pepe Rises
Before PEPE, there were many other Memecoins, but only the current Pepe has reached its current height. How did PEPE come to where it is today? Let’s briefly summarize:
Pepe attracted the attention of some big investors and teams early on. These big investors analyzed the flow of funds on DEX and discovered the potential of PEPE, so they started to build up their positions. In addition, some early buyers also hold NFTs related to PEPE, which may be related to the initial team. Furthermore, the PEPE team blacklisted addresses that profited from buying PEPE at extremely low prices and then abandoned contract permissions.
On Twitter, discussions about PEPE suddenly increased on April 17th. Some medium-sized key opinion leaders (KOLs) started discussing and promoting PEPE, sparking discussions on social media. At the same time, starting from the end of April, Google searches for PEPE also began to rise, indicating that PEPE was attracting more widespread attention.
Shortly after the launch of PEPE Token, it quickly listed on several CEX/DEX platforms, including Gate, OKEx, Matcha, and BN. These listings were accompanied by a rise in the token price. After the listing on BN, some users took profits, combined with reports of the team cashing out and uneven team allocations, resulting in a significant decline in PEPE’s price. After a six-month correction, with the intensification of anti-VC sentiments, the heat of the Memecoin track surged again, and PEPE has re-emerged to set new highs, showing signs of becoming a new leader in the Meme field.
In summary, the reasons why PEPE has risen are as follows:
Team: The team has strong capabilities and a top marketing team. In the early stages, they collaborated with influential KOLs for promotion and utilized available resources.
Spreading of stories of sudden wealth: Stories of early PEPE holders getting rich quickly spread on social media and in the cryptocurrency community. These stories involved situations where PEPE coin holders made huge profits in a short period of time, attracting the interest and curiosity of others.
FOMO sentiment: After experiencing the crazy rise of Memecoins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, people have been looking for the next potential skyrocketing token. The emergence and rapid growth of PEPE triggered a fear of missing out (FOMO) sentiment, with people afraid of missing the opportunity for another Memecoin that could multiply their investments by hundreds or thousands of times. This fear of missing out has led to more and more people buying PEPE, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. PEPE attracted over 100,000 token holding addresses in less than a month.
Promotion by CEX/DEX platforms: Trading platforms have played an important role in the development of PEPE. PEPE quickly listed on several well-known platforms, such as MEXC, BN, OKX, and HTX. Probably seeing the heat generated by PEPE with over 100,000 token holding addresses in a short period of time, these exchanges were attracted to the project, leading to more users and funds flowing into PEPE.
These are the reasons I have learned about why PEPE has risen. From this, we can see that the gameplay of some Memecoins is similar. If you have different opinions, please feel free to comment and supplement.
Summary
Twitter KOL neso summarized the decisive factors in the growth of Memes at various market value stages, as shown in the following diagram:
