In early April, the Twitter account @pepecoineth appeared on Twitter, which published a single message with an image of the famous meme of Pepe the frog in a red cap and with the inscription «Make Memecoins Great Again,» which is a reference to the election slogan of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Two weeks later, the cryptocurrency token PEPE, named after a famous meme, was launched. The anonymous creators issued 420.69 trillion coins, and the token started trading on the decentralized platform Uniswap.
Uniswap is a decentralized finance protocol built on the Ethereum blockchain for exchanging and trading crypto assets via smart contracts. Traders maintain a level of anonymity by using their Ethereum wallet for authentication. Since all token transfers occur directly on the Ethereum blockchain, users must pay a transaction fee, which dynamically increases based on network congestion.
Influencers on Twitter and in thematic channels on messaging apps like Telegram and Discord quickly picked up the discussion on PEPE, leading to its price soaring by over 900% just a day after its debut. In less than three weeks, the market capitalization of the memecoin surpassed $1.6 billion. At the time of publication, the token ranks among the top three memecoins, only
High demand
The meteoric rise in popularity of memecoins led to their rapid price surges and introduced liquidity challenges, rendering them prone to volatile price movements. This environment enabled professional traders to leverage bots for advantageous trades, exploiting large purchase orders to manipulate market prices. The PEPE token, initially available only on decentralized exchanges (DEXs), witnessed a significant trading volume that escalated transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain, reminiscent of the crypto market’s peak in 2021. This scenario restricted average retail traders due to high fees and complex trading mechanisms on DEXs.
Recognizing the burgeoning interest, traditional crypto exchanges started listing PEPE, with BitMEX introducing perpetual futures trading with up to 50x leverage. Binance, the largest crypto exchange, later joined the fray, significantly impacting PEPE’s trading volumes. According to CoinGecko, trading volumes on Binance swiftly outpaced those on Uniswap post-listing, with more accessible interfaces and lower fees contributing to a shift in trader preference. Analytics from DEXTools highlighted that PEPE’s unique token holders surpassed 100,000 on May 10, indicating widespread interest despite fluctuating token prices.
More Than Just a Meme
In 2005, Matt Fury created the webcomic Boy’s Club with the character Pepe the Frog, who later became an icon of Internet memes. This phenomenon spawned thousands of memes and inspired the creation of memcoins, including Dogecoin, the first memcoin, which appeared in 2013 as a joke and reference to the Shiba Inu dog meme. Despite its initial lack of a serious purpose, Dogecoin gained popularity, especially after Elon Musk’s endorsement, with a market capitalization exceeding $10 billion and a subsequent surge of interest in memcoins following its success.
PEPE, the new memcoin, is following the trends set by its predecessors, with hype reminiscent of the recent rise of BONK on the Solana blockchain. PEPE’s creators, who host social media anonymously, claim that «dogs have had their day,» hinting at Pepe’s determination to dominate memcoins. Elon Musk’s influence on memcoins continues to be evident, as seen in Milady Meme Coin’s surge following his tweet, highlighting the unpredictable dynamics and earning opportunities in the memcoin market.
