April 2023 witnessed the entry of Pepe Coin, a fresh contender in the cryptocurrency market aiming to compete with popular memecoins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. Memecoins, as the name suggests, draw inspiration from viral memes that capture social media trends. Pepe Coin, depicting a cartooned frog commonly featured in internet memes, ventures into this memecoin space.
Debuting on April 16, 2023, Pepe Coin, represented as the $PEPE token, operates on the Ethereum blockchain. Its arrival lacked the usual fanfare associated with influencers and airdrops. The anonymous developers adopted a “no tax policy” for PEPE transactions, appealing to smaller, experimental investors by eliminating gas fees. Additionally, the Pepe Coin ecosystem offers incentives for long-term stakers and implements controlled burning of reserves to maintain desired scarcity. With a predetermined circulating supply of 391,790,000,000,000 tokens, Pepe Coin began attracting meme enthusiasts who found value in its iconic meme-inspired character, even if it held novelty appeal.
Initially priced at $0.000000001 (approximately Rs. 0.000000083), Pepe Coin experienced a remarkable spike of 7,000 percent within the first seventeen days, reaching a market capitalization of $1.8 billion by May 5. However, amidst the economic slowdown in the United States, the market conditions became turbulent, causing Pepe Coin’s capitalization to plummet to its current valuation of $597.9 million (approximately Rs. 4,950 crore).
The rapid rise and fall of Pepe Coin raised speculation and concerns within the crypto community. The anonymity of its creators, coupled with the unprecedented price surge and subsequent decline, led to suspicions of a potential rug-pull scam. Rug pulls involve scammers launching random crypto tokens, driving their prices as high as possible to attract investors, only to abandon the projects and leave investors with losses.
While prominent exchanges like Binance and CoinMarketCap have listed the Pepe token for trading, some individuals remain cautious about engaging with $PEPE, at least for the time being. The recent posting of a meme featuring Pepe the Frog by Elon Musk further fueled the frenzy surrounding this altcoin. Musk’s followers speculated that his subtle acknowledgment could impact Pepe Coin and potentially influence his favored memecoin, DOGE.
As of the time of writing, neither Dogecoin nor Shiba Inu have shown significant price changes over the past year. DOGE was trading at $0.082 (approximately Rs. 6.8), while SHIB was valued at $0.0000087 (approximately Rs. 0.000718), according to Gadgets 360’s crypto price tracker.
Although Pepe Coin has gained attention within a month of its launch, skeptics continue to monitor its progress closely. Industry experts emphasize the importance of exercising caution and conducting thorough due diligence before investing in cryptocurrencies.
