PEPE launched on April 15, 2023, as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum inspired by Pepe the Frog — the internet’s most iconic meme. Within three weeks, it reached a market cap of $1.6 billion, making it the fastest memecoin to enter the top 100 by market capitalization at the time.
The token had no team, no roadmap, no utility — just a contract deployed anonymously with a total supply of 420.69 trillion tokens (a nod to cannabis and meme culture). It launched during a quiet period in crypto, and its explosive growth caught the entire market off guard.
PEPE’s rise triggered what became known as “memecoin season” in spring 2023. Following its success, thousands of copycat tokens flooded Ethereum, creating a mini-bubble that crashed as quickly as it formed. But PEPE itself survived, maintaining a core community that called themselves the “PEPE army.”
The token received listings on major exchanges including Binance, Coinbase, and Kraken within weeks of launch — an unprecedented speed for a memecoin with no team or official backing. These listings legitimized PEPE and gave it staying power that most memecoins never achieve.
In late 2023, drama erupted when three of the original multisig wallet holders were accused of moving 16 trillion PEPE tokens (worth ~$15M) without community consent. The incident tanked the price temporarily but also led to reforms in the multisig governance.
PEPE surged again in 2024, reaching a new all-time high above $0.000024 as the broader crypto market rallied. Its market cap exceeded $10 billion briefly, making it the third-largest memecoin behind Dogecoin and Shiba Inu.
What makes PEPE unique in memecoin history is its role as a cultural bridge. Pepe the Frog existed as internet culture for over a decade before crypto adopted it. The token didn’t create a meme — it tokenized one of the internet’s most enduring symbols.
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