Pepe, an Ethereum-based token inspired by a popular internet meme, has surged 92% in 24 hours to become the third-largest meme coin by market cap.
Pepe launched on April 17 and has since increased by more than 1,800% from its local bottom, making some investors millionaires.
The Meme Coin is designed in tribute to Pepe the Frog, a green anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid physique who debuted in Matt Furie’s 2005 comic book.
In 2008, the character’s popularity quickly grew across networks such as Myspace, Gaia Online, and 4chan, transforming him into an internet meme. Pepe uttered the line “feels good, man” while urinating with his pants down to his ankles in one comic.
Since its launch on April 17, 2021, the token’s market cap has soared to $448.9 million, making huge profits for early investors and sparking calls for meme season.
Over the past week, multiple tweets have posted stories of ‘degens’ and ‘meeting’ relatively small sums into Pepe to become overnight millionaires — generating a level of FOMO last seen during Dogecoin’s 2021 run to $0.74.
Despite the market slump, Pepe has overtaken FLOKI and Baby Doge Currency to become the third-largest meme coin by market capitalization.
However, surpassing the second-placed Shiba Inu will be more difficult, as it is worth more than ten times as much as Pepe.
Pepe rose from $0.0000003316 on April 29 around 13:00 GMT to a high of $0.0000012 in the early hours of today, representing a 275% increase, as depicted in the four-hour chart below.
Gains from the local low of $0.000000055142 on April 18 represent a growth of 1,887%, so a $1,000 investment made then would now be worth $21,400.
As is typical for meme coins, the Pepe token serves no purpose other than associating with Pepe the Frog. Pepe is a deflationary meme coin with a redistribution system to reward long-term speculators and a burning mechanism, according to its CoinMarketCap page. The page also states that Pepe’s creators are anonymous and that there is no team information.
David Wood tweeted that Pepe devs can raise transaction taxes. However, this contradicts Go Plus Labs’ conclusion that the contract owner could not modify the transaction tax.