Author of the original text: Day

In recent years, the meme track in the cryptocurrency industry has risen rapidly. With the intentional or unintentional promotion by more and more well-known figures such as Musk, meme has become one of the mainstream tracks and popular narratives in the cryptocurrency field. Many cryptocurrency KOLs, represented by V God, have changed their attitudes from initial lack of support to a more moderate stance and acknowledgment of its value.

Recently, the market value of the popular meme "Spicy Chicken" Pepe has reached over 4 billion US dollars, and it has even surpassed 7 billion US dollars at its peak in this round of market. Many people are still unclear about Pepe's story. Today, let's explore how Pepe has come to where it is today…

Pepe's Meme Culture

Looking at the development of Memecoin, most of them are based on materials with a certain historical background or certain popularity in the network. Pepe is no exception. Its name comes from the character Pepe the Frog created by American cartoonist Matt Furie, which first appeared in his work "Boy's Club".

This comic began serialization on MySpace in 2005 and ended in 2010, gaining some attention on the Internet. There are 4 characters in it, **and the frog Pepe is one of them. With its cute image and funny expressions, it won people's love. If you play on the chain more, you will also see Memecoins related to the other three names (Brett, Andy, Wolf), most of which have been speculated for a period of time.

Pepe's rise to fame follows a path similar to many internet sensations: it initially became popular in subcultural forums like 4chan and other niche groups, then caught the attention of social media opinion leaders (KOL), and exploded. 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 the social platform Tumblr.

On social networks, the cost of re-creation and dissemination is relatively low, and Pepe's emoticons and internet memes covering all emotions can quickly spread and resonate among a large number of netizens. It was initially a character expressing joy, but with the secondary creation and reinterpretation by internet users, it gradually evolved into a symbol of sadness and frustration. This transformation is related to the popularity of self-deprecation 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-mockery and expressing the difficulties and setbacks in life. This emoticon is 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 major symbols of despair", becoming an important symbol for expressing negative emotions and a miserable mood.

The evolution of Pepe's image on the internet is a quite complex and multi-faceted phenomenon.

In 2015, the sad frog became associated with racial remarks and the US presidential election, and was used to spread extreme information. Some supporters of Trump used 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 "Alt-right" and racial hatred.

This misunderstanding further exacerbated the negative impression of Pepe's image, and in order to prevent the sad frog from being further tarnished, its creator Matt Furie chose to end it all and kill Pepe.

In fact, even though the sad frog "has died", it still cannot stop its continued popularity among netizens. As a widely used emoticon, everyone can freely use it to express their inner emotions, including sadness or frustration.

Pepe Token

Thanks to the rapid rise in popularity of Pepe the Frog and extensive media exposure, Pepe Token (PEPE) was born in April 2023, and it quickly became one of the objects of investment for many cryptocurrency enthusiasts. In just one month, the market value of PEPE exceeded 400 million US dollars, entering the top 100 in the cryptocurrency market value.

The original intention of creating PEPE was to resist the complex token economic model of the "dog series" Memecoin. It hopes to return to the entertainment spirit of Memecoin, so it avoids complex operations such as presale, destruction, and taxation in its token economics. The goal of PEPE is to surpass other Memecoins and become a leader in the Memecoin field.

In addition, PEPE also borrowed the campaign slogan of the former US president Trump "Make America Great Again" and adapted it to "Make Memecoins Great Again".

PEPE's market operation has adopted some strategies to attract the attention of the cryptocurrency community, including formulating tax-free policies, rewarding long-term holders with a redistribution system, and implementing a destruction deflation mechanism to maintain the scarcity of the token. PEPE is closely related to the MAGA (Make America Great Again) culture and attempts to transform this development into a narrative driving the growth of the token.

Currently, the development of PEPE has exceeded the team's expectations. After being adjusted by BN, it has started to rise again. Its market value has recently exceeded 7 billion US dollars in the short term, and there has been a recent decline. This recent surge should also be related to Trump's cryptocurrency remarks. Through the above understanding, we can see that Pepe's development is also closely related to Trump.

Why Pepe Can Rise

Before PEPE came out, many "dog coins" had also appeared, but only the current Pepe has reached the current height. How did PEPE come to where it is today? Let's briefly summarize:

PEPE attracted the attention of some large holders and teams in the early stages. These large holders identified the potential of PEPE by analyzing the fund flows on DEX and began to build their positions. In addition, some early buyers also hold NFTs related to PEPE, which may be related to the initial team. Additionally, the PEPE team blacklisted addresses that made huge profits by purchasing PEPE at extremely low prices in the early stages and then abandoned contract permissions.

On Twitter, discussions about PEPE suddenly increased on April 17th, with some small and medium-sized key opinion leaders (KOL) starting to discuss and promote PEPE, sparking discussions on social media. At the end of April, Google searches for PEPE also began to rise, indicating that PEPE was beginning to attract broader attention.

Shortly after the launch, PEPE Token quickly went live on several CEX/DEX platforms, including Gate, OKEx, Pionex, and BN. The process of these listings was accompanied by an increase in the token price. After being listed on BN, some users took profits, and news of the team cashing out and uneven team distribution caused a significant drop in PEPE's value. After a six-month adjustment, with the intensification of anti-VC rhetoric, the heat of the meme track surged again, and PEPE re-broke new highs, showing a trend of becoming the new leader in the meme field.

In summary:

Team: The team has super strong capabilities and a top-notch marketing team, collaborating with influential KOLs for early promotion and utilizing resources.

Wealth stories spreading: The wealth stories of early PEPE holders spread on social media and in the cryptocurrency community. These stories involved PEPE coin holders making huge profits in a short period, piquing the interest and curiosity of others.

FOMO sentiment: After experiencing the crazy rise of Memecoins like Dogecoin and SHIB, people have been looking for the next potential skyrocketing token. The emergence and rapid growth of PEPE triggered a fear of missing out, afraid of missing the opportunity for another hundredfold or thousandfold Memecoin. This fear of missing out led to more and more people buying PEPE, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. PEPE attracted over 100,000 holding addresses in less than a month.

CEX/DEX promotion: Trading platforms played an important role in the development of PEPE. PEPE quickly went live on some well-known platforms such as MEXC, BN, OKX, and HTX. Seeing PEPE attract over 100,000 holding addresses in a short time, this popularity attracted the attention of trading platforms, bringing in more users and funds to PEPE.

These are the reasons I have learned about why PEPE was able to rise. From this, it can be seen that the gameplay of some Memecoins is similar. If you have a different perspective, feel free to leave a comment to add to the discussion.

Summary

Twitter KOL neso summarized the decisive factors in the growth of Memes at various market value stages, as shown in the following image:

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