What is Pepe (PEPE)?

A new coin is born every day in the crypto world. However, some projects attract attention not only with their technical promises but also with their aspects that appeal to the heart of internet culture. Pepe Coin is exactly this kind of project. Based on one of the most iconic memes of the internet, "Pepe the Frog", this coin stands out from the others with both its sense of humor and community power. While it entered the radar of cryptocurrency investors on the one hand, it also went viral on social media and filled our screens with frog green, this cryptocurrency actually has a much deeper and very entertaining story.

What is Pepe Coin? How Did It Come Into Existence?

Of course, giants such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are at the core of the crypto world. But we can say that this ecosystem has become a little livelier over time. Because categories such as meme coins have emerged. So, what is a meme coin? These coins are generally based on an internet joke, a meme or trends that we frequently encounter on social media. Pepe Coin has become the new star of this trend, which entered our lives with examples such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu. It quickly attracted the attention of both crypto enthusiasts and the internet world.

Pepe Coin, sometimes referred to as Pepe the Frog Coin, was launched on the Ethereum network on April 14, 2023 by a team of developers who kept their identities secret. The inspiration was the Pepe the Frog character created by Matt Furie in the early 2000s and instantly became an indispensable part of internet culture. Pepe, who first appeared in a comic book called “Boy’s Club,” has appeared with countless memes in every mood over the years and won the hearts of internet users. If you ask what Pepe Token is; This token is a community-oriented meme coin project that feeds on internet culture and has an ERC-20 standard created on the Ethereum network. We will talk about the technical details in a moment.

The emergence of Pepe Coin is a good example of the transfer of internet jokes and community culture to the crypto world. If you ask, “What does this coin do?”, it actually does not offer a great technology or financial vision in the classical sense. But that is not the point anyway. The developer team brought Pepe to life on the Blockchain as a reflection of culture, with a bit of a sense of fun. The launch process was fast and effective, just like an internet phenomenon. It quickly spread and became a topic of conversation among social media and crypto communities. It somehow joined the social media cryptocurrencies. The project was completely entrusted to the community instead of a central owner. This both increased the sense of ownership and provided natural growth. Technically speaking, Pepe Coin is an ERC-20 token since it was built on the Ethereum Blockchain. This means that transactions are secured by Ethereum's infrastructure and processed through proof-of-stake (PoS) validators. In other words, it benefits from Ethereum's mature and reliable system. One of the most striking features of the project is its deflationary mechanism. A small amount of PEPE tokens are burned in each transaction, meaning they are permanently removed from circulation. This means that the supply will decrease over time and the value of the token may increase if demand remains constant or increases. In other words, Pepe Coin aims to create value by “making itself scarce”.

In addition, Pepe Coin has a redistribution system designed to reward users. A small share of each transaction made is automatically distributed to existing token holders. This means that you can passively earn rewards by simply holding the PEPE token in your wallet. According to sources, this rate is around 1%. In other words, users who remain loyal to the community are rewarded.

Another prominent feature of Pepe Coin is its free transaction policy. While many tokens charge extra transaction fees for buying and selling, PEPE has adopted a user-friendly approach in this regard. Since there are no taxes or transaction fees, it offers a more accessible and practical use.

Steps were taken to gain trust during the token's launch process. 93.10% of the total supply was directly deposited into liquidity pools on Uniswap, and then the liquidity provider (LP) tokens representing these transactions were burned. If you ask what this means; This step can be interpreted as a confidence indicator that aims to keep the liquidity there permanently and to stay away from manipulation.

History of Pepe Coin: Key Milestones

The history of Pepe Coin began in April 2023, but this is no ordinary crypto story. It involves one of the internet's most iconic memes and the power of community. It all started with a listing on Uniswap. The starting price was almost zero: $0.000000001. That's why investors looking for a low-cost opportunity took an immediate interest. For those familiar with meme culture, this coin was no ordinary project, but the epitome of digital humor.

Pepe Coin really took off when it exploded on social media. When people started talking about the coin on Twitter (now X), Reddit and Discord, things really took off. Pepe the Frog had already been a symbolic figure of the internet for years, so the coin instantly had an identity and recognition. Some invested in it, some just made humor out of it, but in the end, everyone was talking about Pepe. Thus, crypto rose to the top of the humor projects.

Time to play in the big leagues: Listed on Binance and other giant exchanges

After the popularity of Pepe Coin, one of the prominent projects in the meme coin world, has reached a certain level, big players are now involved. Giant exchanges such as Binance and OKX took this meme coin on their platforms. This was a kind of “officialization” step. Because the listing of a cryptocurrency on such major exchanges means both reaching more users and gaining serious liquidity. As a matter of fact, this development also manifested itself in the Pepe Coin price. In just a few months, a previously unknown coin suddenly became a part of millions of people's portfolios.

Journey to the top: ATH and its massive market capitalization

After its debut in 2023, the fast-growing Pepe Coin was a huge success, especially in May. It caught everyone's attention when its market capitalization crossed $1 billion, but the real record (ATH) came in May 2024: The coin's market capitalization surpassed $6 billion, reaching an all-time high ($0.00001535) that remained on record for a long time. Then, on December 9, 2024, it recorded its new ATH after a 2-year hiatus with levels of $0.00002825. Considering the all-time low of $0.00000000001062 on May 14, 2023, the day of its launch, it offered a 73,468,701% rise to its investors during its trading life.

Of course, it is worth opening a parenthesis here: Meme coins can often rise and fall very quickly. Pepe Coin is no exception. The price is highly dependent on social media trends, posts and investor psychology. In recent months, even Elon Musk changed his profile picture on X, causing changes in the PEPE price.

PEPE in a tight race with DOGE and SHIB

With the arrival of Pepe Coin on the scene, comparisons with the older generation of meme coins immediately began. Dogecoin's years-long rise and Shiba Inu's community-driven success have always been a reference point for a new generation of investors. But according to some analysts, Pepe Coin's much faster rise compared to these two projects points to its potential.

Of course, the future of Pepe Coin is also questionable, as it is still a very new project compared to SHIB and DOGE. It is difficult to predict whether coins will survive in the cryptocurrency space in the long run. But we have to accept this: While it took four years for DOGE to reach a $1 billion valuation, it's no small feat for Pepe Coin to reach similar levels in less than a year. Meanwhile, it's worth noting that at the beginning of 2025, PEPE surpassed DOGE in terms of 24-hour trading volume. Thus, it became the first meme coin to surpass DOGE in this lane. The development was celebrated in the PEPE-focused thread on Reddit as follows:

In addition to SHIB and DOGE, the comparison of PEPE with other meme coins as of April 2025 is as follows:

Coin Name	Price (USD)	Market Cap	Circulating Supply	Blockchain	Key Features
PEPE	$0.000008	$3.27 Billion	420.69 Trillion	Ethereum	Inspired by the internet-famous frog meme PEPE
Dogecoin (DOGE)	$0.16	$23.5 Billion	132 Billion	Dogecoin	The first and largest meme coin; strong community support
Shiba Inu (SHIB)	$0.000012	$7.3 Billion	589 Trillion	Ethereum	Known as the “DOGE killer”; includes DeFi and NFT integrations
Floki (FLOKI)	$0.000058	$560.67 Million	9.94 Trillion	Ethereum & BNB Chain	Inspired by Elon Musk’s dog; includes NFT and metaverse projects
Bonk (BONK)	$0.000012	$966.69 Million	93.5 Trillion	Solana	First meme coin in the Solana ecosystem; community-driven

Why is Pepe Coin Valuable?

In the crypto world, some projects stand out not only for their technical details but also for their cultural impact. Pepe Coin is one of these cultural cryptocurrency projects. So, why is it so talked about and on investors' radar? Let's look at it from several angles.

The power of the community should not be underestimated

A strong internet culture is behind Pepe Coin's rapid rise to popularity. The character “Pepe the Frog” has long been familiar to internet users through memes. This was an advantage for the launch of the cryptocurrency. In other words, instead of trying to create an identity from scratch, the popularity of an existing figure was utilized.

There was also an active community on social media. This community continues to generate memes and content about Pepe Coin, organically increasing awareness of the project. In the crypto market, community support can often be as decisive as technical analysis.

Early investors' earnings attracted attention

The rapid price increase in the first days of Pepe Coin's launch meant significant gains for early investors. This attracted the attention of outside observers and triggered the psychological effect we call “fear of missing out” (FOMO). FOMO is a common investor behavior, especially in meme coins. Investors who see an asset rising rapidly tend to gravitate towards the project in order not to miss the opportunity. Pepe Coin has also benefited from this trend.

Limited supply, deflationary mechanism

Pepe Coin's supply is limited to 420.69 trillion tokens. Although this number seems quite high at first glance, the supply is decreasing over time thanks to the burn mechanism implemented in the project. In the first phase, 50% of the total supply, or 210 trillion tokens, has already been burned. Of the remaining tokens, 93.1% were transferred directly into liquidity pools on Uniswap at launch, and the LP tokens representing these transactions were permanently burned.

The remaining 6.9% is held in a multi-signed team wallet for centralized exchange listings, bridges and liquidity needs. The movements of this wallet can be tracked transparently on “pepecexwallet.eth”. The fact that supply remains constant and decreases over time means that when demand is stable or increasing, the value per token can potentially rise. This deflationary structure is among the factors shaping investors' long-term expectations.

Pepe Coin follows Shiba Inu and Dogecoin

Projects such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu have put the term “meme coin” into the crypto literature. While these projects seemed to have been born as a joke, they have since reached serious investment value. Pepe Coin, which initially appealed to investors looking for Dogecoin-like tokens and Shiba Inu alternatives, has emerged as a new member of this cultural trend. As with the early examples, it is more community and entertainment oriented than serving a technical purpose. However, this does not have to be perceived negatively by investors. The gains made by similar projects in the past have led investors to maintain their interest in such coins.

In conclusion, there is no single reason for the interest and value of Pepe Coin. A combination of factors - community support, early price volatility, limited supply, and its fit with the existing meme coin culture - naturally makes the project stand out. The investment value is entirely dependent on variables such as market sentiment, speed of adoption, and how long term the community will act.

Who is the Founder of Pepe Coin?

The question of who is the founder of Pepe Coin has been a subject of curiosity since the beginning of the project. Pepe Coin, like many other meme coins, was launched by an anonymous team of developers. This anonymous structure is adopted to emphasize the decentralization principle of the project and to pursue a community-driven launch strategy. So, in fact, anonymity is a conscious choice. The anonymity of the development team aims to reinforce the message that Pepe Coin is a community-owned project and not under the control of any central authority. By choosing to remain anonymous, the developers of Pepe Coin seem to want to send the message that “This coin is no longer ours, but all of ours”. While this approach may be a source of concern for some investors due to the lack of transparency, many see it as an indication of the project's authentic and community-oriented nature.

However, over time, some clues about who might be behind Pepe Coin have come to light. In particular, posts on social media and some major crypto platforms have turned the spotlight on a few names. In particular, statements by Not Larva Labs founder Jeremy Cahen (also known as Pauly) and authentications on major cryptocurrency exchanges suggest that Pepe's developer is Zachary Testa. Zachary Testa, a 26-year-old landscape photographer, is alleged to have bought a luxury Lamborghini with the proceeds from the Pepe Coin project. While these allegations have sparked controversy in the crypto community, the general understanding remains that Pepe Coin is officially an anonymous project and is managed by the community.

In the crypto world, anonymous teams are not always seen as “dangerous”, but they do carry risks. Because in the past, some anonymous projects have deceived investors and disappeared. This is called “rug pull” in the industry. However, in the case of Pepe Coin, steps such as renounced contract ownership and the burning of liquidity-providing tokens can be considered as measures to mitigate potential fraud risks.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you have questions about Pepe Coin, you're not alone. This fun yet mysterious coin can confuse some investors, especially those unfamiliar with the meme coin space. Below, we have the answers to all these questions:

• What is Pepe Coin and what does Pepe Coin do? Pepe Coin is an Ethereum-based meme coin inspired by the internet meme “Pepe the Frog”. Its main function is to bring internet culture and memes to the crypto world, with features such as a deflationary mechanism and reward distribution to token holders. Although it lacks any core utility, it has gained popularity thanks to its community support and cultural appeal.
• Who founded Pepe Coin? Pepe Coin was founded in 2023 by an anonymous team of developers. Although there have been claims about the founder from time to time, the project is officially decentralized and community-driven. There is some information that Zachary Testa is the founder.
• When did Pepe Coin launch and what was the price of PEPE coin when it first launched? Pepe Coin entered the market in April 2023. In answer to the question of how much Pepe coin was when it first came out, the data shows around 0.000000001 dollars.
• Why has Pepe Coin become so popular? Pepe Coin's popularity is primarily based on the widespread recognition of the “Pepe the Frog” meme in internet culture. Strong community support, viral impact on social media platforms, and interest from speculative investors have also contributed to its popularity.
• Is the supply of Pepe Coin limited? Yes, the total supply of Pepe Coin is limited to 420 trillion tokens. There is also a deflationary mechanism in place by burning a small amount of tokens with each transaction.
• Is Pepe Coin suitable for investment? Pepe Coin, like other meme coins, is a speculative asset with the potential for high risk and high return. Its price can fluctuate significantly based on social media trends and community sentiment rather than fundamental factors. It is important to assess your risk tolerance and do your own research before investing.

To keep up with Pepe Coin and other meme coin projects, be sure to check out the JR Kripto Guide series!