Pepe Frog Meme Coin$PEPE After its launch on April 14 this year, it quickly became popular in just 4 days, with an increase of more than a thousand times . $PEPE is currently among the top 100 cryptocurrencies. According to Coingecko , it is currently ranked 82nd. Although the memecoin$PEPE went viral just recently, the cute frog behind the memecoin has a long story behind it. Only by understanding its "previous life" can we understand "where" it is popular. Let the dynamic zone guide you to review the past and present of "Pepe Frog", how to transform from an obscure otaku "Frog" and a well-known "Meme" to the now-hot "Meme Coin".
2005: Pepe is just a lazy, pizza-loving male "frog"
The earliest prototype of the "Pepe Frog" meme (PEPE) comes from the characters written by American independent cartoonist Matt Furie. It first appeared in the Boy's Club comics published by him, and the image appeared as an "otaku" who wore sports vest shorts, was lazy and loved to eat pizza. At this time, "Pepe Frog" behaved friendly and ordinary. The author put the comics on his Myspace blog space, which had limited reach, so "Pepe the Frog" was still unknown at that time.
2008 to 2014: From 4Chan, Reddit's "niche stalker" to star's "love frog"
Why do we see so many variants of "Pepe Frog" today, instead of the original "Otaku" in the comics? This stems from the "transfer" of American netizens to the 4Chan discussion area in early 2008, and then gradually became a "meme" among members of the discussion area. Founded in 2003, 4Chan is an early major Internet community in the United States, similar to Taiwan's PTT. Its characteristic is that users will use different textures in the discussion, and then produce a lot of subculture and secondary creation of textures.
"Pepe Frog" can stand out in many stickers because of a funny scene in his comics. When Pepe urinates, pull his pants down to the bottom. It happened that a friend saw this funny scene and spread it to other friends. When his friends teased him, he didn't feel embarrassed or even felt good, responding "feels good man (cool! friend)". Comic author Matt Furie explained in an interview with knowyourmeme that the idea of creation came from his cousin who would take off his pants to the bottom when he went to the toilet when he was a child. He thought it was very funny when he was a child.
Just because of this sentence "I feel good", it hit the hearts of 4Chan netizens. Many netizens use this sentence to defend the despised behavior in their lives. On the one hand, this sentence has become a buzzword in the discussion area, and on the other hand, the "Pepe Frog" who said this sentence has also begun to become a "meme" and a "meme" in many American discussion groups from 4Chan to Reddit. Later, netizens put the face of "Pepe Frog" on the faces of various people. As "Pepe Frog" continues to be "magically modified", "Pepe Frog" is no longer the "Sad Frog" (Sad Frog) who smiles and says "Feels Good", accompanied by a crying face.
Later, "Pepe Frog" was no longer the only show in the niche discussion forums, and even entered the mainstream culture of the English-speaking world in Europe and America. The famous American singer Kate Perry went to Australia in August 2014, and sent a Twitter tweet with a picture of a crying "Pepe Frog", laughing that "Australian jet lag" made her cry into a "frog". This tweet received 17,000 likes and 10,500 retweets within three years; Nicki Minaj, another famous American rapper, posted a dull-looking "Pepe Frog" on Instagram in December of the same year. Said that he would "try to get my followers back up" (trying to get my followers back up). "Pepe Frog" appeared on the social networking sites of the two heavyweight superstars, which shows how he is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.
2015-2017: American right-wing voter "auspicious frog", author put to death in pain
"Pepe Frog" is so deeply rooted in the hearts of the people that he has been misappropriated in various anti-social and morally controversial issues, such as: flying a plane into the Twin Towers in the United States, beheading terrorists captured by the Islamic State, and even the most sensitive in Europe and the United States of Nazism. This also makes the frog that "feels good" no longer makes people feel good.
Later, "Pepe Frog" was involved in the US election issue in 2015. Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate at the time, tweeted in October 2015. The picture in the tweet is the classic Trump image of "Pepe Frog" with combed oily hair and chin rest, accompanied by the statement "You Can't Stump the Trump" (You Can't Stump the Trump) . "Pepe the Frog" has become a favorite meme among Trump supporters. In particular, Trump supporters are often considered to have white racism, Nazism, and right-wing colors, which has allowed him to take the lead in American popular culture since then. The "New York Times" , "BBC" and many other international media regard Pepe as a symbol of hatred. Trump even created "Pepe the Frog" to stand with him.
The team of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic candidate for the presidency with Trump, finally published an article on Donald Trump Pepe the frog and white supremacists in September 2016, criticizing "Pepe the frog" as a "symbol of white supremacy." (symbol associated with white supremacy). Even if the author of "Pepe Frog" tried to rehabilitate "Pepe Frog", get rid of the right-leaning and hateful image, and emphasize its peace-loving image. This is also difficult to turn the tide, and finally the author Matt Furie chose to publish in May 2017, a new comic titled Rest in Peace, Pepe: The meme's creator kills off the frog hijacked by the alt-right . The name of the theme declared Pepe's death, and it was said that it was caused by the "meme" of the far-right hijacking.
2019: Rebirth as Hong Kong's "anti-extradition" symbol
Despite its pervasiveness in English-speaking pop culture, the "Peppe Frog" meme has limited popularity in the Chinese-speaking world. Until the large-scale social movement broke out in Hong Kong in 2019, many people used "Pepe Frog" as a symbol of resistance to create promotional materials, props, etc., and dressed "Pepe Frog" as a demonstrator. Only then did it begin to slowly enter the Chinese world. This also made "Pepe Frog" attract the attention of the world again. The "New York Times" reported that it was titled Hong Kong Protesters Love Pepe the Frog. No, They're Not Alt-Right , pointing out that "Pepe Frog" is no longer a The image of the extreme right in American political controversy.
Although the author declared the death of "Pepe Frog", Hong Kong demonstrators wrote to the author, pointing out that "Pepe Frog" is a symbol of fighting for democracy. The author Matt Furie replied to the email "this is good news! pepe for the people" (this is good news! "Pepe Frog" is for the people), which also confirmed the rebirth of "Pepe Frog". Later, the process of changing the meaning of "Pepe Frog" was made into a documentary "Pepe Frog: Feels Good Man" (Feels Good Man) , which was screened at the 2020 Taipei Film Festival, sparking discussions in Taiwan.
2021: Author releases "Peppe Frog" comic NFT
With the rise of NFT, "Pepe Frog" ushered in the first "reincarnation" in the blockchain. Although "Pepe Frog" was declared dead by the author because its meaning was misappropriated, "Pepe Frog" was regained because of the NFT. In April 2021, the author Matt Furie cast the "feels good man" comic that made "Pepe the Frog" famous into an NFT . Later, it cooperated with PegzDAO and launched the "Pepe Frog" style NFT- Pegz in October of the same year.
2023: "Peppa Pig" meme coin goes viral
From 2005 to 2023, the symbol of "Peppa Pig" has been constantly changing. Compared with the "Doge" meme, it has penetrated deeper into English and even global pop culture, and even many people's childhood memories. This time, the "Peppe Pig" meme currency project party threatened on the homepage of the official website ,
The most talked about meme coin in existence. Dogecoin is out, it's time for Pepe to dominate.
In addition to cultural significance, unlike previous meme coins, $PEPE tokens have not been pre-sold, and the official even destroyed the liquidity pool tokens (LP tokens) at the beginning of the release, so as to attract investors' attention , and the official subsequently announced that they had given up the contract authority (promising never to conduct Rugpull). This also shows that $PEPE entered the top 100 cryptocurrencies is not accidental, and it also indicates its difference in culture and distribution.
