The Tao of Pepe

Memecoin Mania strikes again. What does it mean?

Hey everyone,

Memecoin mania has struck again.

Pepe Coin seized the Twitter spotlight last week with an explosive price surge and viral marketing campaign.

But is Pepe a true contender to Dogecoin’s reign as king memecoin of the universe?

Let’s examine the many dimensions of $PEPE.

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$PEPE Mania

A new memecoin is burning up the Twitterverse.

Two weeks ago, Pepe Coin burst onto the scene. It’s been trending on Twitter since.

Like Shiba Inu Coin before it, Pepe Coin bills itself as a challenger to Doge.

Pepe Coin’s unofficial Twitter account declares, “the dog days are over”

The initial buzz around $PEPE began in mid-April, when someone bought trillions of Pepe Coins for $250 worth of Ethereum.

Shortly after, the price of Pepe Coin exploded, and the $250 investment grew to be worth a million dollars on paper.

Several crypto news outlets reported the transaction, building further hype and attracting new investors. Last week, Pepe surged again, topping a billion dollars in market cap.

Pepe Coin is backed by a slick advertising campaign.

Part of the Pepe Coin strategy is to generate eye-popping numbers: there are 420.69 trillion coins in existence, and $PEPE has trended with millions of tweets.

The current level of engagement around $PEPE is probably not organic. A large portion of its traffic appears bot-driven.

Still, Pepe Coin is the splashiest memecoin crypto has seen in a while. Someone with deep pockets and promotional savvy is working hard to create massive amounts of attention for the project.

Like Doogecoin, a cottage industry of derivative frog-coins has popped up to ride the coattails of $PEPE’s publicity.

Pepe the Frog is one of the most powerful memes ever.

It’s somewhat of a mystery we went this long without having a Pepe-themed crypto.

But Pepe is also complicated. For Pepe Coin to ascend the ranks of memecoins, go mainstream, and challenge Dogecoin as king memecoin, Pepe will have to shed some baggage from its past.

The Tao of Pepe

Recent events have pushed Pepe to the digital underground, but that could be changing. To understand why, you have to look at Pepe’s history.

Like Doge, Pepe began as a sincere artistic creation, not a meme.

In 2005, cartoonist Matt Furie created a comic called Boys Club. A 2008 cartoon shows one of its characters, Pepe the Frog, urinating with his pants around his ankles. Pepe later explains, “feels good man,”

The line became a meme which circulated on various message boards. It was especially popular on MySpace and 4chan.

Something about the Pepe meme struck a chord.

One theory is that Pepe was a funny way to communicate Internet sadness.

At a time when social media sites like Facebook and Instagram incentivized people to present manicured versions of their lives, Pepe became a counter-symbol for authentic emotion.

As it grew, Pepe took on a life of his own. Eventually, Pepe migrated from the Internet’s depths to its surface.

A big moment came in November 2014, when pop star Katy Perry tweeted a Pepe meme.

A month later, Rapper Nicki Minaj made a Pepe post on her Instagram.

The following year, a group of 4chan users began to associated Pepe with Donald Trump, then in the first weeks of his Presidential campaign.

In October 2015, Trump acknowledged the connection by tweeting a Pepe-stylized version of himself.

Trump used the Pepe meme to connect with the online segment of his supporters

Around the same time, variations of the Pepe meme began to pop up online linking to themes of white power, Nazi Germany, and the KKK.

In response, the ADL and SPLC called the meme a “hate symbol,” “alt-right,” and “white supremacist.”

Pepe quickly became contested territory in the culture war. Trump supporters rejected the media’s characterizations and embraced Pepe.

The ADL later acknowledged that most Pepe memes were “not bigoted in nature,” but by then the impression had solidified for many that Pepe was inherently hateful.

In 2016, Donald Trump Jr posted meme based on a movie poster from The Expendables to Instagram in reference to Hillary Clinton’s description of Trump voters as a “Basket of Deplorables”

Today, some may still use Pepe with intent to sow negativity, but the reality is more complicated.

For example, in 2019-2020 Hong Kong Protests, Pepe was used as a symbol of Democracy and resistance.

In crypto, Pepe has a history as one of the earliest NFT collections ever: Rare Pepes were minted on the Bitcoin blockchain in 2016.

A Satoshi Nakamoto Rare Pepe sold for $500,000 in 2021, while “Homer Pepe” went for over $300,000.

According to Jordan Peterson, Pepe is a symbol of change.

The idea of transformation is implicit in the frog’s biology, as it progresses from tadpole to frog.

This characteristic makes the frog a potent archetype. The best example is the fairytale of the Frog Prince: once kissed, the ugly frog morphs into a handsome prince.

To this day, Pepe still circulates on Twitter.

Often, it is a wholesome meme used to convey primitive emotions.

A lot of Pepe memes are uplifting, and a few are profound.

Others are surreal.

Pepe still maintains a connection to Trump, an association the creators of Pepe Coin play up with their red “Make Memecoins Great Again” hat.

Whether someone thinks its possible for a Trump supporter to tweet a Pepe meme in a non-hateful way says more about their beliefs than it does about Pepe the Frog.

Like the sound of a tree falling in the woods, the ultimate meaning of Pepe is dependent on its observer.

If any meme can challenge Doge as the basis for digital money, it’s Pepe.

For some reason, the people behind the Pepe Coin advertising campaign are deciding to shoot their shot now.

Let’s take a look at how Pepe Coin actually stacks up to Doge.

Dog Money vs. Frog Tokens

Pepe Coin openly advertises its goal to unseat Doge and become the world’s leading memecoin.

Here’s why $PEPE has its work cut out for it as a challenger to Doge’s throne.

1. Utility

Most cryptocurrencies are useless. Only a few solve real-world problems.

Dogecoin’s innovation is that it is decentralized digital cash: it allows fast and cheap digital transactions; is people-owned and -run; and possesses an amazing brand.

Many corporations already accept Dogecoin as money. Tesla, AMC, Gucci, various sports teams, and an ecosystem of small online merch vendors all exchange real goods and services for dog money.

At some point in the future, a group of merchants could adopt Pepe as digital cash to generate publicity, but for now it’s just a highly speculative investment.

The official website for Pepe Coin explains its value proposition in these terms: “$PEPE is a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return. There is no formal team or roadmap. the coin is completely useless and for entertainment purposes only.”

Pepe is fun. Doge is fun and useful. Advantage: Dogecoin

2. Community

Community is everything.

If enough people believe a project will succeed, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Dogecoin community has a track record of a decade continued support. Despite ups and downs, a growing group remain united around dogs, memes, and building a new financial system through Doge.

The Pepe meme has a similarly devoted following, which is what makes $PEPE different from most other memecoins.

Right now, though, the Pepe Coin community consists of a few big Twitter accounts, a website, a bot-driven hype campaign, and a bunch of Twitter users waiting for the next big pump.

Pepe should not be underestimated, but Doge has history on its side. Advantage: Dogecoin

3. Intangibles

Elon Musk is firmly in Dogecoin’s corner.

His support for Doge hasn’t wavered for two years. He’s pioneered Doge adoption by accepting it for payments with Tesla, SpaceX, and The Boring Company.

Elon liked a tweet hinting that Doge will prevail

Pepe Coin doesn’t have anyone of Elon’s caliber to represent it.

Right now, the biggest coup for $PEPE has been a wave of crypto exchanges announcing they’ll list the coin.

However, because they’ll likely profit from Pepe Coin mania, their support should be understood as a business decision.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said it will list $PEPE last week

There is one thing Pepe Coin has that Doge doesn’t: an AI Drake song.

Advantage: Dogecoin

The Tao of Doge

Overall, Pepe Coin could be fun, entertaining, and even profitable for early investors. The power of the Pepe meme should not be underestimated.

In 2021, Shiba Inu Coin briefly pumped to a $40B market cap. Who’s to say Pepe Coin can’t do something similar?

In the long run, meme coins are a casino, and the game is usually rigged for the house.

Doge is the stronger project. $PEPE will enjoy its time in the sun, but Dogecoin is inevitable.

Dogey Treats: News Bites

OwnTheDoge NFT project and other Doge community members sponsored a pilgrimage to Japan to meet Kabosu, the original Doge. It looks like the trip was epic!

@cb_doge paid 3 Doge to visit Twitter HQ.

Thank You!

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Memes of the Week

sometimes Doge and Pepe go together

It’s ALL Risky!

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Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor. The article above references an opinion for entertainment purposes only and it is not investment advice. Always assume that the author of the article is actively trading and that the opinions expressed may be biased towards the author’s holdings. Do your own research and consult with a licensed financial adviser before making any investment decision. Do not treat any opinion expressed in this newsletter as a specific inducement to make a particular investment. Content, news, research, tools, and securities symbols are for educational and illustrative purposes only and do not imply a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell a particular security or cryptocurrency or to engage in any particular investment strategy. The information provided is not warranted as to completeness or accuracy and is subject to change without notice. The projections or other information regarding the likelihood of various investment outcomes are hypothetical in nature, are not guaranteed for accuracy or completeness, do not reflect actual investment results and are not guarantees of future results. All investments involve risk, losses may exceed the principal invested, and the past performance of a security, industry, sector, market, cryptocurrency, or financial product does not guarantee future results or returns. Dogecoin is a speculative and highly volatile asset susceptible to pump-and-dump schemes.

At the time of publication, Dogecoin is around $0.07 per coin.