{"id":8192,"date":"2023-05-13T10:18:11","date_gmt":"2023-05-13T14:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/investing\/pepe-the-frog-memecoin-prompts-coinbase-apology-we-screwed-up\/"},"modified":"2023-05-13T10:18:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-13T14:18:11","slug":"pepe-the-frog-memecoin-prompts-coinbase-apology-we-screwed-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=8192","title":{"rendered":"Pepe the Frog Memecoin Prompts Coinbase Apology: \u2018We Screwed Up\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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There are reasons to think the latest mania over memecoins\u2014highly volatile cryptocurrencies based largely on internet jokes\u2014bodes well for the business of Coinbase Global, but the broker has gotten itself in hot water over one token.<\/p>\n

\n Dogecoin
\n and
\n Shiba Inu
\n \u00a0are the most familiar memecoins. The former is the eighth-largest digital asset by market capitalization, but a new name has taken crypto markets by storm: Pepe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Pepe references the Pepe the Frog meme, which has a checkered cultural reputation. The Anti-Defamation League has named the Pepe the Frog meme a hate symbol, though it has also noted that the character didn\u2019t initially have racist connotations and that many uses of the meme continue to be nonbigoted.<\/p>\n

\n Coinbase
\n (ticker: COIN) tried to make just that point this week. In research explaining Pepe\u2019s rise, it noted that the meme, which surfaced almost two decades ago, has \u201cbeen co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups.\u201d People on Twitter, an influential platform for crypto folks, didn\u2019t like it, with the critical research prompting anger against Coinbase<\/a> and even calls to boycott the exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoinbase is refusing to list the Pepe coin, claiming it\u2019s a hate symbol of the alt right. This is the same company notorious for listing absolute [expletive] tokens all of 2020-2022,\u201d wrote one account, Autism Capital<\/a>, which has some 220,000 followers on Twitter.<\/p>\n

The frog meme mini-scandal even elicited a mea culpa from Paul Grewal, Coinbase\u2019s chief legal officer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe screwed up and we are sorry,\u201d Grewal said on Twitter Thursday<\/a>. \u201cYesterday we shared an overview of the Pepe meme coin to provide a fact-based picture of a trending topic. This did not provide the whole picture of the history of the meme and we apologize to the community.\u201d <\/p>\n

Pepe has taken off since its launch in April. It was listed on OKX, a major crypto exchange, on May 1, and Binance, the world\u2019s largest crypto exchange, began handling it on May 5. That has channeled liquidity into the market.<\/p>\n

Pepe\u2019s trading volumes have at times dwarfed that of much larger peers like Dogecoin in recent weeks, according to the data provider CoinGecko. The token\u2019s market capitalization soared to a peak of $1.8 billion after it was listed on Binance, landing it among the top 100 cryptos by market value. <\/p>\n

While the rally has cooled, taking the market cap below $550 million\u2014Pepe\u2019s price fell 19% Friday as a slide in Bitcoin dragged many coins lower\u2014there are few indications the frenzy is over. Recent declines appear to be profit-taking by early investors, and signs remain that crypto \u201cwhales\u201d\u2014influential market participants\u2014are wading in.<\/p>\n

Write to Jack Denton at jack.denton@barrons.com<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n