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On the Internet, memes have become ingrained. They have existed since the very beginning of Web1 and most likely will for a very long time to come. It shouldn’t be shocking that they’ve also gained popularity in the cryptocurrency market. Memecoins, in contrast to other coins, concentrate on becoming viral through the explosive nature of memes and their rapid dissemination. Over the last few weeks, the frog-themed memecoin, Pepe (PEPE), just became the new red hot memecoin with a similar early trajectory with its more established competitor Dogecoin.
What is Memecoin? How does it work?
Memecoins are essentially cryptocurrencies that draw their inspiration from Internet jokes and memes. For instance, the Doge meme that was based on a Shiba Inu viral photo served as the inspiration for Dogecoin. Meme coins have been existing for a while, but some credit the meme stock battle of late 2020, when the Reddit group WallStreetBets greatly elevated the value of GameStop’s shares, sparking the present surge. After that, a different group of Redditors made jokes about pumping up Dogecoin’s value in a similar manner, and the jokes spread.
These cryptocurrencies aren’t usually intended to be considered seriously, but they can nevertheless catch on when others in the community invest in the latest one to get in on the joke. Retail investors occasionally join the coin once its value has increased and spiked, which helps the coin gain even more traction. Prominent social media personalities and celebrities also increase the appeal of some meme coins. The person who is undoubtedly most well-known for this is Elon Musk. In fact, a branch of Dogecoin called Floki Inu is named after Musk’s actual pet dog.
PEPE Coin: Will it make memecoins great again?
The PEPE memecoin, according to its official website, is intended to be «the most memeable memecoin in existence». As the official website also states, it 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”. Besides, there’s no offiicial connection between this memecoin and Matt Furie, the creator of Pepe the Frog.
Even though the team is joking that it has no plans at all, it has established specific goals in the structure of three separate timeline phases, as are illustrated below:
Risks you might need to consider before investing in PEPE
It’s always a wise choice to pay extra cautions if you witness a coin explode so suddenly. Since its inception, PEPE has been among the most volatile cryptocurrencies, with huge price swings. For instance, on May 1st, it increased over 100% for the day, more than doubling its price. Although it may seem particularly alluring, there are a number of risks associated with this.
As mentioned before, PEPE inventors claimed that it had no intrinsic value, thus in essence, this coin is only worth what investors are willing to pay for it. Furthermore, criminals and hackers may try to profit from a memecoin’s popularity by shilling spoof websites or hacking associated wallets. There’s a message from the official PEPE Telegram group, for instance:
A few community members have reached out to us regarding dusting/token scams that are taking place in our deployer wallet as well as the CEX wallet. Anyone is able to spoof a transaction and send these tokens to our wallets. I would say that every single coin doing this is a SCAM. Lots of scam developers are dusting our wallets to make it look like we are airdropping or doing transactions with their tokens to trick people into interacting with them. Don’t buy any of these tokens or interact with the contracts, as they have the risk of draining your wallet.
In general, it’s imperative to follow some fundamental crypto security guidelines whenever you engage with the DeFi ecosystem to avoid being cheated.
Conclusion
In summary, the PEPE memecoin has succeeded in gaining attention in the current cryptocurrency market. However, even while celebrities like Elon Musk boosted the value of some of the most popular meme coins, we have seen that they often fail to maintain their value consistently. If this meme-inspired coin will survive, only time will tell.
