Pepe

What is Pepe (PEPE)?

Pepe is a meme coin themed on the internet frog character Pepe the Frog. It runs on Ethereum as an ERC-20 token and launched in April 2023. The project website calls it a meme coin with no intrinsic value or expectation of financial return, and describes the coin as being for entertainment.

The project says there is no formal team and no association with Matt Furie, the artist who created the original character. No individuals are named as founders, which means there is no identified company or issuer behind the token. That is a common pattern for meme coins but is worth knowing, because nobody is formally responsible for development or support.

What PEPE is used for

PEPE has no defined utility. It does not pay network fees, secure a blockchain, give governance rights over a product or entitle holders to revenue, so the coin is not a claim on any business or asset. It is bought, sold and held on exchanges and decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap, and its value comes from community interest and trading activity. Memes and social media attention drive much of that activity, which is why moves can be sudden and hard to explain.

PEPE supply and token design

PEPE has a fixed total supply of 420,690,000,000,000 tokens, which is 420.69 trillion, and the circulating, total and maximum supply are all the same number. The project states that:

• the token launched stealthily with no presale;
• liquidity pool tokens were burned;
• contract ownership was renounced; and
• there are no transaction taxes.

The Ethereum contract address shown on the official site is 0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933, and its code can be inspected on a block explorer. Versions of PEPE on other networks such as BNB Smart Chain, Arbitrum One and Avalanche are separate token deployments rather than the original Ethereum token. Live circulating supply is shown in the market data on this page.

What to check before using PEPE

• High volatility and no utility: with no product or cash flow behind it, the price depends almost entirely on sentiment and can fall as fast as it rises.
• Copycat tokens: many tokens use the Pepe name. Verify the contract address against the official site before buying or approving anything.
• No accountable team: there is no named team to support users, fix problems or communicate changes.
• Chain and bridge version: make sure you know which network your PEPE is on, since tokens on other chains are different contracts.