Disaster Strikes For $PEPE: What Happened?

$PEPE, that beloved memecoin that brought a smile to so many faces during the bear market, has been the focal point of some troubling developments these past few days. Last Friday, news surfaced that approximately $15 million worth of the token had been transferred from the team’s multi-sig wallet, which was primarily designated for providing liquidity to CEXs.

This in itself was a cause for concern for holders, but that’s just where the story started.

What happened, and why? Is Pepe finished? If so, what will take its place?

A nEw Challenger to doge emerges

In case you need bringing up to speed, $PEPE rose to prominence this past April, capturing the attention of market participants who had endured over one year of bear market woes. Almost out of nowhere, PEPE emerged infecting everyone with a sense of much needed fun and levity. Twitter users swiftly embraced the trend, in turn giving the coin a meteoric rise through the sheer power of their memes. 

Everyone loves Pepe the Frog! Now everyone had yet another reason, as it had given so many some much needed profits in a brutal economic period.

A Steady Decline

However, PEPE’s fortunes dwindled, and its momentum eventually waned after breaking through a $1 billion marketcap. That said, even just last week it was maintaining a respectable $500 million MC. That was until August 25th, when a significant portion held by the token’s founders was transferred. More worrisome, the required number of signatures for the multi-sig wallet dropped from 8 to just 2.

Speculation ran wild, something not helped by the PEPE team taking a full day to acknowledge the issue with an announcement. You can read the lengthy announcement here in full, but as a TL;DR, here are the key points:

• The remaining 10 trillion tokens are secure
• The token movement and reduction in signatories resulted from “bad actors led by big egos and greed”
• The tokens sold were intended for donations and/or burning
• The reduction in signatories occurred as ex-team members sought to distance themselves from the project, before commencing to sell the “stolen” tokens on CEXs

All in all, it’s been nothing short of an unmitigated disaster for what was once an extremely promising movement. So, what’s next?

The Next $PEPE?

It will be extremely difficult to replicate what happened with PEPE. Instances where a coin or NFT collection capture the imagination of so many in such a short span are exceedingly rare. However, that hasn’t stopped us all searching for it!

The delightfully named “HarryPotterObamaSonic10Inu,” is a solid pick to take over the driving seat vacated by the green frog. Much like PEPE, HPOS10I boasts a relentlessly active community of memelords who tirelessly promote the community from dusk until dawn.

They also have an NFT collection, Sporto Gremlins: a collection of 3329 eye-catching PFPs which are currently sitting at just under a 1 ETH floor. The only drawback might be the relatively limited current attention outside of our little bubble here in Web3, something which Pepe managed to blast through. Although, this could change once crypto garners broader interest once again. They certainly have all the ingredients to do well.

(Full disclosure: I own no HPOS10I or Sprotos. I was too late on both, as is tradition.)

That said, PEPE could well rise from the ashes. With a market cap still at $369 million, not everyone seems to have given up hope. If the remaining team can navigate these challenges carefully, new all-time highs might be on the horizon once the bull market comes.