{"id":6816,"date":"2021-03-05T09:40:48","date_gmt":"2021-03-05T14:40:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/?p=6816"},"modified":"2021-05-21T09:46:22","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T13:46:22","slug":"crypto-pepes-what-does-the-frog-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/2021\/03\/05\/crypto-pepes-what-does-the-frog-meme","title":{"rendered":"Crypto Pepes: What does the frog meme?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>When BarnBridge founder Tyler Ward decided to change his profile pic a few weeks ago, he inadvertently created a Pepe the Frog NFT meme craze embraced by celebrities and the DeFi community that was on track to reap more than $60 million in sales on the OpenSea auction platform. <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Then the wheels fell off rather spectacularly. Magazine chats with Ward on Monday, Feb. 22, after the first 20 of 1,069 Non-Fungible Pepes were sold at an average price of $62,671 each, and he can\u2019t quite believe it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe sold like $1.3M worth of Pepes, like 20 of them,&#8221; he says. &#8220;One of them went for $200,000!\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAll these celebrities have gotten involved \u2014 like Diplo, just signed up to be a part of the movement. Everyone in crypto is a part of it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAll the Defi protocol founders, even Vitalik\u2019s dad, got behind it. Dillon Francis, he&#8217;s a pretty famous musician in the US, he\u2019s actually been going pretty hard on all of this stuff. I wasn&#8217;t expecting it. I mean, it\u2019s truly blown up over the weekend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">30 min left on a bunch of these <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NonFungiblePepe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@NonFungiblePepe<\/a> GET IN THERE  <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uQcWJhv355\">https:\/\/t.co\/uQcWJhv355<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Tthj8rM5Mp\">pic.twitter.com\/Tthj8rM5Mp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; dillonfrancis (@DillonFrancis) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DillonFrancis\/status\/1363211316140236800?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 20, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Origins lost in the mists of time<\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Way back on Feb. 12, Ward asked his in-house designer to knock up an image of sad-faced frog Pepe in the low-res style of CryptoPunks for use as his Twitter profile pic. Handed a few different examples, he sent them off to friends including Synthetix founder Kain Warwick and illustrator and art collector Tim Pang.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cEverybody\u2019s just like \u2018You gotta do this, this is really fun,\u2019\u201d he says. Of course, while Pepe is a beloved crypto meme, it\u2019s also widely associated by \u201cnormies\u201d with racism and sexism and the alt-right edgelords from the badlands of 4chan. This pisses Ward off.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6820\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-1024x286.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-1024x286.png 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-300x84.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-770x215.png 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-1536x430.png 1536w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-2048x573.png 2048w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-750x210.png 750w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-1-1140x319.png 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI mean we\u2019re all pretty progressive. The Ethereum community is not alt right, but we very much have grown a fondness for this frog,\u201d he says, adding: \u201cThe frog\u2019s background was never alt right. We were using it in crypto way before the alt right was.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In its OpenSea listing, the project <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/opensea.io\/assets\/nfp?search[sortAscending]=false&amp;search[sortBy]=LAST_SALE_DATE\" class=\"broken_link\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">said<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it was explicitly about trying to help rehabilitate the melancholy frog\u2019s Nazi image:<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe are here to reclaim the humor of the meme through our shared love for NFTs and having some fun. If our Pepes are used for racism, bigotry, or anything terrible\u2026 we will shame you and Kek will have vengeance on your soul.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward says he was inspired by Tyler Winklevoss\u2019 idea that Bitcoin is actually a social network, inspiring millions to spread the gospel of Bitcoin by enabling them to share in its value.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI thought: what is the best way you can get everybody to band around the idea that Pepe is not racist? If we mint a bunch of them and give them some degree of value, then people will want them for more than just a profile picture. It creates a digital scarcity and I think that as a result of that they\u2019ll care about what they own and they\u2019ll care about trying to clean up the image of what it represents. Let\u2019s make the movement about taking Pepe back.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite having zero marketing budget and no time to even set up a website, the NFT Pepes meme took off across social media, with 2,000 members <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/discord.com\/channels\/811726012013871174\/811726012013871181\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pouring into<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the hastily thrown-together Discord channel and almost 5,000 following the new Twitter account.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI started this as a joke. I was trying to change my Twitter profile picture. But that anti racism message really resonated because I\u2019m not the only person in crypto apparently, who thought Pepe was cool, and thought it was messed up that we couldn\u2019t use them because of racist people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6821\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-1024x286.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"286\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-1024x286.png 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-300x84.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-770x215.png 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-1536x430.png 1536w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-2048x573.png 2048w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-750x210.png 750w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/pepes-2-1140x319.png 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There was just one slight problem: Ward was not aware that the meme frog even had a creator, or that artist Matt Furies\u2019 life has been all but <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/politics\/archive\/2016\/09\/its-not-easy-being-green\/499892\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ruined<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by alt-right edgelords appropriating his frog, as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.feelsgoodmanfilm.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">outlined<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in the excellent new documentary <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Feels Good Man<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This became clear when Galaxy Digital\u2019s Mike Novogratz tweeted about the insane $210,000 (110 ETH) price that one of the NFPs (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/opensea.io\/assets\/0xf198046ed564a0ce6785eb5f4ce205cb8194efe2\/38\" class=\"broken_link\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PepeIsLyfe #38<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) went for, and the documentary makers pointed out that the \u201cknock-off\u201d Pepe had brought in almost as much as the film\u2019s entire budget.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In case there was any doubt&#8230;not an official sanctioned Pepe. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a rather absurd moment in time that a knock off jpg can sell for the cost of making an entire documentary about the actual meme. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/rUFFDweN3D\">https:\/\/t.co\/rUFFDweN3D<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Feels Good Man &#8211; the doco about that frog meme (@feelsgoodmandoc) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/feelsgoodmandoc\/status\/1363682032321064961?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">February 22, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Non-Fungible Pepe Twitter account quickly posted it was halting all sales while the team frantically tried to get in touch with Furie to seek his blessing. That blessing was not forthcoming.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI asked him if he wanted to be involved and he said \u2018no I don\u2019t and I also don\u2019t want you using Pepe,\u2019\u201d Ward explains via WhatsApp earlier this week. \u201cSo instead of seeing how I could maximize profit and be a jerk, I refunded sales to people who felt slighted and I did what Matt asked me to do.\u201d Within a few days, they\u2019d refunded 80% of the $1.8 million worth of WETH taken in the auctions.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ward believes that legally speaking, the project was on solid ground. \u201cI don\u2019t think Matt\u2019s legal position is very sound but it came down to me respecting him as an artist and the hell Pepe has put him through and I don\u2019t want to be a part of either ripping someone off even if it\u2019s 2% their work what made this successful or 200%.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAt the end of the day, the more I learned since starting this, that frog has made his life a living hell and had I known that starting this I wouldn\u2019t have done it,\u201d he admits. The project has since been transformed into <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kekdao\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Non-Fungible Universe<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, with 69 original characters and its own currency called KEK.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6819 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-1024x339.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"339\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-1024x339.png 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-300x99.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-770x255.png 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-1536x508.png 1536w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-750x248.png 750w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3-1140x377.png 1140w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed3.png 1600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Pepe\u2019s past<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pepe the Frog began life innocently enough in Furies\u2019 2005 comic book series \u201cBoy\u2019s Club\u201d as a laid back frog with the catchphrase \u201cfeels good man.\u201d Sure, there was psychedelia and drugs and stuff, but Pepe was a good guy, and Furie would post the comics to his MySpace page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Memes featuring Pepe then became widespread on MySpace, Tumblr and 4chan. Over the next nine years, the frog\u2019s popularity grew to the point where influencers were doing Pepe makeup videos and mainstream pop stars like Katy Perry and Nicky Minaj were tweeting out the meme. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<script>(function() {\n\twindow.mc4wp = window.mc4wp || {\n\t\tlisteners: [],\n\t\tforms: {\n\t\t\ton: function(evt, cb) {\n\t\t\t\twindow.mc4wp.listeners.push(\n\t\t\t\t\t{\n\t\t\t\t\t\tevent   : evt,\n\t\t\t\t\t\tcallback: cb\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t);\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t}\n\t}\n})();\n<\/script><!-- Mailchimp for WordPress v4.8.6 - https:\/\/wordpress.org\/plugins\/mailchimp-for-wp\/ --><form inert id=\"mc4wp-form-1\" class=\"mc4wp-form mc4wp-form-5517 mc4wp-ajax\" method=\"post\" data-id=\"5517\" data-name=\"JNEWS style form\" ><div class=\"mc4wp-form-fields\"><div class=\"jeg_mc4wp_heading\">\r\n  <h3>The best of blockchain, every Tuesday<\/h3>\r\n  <p>Subscribe for thoughtful explorations and leisurely reads from Magazine.<\/p>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\n<p>\r\n    <input type=\"email\" name=\"EMAIL\" placeholder=\"Email address...\" required \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" />\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    <input type=\"submit\" value=\"SUBSCRIBE\" \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" />\r\n<\/p><br>\r\nBy subscribing you agree to our <a href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/terms-and-privacy\" target=\"_blank\">Terms of Service and Privacy Policy<\/a><\/div><label style=\"display: none !important;\">Leave this field empty if you're human: <input type=\"text\" name=\"_mc4wp_honeypot\" value=\"\" tabindex=\"-1\" autocomplete=\"off\" \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" /><\/label><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_timestamp\" value=\"1634259449\" \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_form_id\" value=\"5517\" \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" /><input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_mc4wp_form_element_id\" value=\"mc4wp-form-1\" \ placeholder="disabled" disabled="disabled" title="form boxes are disabled in cached version of the site" value="Disabled" style="opacity:0.3;" /><div class=\"mc4wp-response\"><\/div><\/form><!-- \/ Mailchimp for WordPress Plugin -->\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to The Daily Beast, in 2015, the anon army from one of 4chan\u2019s more out there forums, \/R9k\/, decided to reclaim Pepe from the normies by pushing them away with a barrage of edgy Pepe memes featuring \u201cironic\u201d racist, homophobic and antisemitic stuff. A member of the board tweeting as \u201cJaredTSwift\u201d told the news outlet: \u201cWe basically mixed Pepe in with Nazi propaganda, etc. We built that association.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The joke became less and less ironic as Donald Trump campaigned for the presidency and Pepe became the house mascot of MAGA and white nationalists. Remember that whole \u201cpunch a nazi\u201d meme? That <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/the-intersect\/wp\/2017\/01\/23\/a-step-by-step-guide-to-a-meme-about-punching-a-nazi-in-the-face\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">began<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> when alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer was punched in the face on camera while trying to explain the meaning of his Pepe badge. That same year, the Anti-Defamation League listed Pepe as a hate symbol, even though it explicitly pointed out:<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe majority of uses of Pepe the Frog have been, and continue to be, non-bigoted.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ADL launched a #savepepe campaign with creator Matt Furie, who said: \u201cAs the creator of Pepe, I condemn the illegal and repulsive appropriations of the character by racist and fringe groups. The true nature of Pepe, as featured in my comic book, \u2018Boys Club,\u2019 celebrates peace, togetherness and fun. I aim to reclaim the rascally frog from the forces of hate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-6822 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed5-300x298.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"298\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed5-300x298.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed5-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed5-75x75.png 75w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed5.png 736w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Rare Pepes were the original NFTs<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4chan also had a hand in how Rare Pepes, essentially the original NFTs, came about. They trace their origins to a 2015 inside joke about an autistic kid who would exchange Good Boy Points for chicken tendies. Then people started exchanging Rare Pepes for tendies, which led to the idea that Rare Pepes had value.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This inspired some people to create unique tokens on the Counterparty platform to represent ownership of Rare Pepe trading cards, which were traded for PepeCash. Interestingly, rules were brought in to ensure content was original and didn\u2019t relate to alt-right, white supremacist or pro-Donald Trump content.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pepe trading enthusiast Django Bates <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailydot.com\/unclick\/rare-pepe-frog-meme-economy\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">told<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the Daily Dot at the time: \u201cMost of the community don\u2019t think Pepe is an alt-right thing. Some (like me) think that we should Make Pepe Great Again and free him of that connotation.\u201d He adds further: \u201cAlso, you have to be aware that Pepe as a symbol of hate and racism by alt-rights is a merely North American thing. The rest of the world does not see Pepe in that context.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-6824\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed4-1-243x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"243\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed4-1-243x300.png 243w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed4-1.png 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 243px) 100vw, 243px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rare Pepe Wallet was set up as a platform to trade the tokens, with the phenomenon <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/ev57p4\/i-went-to-the-first-live-auction-for-rare-pepes-on-the-blockchain\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">culminating<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in a<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">live auction in 2018 that saw a Homer Pepe sell for around $38,500 in Pepe Cash. In an interesting postscript, earlier this week on March 1, owner Peter Lamborghini resold it for 205 ETH, or almost $300,000.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">In art news: The reputed &quot;rarest pepe&quot; sold for 205 ETH (approximately $295k USD) according to its owner. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/pQOvTOw6ZI\">https:\/\/t.co\/pQOvTOw6ZI<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Travis View (@travis_view) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/travis_view\/status\/1366238406682894339?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 1, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4>Chainlink frog army<\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The association of Chainlink, the ninth-largest cryptocurrency project, with Pepe is thanks to 4chan\u2019s <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">slightly<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> less awful \/Biz\/ forum, which features a deep vein of dank meme-powered crypto shilling. It was here that a Q-style prophet\/insider named Assblaster <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">dropped<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> hints and clues about LINK in the early days, claiming both that he was under an NDA and also dropping large amounts of free alpha about the project into the forum.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhen Chainlink started doing well it just became this cultish prophecy of 4chan, and 4chan really likes Pepe the frog so it was kind of this merger,\u201d says Ward. \u201cA lot of people that posted about Chainlink would post with Pepe the Frog and they kind of became intertwined.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/chainlinkecosystem.com\/ranks\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LINK Marine<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Albert Nazarov, who spends around four hours per day reading and tweeting about Chainlink, discovered the currency via 4chan.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThings like racism and sexism etc are prevalent,\u201d he concedes. \u201cBut ironically, 4chan is basically a crucible of raw thoughts, the best and balanced make it to the top. It\u2019s almost anything goes there, and it trains the brain to decipher good info from bad stuff.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-6825\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2-1024x658.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2-1024x658.png 1024w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2-300x193.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2-770x495.png 770w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2-750x482.png 750w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed2.png 1082w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nazarov says that for a while there, Pepe was \u201cbad for our optics,\u201d so the community tried to distance itself by dressing up as \u201cLINK gentlemen in suits etc.\u201d However, Pepe just cuts through better.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe main power of Pepe is relatability,\u201d he says, pointing out that the character is humanoid enough to express emotion but cartoonish and abstract enough to make great memes. And great memes helped supercharge Chainlink.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt no longer bears alt right connotations in my opinion,\u201d he concludes, while pointing out further:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cOracles and decentralised middleware is not sexy and it\u2019s quite laborious to read about. Whilst a Pepe meme spreads the same message to a wider audience. It\u2019s basically the distillation of knowledge into a relatable form. A five-year-old could understand LINK through a meme for example.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6826\" src=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"400\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed1.png 400w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed1-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/unnamed1-75x75.png 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Synthetix founder Kain Warwick \u2014 currently sporting a Non-Fungible Pepe profile pic \u2014 says he doesn\u2019t detect any trace of alt-right thought among the frog army.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThey\u2019re all Chainlink memes, they\u2019re very Chainlink focused,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I don\u2019t think that there\u2019s a particular sort of alt right bent to the Chainlink community. I just think that they\u2019ve taken that meme as a funny meme.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But he adds there had been a long debate in the Synthetix Discord about the use of Pepe on social media \u2014 about whether the crypto community has been able to reclaim the frog. And they\u2019d come to the conclusion it has.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"pullquote align-center\"><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI think there is a bit of co-option of those images and reusing them for crypto memes and personally I\u2019m a fan of that. The Pepe meme was co-opted by the alt right so for it to be re co-opted by some other group and used in different contexts I think is a powerful way of undermining those sorts of things.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThe frog\u2019s background was never alt right. We were using it in crypto way before the alt right was.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":6817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[2838,2841,2842,2797,2839,2836,2837,2840],"yst_prominent_words":[818],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6816"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7830,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6816\/revisions\/7830"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6816"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=6816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}