Pepe's big rebound: A look at the genealogy of frog-themed memes and the culture behind them

Author: Deep Tide TechFlow

With BTC stabilizing, the Meme sector, which had been quiet for a while, has finally started to rebound, with the leading Memecoin $Pepe at the forefront. This time, many "family members" are also rebounding alongside $Pepe.

This year, the popularity of Memecoins continues to spread, and a single Pepe can no longer satisfy the market's speculative needs. Thus, various little frogs previously grouped under the name Pepe have been individually selected by the market and transformed into various new Memecoins.

Deep Tide TechFlow has compiled a list of the currently popular tokens from the Pepe family, helping you gain a deeper understanding of the native frog Meme cultural system.

Keep this Pepe family tree handy, just in case the "frog market" comes one day.

PS: Since the market has yet to reach a consensus on the image of the Pepe family, the projects mentioned in this article are the ones with the highest current popularity on Twitter.

Choose your hero to start losing money

Pepe

Official Twitter: https://x.com/pepecoineth

Contract Address:

0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933

As the most classic character of frog Meme culture, $Pepe is also the first frog Memecoin to gain popularity in the crypto space, to be honest, it even exceeded most people's expectations. The wealth story of Pepecoin needs no elaboration; tracing back to the background of Meme culture, Pepe is the earliest character of the frog family, created by cartoonist Matt Furie. Pepe first appeared in Furie's comic "Boy's Club" in 2005, and later became popular among users of the 4chan forum, gradually turning into a widely spread Meme on 4chan.

Now, Pepe has become a well-known IP in the crypto world that cannot be ignored. From its birth to becoming a dominant Memecoin, the market attention on $Pepe took less than a year.

Homonymous Token Pepecoin

Official Twitter: https://x.com/pepecoins

Contract Address:

0xA9E8aCf069C58aEc8825542845Fd754e41a9489A

Additionally, after the explosive rise of $Pepe last year, many homonymous tokens emerged to ride the wave. Among them, $Pepecoin seems not just a simple hype. In its official article, the team mentioned that they had planned to launch a homonymous virtual currency with the Pepe image as early as 2016, but due to various reasons, they were unable to implement it successfully. It wasn't until 2023, when $Pepe gained mainstream attention, that the team's enthusiasm was reignited, and they followed suit with their token launch. The "legitimacy" of the issuance rights for the "frog Pepe" IP seems to have always been a topic of debate.

According to my investigation, $Pepecoin has a relatively large pool. When $Pepe skyrocketed at the beginning of the year, $Pepecoin also surged, and it has not gone to zero yet (though it has already been halved).

However, it is evident that the market is no longer satisfied with speculating on a single frog Meme. The wealth effect and IP influence brought by $Pepe have already spread to other frog Meme images.

Smug Pepe

It is worth mentioning that due to the slow penetration of frog Meme culture compared to the speculative speed of the crypto market, Smug Pepe has also been used as the icon for the $Pepe token. Even now, the official Twitter of Pepecoin still uses Smug Pepe as its avatar, reflecting that most people are not very concerned about the nuances of the segmented frog culture; the specifics of which frog is depicted are not the key points that the speculative market cares about.

After searching around, I found that there is currently no unified consensus on the speculation of the Smug Pepe image. The existing Twitter accounts related to Smug Pepe are diverse, and the Memecoin pool is shallow with poor liquidity, posing significant participation risks. Interested readers can delve deeper and stay updated.

MonkaS

Project Twitter: https://x.com/MonkasErc20

Contract Address:

0xdc7ac5d5d4a9c3b5d8f3183058a92776dc12f4f3

MonkaS originated from Twitch TV as a derivative emoji of the Pepe image, and its meaning is "shocked sweating Pepe," typically used during tense moments in gaming streams.

As the image closest to Pepe, MonkaS has also been brought out early on as an independent IP for speculation. I also learned from seeing someone mention CX MonkaS that it is not considered the same image as the original Pepe in terms of Meme culture. (This can also be seen as a reflection of Memecoins' role in the dissemination of Meme culture.)

Apustaja (Apu)

Project Twitter: https://x.com/ApusCoin

Contract Address:

0x594daad7d77592a2b97b725a7ad59d7e188b5bfa

The rough-style young frog Apustaja is also one of the popular frog Meme images. Since its debut in 2016, it has gained immense popularity (I also like it a lot). The internet has gradually produced many Meme images featuring Apustaja, and people enjoy projecting their real-life experiences onto this character. It is common to see Apustaja appearing in various real-world scenarios, and many crypto projects favor creating Memes themed around Apustaja.

Currently, $Apu has been listed on the Bybit exchange.

Ashbie

Project Twitter: https://x.com/ashbiemooncoinx

Contract Address:

0x789E29153A3c5E6598368716f8C146B5eBEfF969

Speaking of Apu, we must mention Apu's girlfriend Ashbie. At some point, netizens arranged a cute girlfriend for the popular character Apu named Ashbie. Various Meme images of Apu and Ashbie dating have gradually appeared online, and this slightly contrasting combination does not feel uncomfortable; instead, it seems surprisingly fitting? Apu and Ashbie have also been regarded by netizens as the representative image of the "This could be us" pure love meme.

It is worth mentioning that before the launch of the $Ashbie token, the Dev airdropped free tokens to users who left their addresses in the comments on Twitter, with the airdrop value nearing $2,500 at the peak of the token price.

Peepo

Project Twitter: https://x.com/PEEPOCOIN_ARMY

Contract Address:

0xaada04204e9e1099daf67cf3d5d137e84e41cf41

Peepo is also one of the young frogs in the Pepe family. Most people's recognition of Peepo likely comes from various emoji packs in WeChat (?)

As a member of the frog IP, the $Peepo token has maintained good community popularity since its launch, and the project team is relatively active on Twitter.

Currently, $Peepo has been listed on the Bitget exchange.

Groyper

Project Twitter: https://x.com/GroyperOnETH

Contract Address:

0x6942806d1b2d5886d95ce2f04314ece8eb825833

The Groyper image first appeared on the 4chan forum, and the specific reasons and references are still unclear (it just became popular through word of mouth). It is worth noting that this chin-supporting frog image is rarely used to represent "wisdom"; instead, it is more often used as a profile picture by far-right and new right groups or individuals on social networks.

Speculation is good, but protecting the principal is more important

After clarifying the differences among the members of the Pepe family, you will no longer feel the confusion of "it doesn't feel quite right, but I can't pinpoint exactly what's wrong" when encountering various Pepe memes.

However, most concept tokens of the Pepe family are still in the initial stage of wild growth and speculation, with insufficient consensus and poor liquidity, posing certain risks of Rug pulls. Please participate with caution.

There may be even more frog family Memecoins yet to be discovered.