PEPE ( PEPE ) Price Live Chart

What is Pepe (PEPE)?

Pepe (PEPE) is an Ethereum-based meme coin launched on April 17, 2023 by an anonymous team, named after Pepe the Frog, the cartoon character artist Matt Furie created in 2005. It has no affiliation with Furie, no utility, no roadmap, and no development activity by design: its contract supports only basic transfers, ownership was renounced at launch, and 93.1% of its 420.69 trillion supply was placed in a liquidity pool whose LP tokens were burned. PEPE became a $1 billion asset within weeks of launch, hit an all-time high of about $0.0000282 in December 2024 with a market cap near $11.9 billion, and remains the largest frog-themed and third-largest meme coin overall. In 2026 it gained an unexpected institutional catalyst when Canary Capital filed an S-1 with the SEC on April 8 for the first spot PEPE ETF, with a decision deadline around December 2026. As of September 10, 2026, PEPE trades around $0.0000034–$0.0000038 with a market cap of roughly $1.4–1.6 billion, about 87% below its peak, supported by heavy whale accumulation and deep exchange liquidity.

Pepe at a Glance: Key Facts

What is Pepe? The Meme, the Coin, and the Difference

It is important to separate three things that share a name:

1. Pepe the Frog is a cartoon character created by Matt Furie in 2005. It is one of the most widely used reaction memes in internet history.

2. PEPE (the token) is an ERC-20 meme coin launched in April 2023 that borrowed the character's image and name without any license or affiliation.

3. "Pepe coins" more broadly are a category of hundreds of frog-themed tokens on multiple chains, most of them copycats of the original PEPE.

The original PEPE token's self-description at launch was explicit: "PEPE 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." That disclaimer, borrowed almost verbatim from Dogecoin and Shiba Inu culture, became the template for the 2023–2024 meme-coin cycle.

PEPE's stated mission was to "make memecoins great again" by rejecting the presales, transaction taxes, and insider allocations that had come to dominate the sector. It positioned itself as the anti-Dogecoin-and-Shiba: a frog rather than a dog, a fair launch rather than a mined or gifted supply, and pure culture rather than promised utility.

Pepe the Frog: Matt Furie, Boy's Club, and the Meme's History

Matt Furie drew Pepe as a laid-back anthropomorphic frog in his comic Boy's Club, first published in 2005. The character's "feels good man" catchphrase spread on MySpace and 4chan, and by the early 2010s Pepe was a universal reaction image: sad Pepe, smug Pepe, rare Pepes.

In 2016, Pepe was co-opted by political groups, and the Anti-Defamation League added certain Pepe variants to its hate-symbol database. Furie launched a "Save Pepe" campaign to reclaim the character, symbolically killed and resurrected him in comics, and pursued legal action against misuse. The 2020 documentary Feels Good Man chronicled this history.

Furie has no connection to the PEPE token. He has not endorsed it, does not receive any share of it, and the token makes no claim of association. This is a recurring point of confusion, and it is also a legal gray area that Canary Capital's ETF filing addresses as a risk factor. Earlier "Rare Pepe" trading cards on Bitcoin's Counterparty protocol (2016) are a separate, older crypto-Pepe tradition.

Who Created PEPE Coin? The Anonymous Team and the 2023 Rogue-Insider Incident

PEPE was deployed by an anonymous group. Subsequent reporting and legal filings have identified individuals alleged to be involved, but the project has never had a public, accountable team.

The most important governance event in PEPE's history occurred in August 2023. Three former team members with access to the 6.9% multisig wallet (the "CEX Wallet" reserved for exchange listings) moved about 16 trillion PEPE, or 3.8% of total supply, to exchanges in an apparent attempt to sell. The remaining founder regained control of the wallet, burned approximately 6.9 trillion PEPE (about 1.6% of supply), and reduced the multisig threshold. Canary Capital's 2026 S-1 recounts this episode as a disclosed risk.

Because the contract's ownership is renounced and its functions are minimal, no team action can alter supply, impose taxes, or freeze user funds. The 2023 incident affected only the reserve wallet, not holders' tokens.

History of PEPE: The 7,200x Trade and the Road to $11 Billion

April 14–17, 2023: Launch

The contract deployed on April 14 and trading opened on Uniswap on April 17. There was no presale, no influencer campaign, and no venture funding. Legend attaches to the first notable trade: a wallet swapped 0.125 ETH (about $250) for 5.9 trillion PEPE. Two days later those tokens were worth roughly $1.8 million, a 7,200x return that went viral on crypto Twitter.

May 2023: Binance Listing and $1 Billion

PEPE's market cap passed $1 billion in early May, less than three weeks after launch. Binance listed it on May 5, 2023, followed by most major exchanges. Ethereum gas fees spiked as retail piled in.

Mid-2023: First Crash and the Insider Incident

PEPE fell about 80% from its May high. The August 2023 rogue-team-member episode briefly shook confidence before the founder's burn stabilized sentiment.

2024: Meme-Coin Supercycle

PEPE rallied with the broader meme sector in March 2024, then surged in Q4 2024 as Bitcoin broke $100,000. Robinhood added PEPE in November 2024 and Coinbase followed. PEPE hit its all-time high of about $0.0000282 on December 9, 2024, with a market cap near $11.9 billion, briefly ranking in the top 20 cryptocurrencies.

2025: Contraction

The meme sector contracted through 2025. PEPE fell more than 70% from its peak, though it held its position as the largest frog coin and third-largest meme coin. Whale accumulation became a persistent theme.

2026: ETF Filing and Range Trading

PEPE rallied to interim highs in January 2026, retraced, and bottomed near $0.000003 in Q1. Canary Capital's April 8 ETF filing created a new narrative, and the token has traded between roughly $0.000003 and $0.000004 through September.

PEPE Tokenomics: Supply, Distribution, Burns, and Contract

Supply

• Total supply: 420,690,000,000,000 PEPE (420.69 trillion), a deliberate meme number.

• Circulating supply: Essentially all tokens are in circulation. There was never a vesting schedule.

• Inflation: None. The contract has no mint function.

Original Distribution

No team allocation, no presale, no investor round. The 6.9% reserve is the only supply not distributed through open-market trading, and part of it was burned in 2023.

Burns

The August 2023 burn of about 6.9 trillion PEPE (1.6% of supply) is the only significant deliberate burn. Additional tokens are effectively removed through a small blacklist of frozen addresses associated with the 2023 incident and through tokens sent to dead addresses by users. PEPE has no automatic burn mechanism.

Contract

The ERC-20 contract at 0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933 was finalized at launch and its ownership was renounced. It has no transaction tax, no mint, no pause, and no staking functions. Independent audits have confirmed its simplicity. Always verify this address, since thousands of imitation "PEPE" tokens exist on Ethereum, BNB Chain, Solana, and Base.

Holder Distribution

Canary Capital's S-1 notes over 250,000 unique wallets but warns of concentration: a small number of whale addresses hold a large share of supply. On-chain analytics in 2026 repeatedly flagged accumulation by these wallets during drawdowns.

Why PEPE has no utility (and Why That Is the Point)

CoinMarketCap's 2026 analysis summarizes PEPE's technical status bluntly: no commits, no upgrades, and no protocol changes from 2024 through 2026, with value derived entirely from liquidity and attention. This is not neglect; it is the design.

PEPE's proposition to holders is

1. No dilution risk: No team can mint, unlock, or vest tokens.

2. No rug-pull surface: Liquidity is permanently locked, and the contract cannot be modified.

3. No promises to break: Because nothing was promised, there is no roadmap to miss.

4. Pure cultural exposure: PEPE is a liquid claim on the internet's most recognizable meme character.

The trade-off is equally clear: PEPE's price has no fundamental anchor. It moves with meme-sector sentiment, Bitcoin risk appetite, whale positioning, and narrative catalysts such as exchange listings and, now, the ETF filing.

Unrelated projects have tried to attach utility to the brand. Pepe Unchained (2024) launched an Ethereum Layer-2 using the name, and Pepeto (2026) is a presale token promoted as being from an "original Pepe co-founder. " Neither is the PEPE token, and both compete with it for attention.

The Canary PEPE ETF: What the S-1 Says and Why It Matters

On April 8, 2026, Canary Capital Group filed a Form S-1 registration statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for the Canary PEPE ETF, the first regulated exchange-traded fund proposed to hold PEPE directly.

Structure

• Trust: A Delaware statutory trust established January 23, 2026, with CSC Delaware Trust Company as trustee.

• Mechanism: Creation and redemption in 10,000-share baskets, mirroring spot Bitcoin and Ether ETFs.

• Holdings: PEPE, plus up to 5% in ETH to cover Ethereum transaction costs.

• Access: Standard brokerage accounts, without wallets or self-custody.

Disclosed Risks

The S-1 documents PEPE's price history ($0.00000002763 low in April 2023 to $0.00002824 high in December 2024 to $0.000003585 on the filing date), the 2023 rogue-insider incident, whale concentration, and the absence of any affiliation with Matt Furie.

Timeline

The SEC has up to 240 days to review, placing a potential decision around December 2026. The regulator can request amendments, extend, or reject.

Why it is a sector-defining test?

Dogecoin ETFs were approved in part because of DOGE's decade-long history, commodity classification, and payments narrative. PEPE has none of these; it has liquidity, market cap, and memes. Crypto.news framed the filing as the answer to whether "pure memes alone" can meet ETF criteria. Approval would open the door to Shiba Inu and Solana meme-coin ETFs; rejection would cap the category at DOGE-like assets. Market reaction to the filing itself was muted: PEPE fell 4.58% the following day.

PEPE vs. Other Meme Coins

PEPE's distinguishing features are its fair-launch purity, its role as the flagship frog coin, and its 2026 ETF filing. Its main disadvantages are the absence of any ecosystem (unlike SHIB or BONK) and heavy whale concentration.

How to buy, store, and trade PEPE?

Where to Buy PEPE

• Centralized exchanges: Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, Gate, HTX, MEXC, Crypto.com, and Upbit.

• Decentralized exchanges: Uniswap on Ethereum (the original pool), plus bridged versions on Base and Arbitrum via aggregators.

Step-by-Step DEX Purchase

1. Fund MetaMask, Rabby, or Coinbase Wallet with ETH.

2. Open app.uniswap.org and connect.

3. Paste the verified contract address (0x6982...1933) to avoid imitations.

4. Set slippage at 0.5–1% (PEPE has deep liquidity and no tax).

5. Confirm and pay Ethereum gas.

How to Store PEPE

Any Ethereum wallet. Hardware wallets (Ledger, Trezor) via MetaMask are recommended for long-term holdings. Exchange custody is convenient for trading but carries counterparty risk.

Derivatives

PEPE perpetual futures are available on Binance, Bybit, OKX, and others with high leverage. Derivatives volume frequently exceeds spot.

PEPE Price History and Market Data

Informational only. Not financial advice.

Key Milestones

Market Structure (September 2026)

• Market cap: roughly $1.4–1.6 billion.

• Rank: third-largest meme coin behind DOGE and SHIB; largest frog coin.

• Drawdown from ATH: about 87%.

• Daily volume: typically $300–800 million, among the highest turnover of any meme coin.

• Key levels: support at $0.000003 (2026 base) and $0.0000026; resistance at $0.0000041 (50-day EMA), $0.0000055, and $0.000007.

• Technical posture (September 9): daily RSI 57 (neutral), hourly slightly bullish, Bitcoin dominance 58.4% limiting altcoin flows, Fear & Greed at 66.

What Drives PEPE's Price

PEPE is a high-beta expression of meme-sector sentiment and Bitcoin risk appetite; analysts note meme coins historically amplify Bitcoin's moves by three to five times in altcoin seasons. Whale accumulation has been the most consistent 2026 signal. The ETF decision is a binary catalyst that resurfaces whenever the SEC requests information. Competing frog tokens and presales periodically divert attention.

Latest PEPE News and Updates (2025–2026)

PEPE has no team, so its news consists of regulatory filings, on-chain flows, exchange activity, and market coverage. The following developments are ordered chronologically.

2025: Sector Contraction and Steady Whale Accumulation

Following the December 2024 peak, PEPE declined through 2025 alongside the broader meme sector, losing more than 70% of its value while retaining its rank as the third-largest meme coin. On-chain trackers documented recurring whale accumulation on dips, and PEPE stayed listed on every major exchange, distinguishing it from smaller memes that lost venues.

January 2026: Interim High and Retrace

PEPE led a meme-sector rally in January 2026, producing highs that subsequently retraced. Bitget's April analysis referenced PEPE "leading the sector, as it did in January 2026," as the template for a potential H2 recovery.

January 23, 2026: Canary PEPE ETF Trust Formed

Canary Capital Group and CSC Delaware Trust Company executed the trust agreement establishing the Canary PEPE ETF as a Delaware statutory trust, the legal groundwork for the later filing.

February 2026: Whales Buy 23 Trillion PEPE

On-chain data showed whale wallets accumulating 23.02 trillion PEPE during a 73% market-cap drawdown, a pattern CoinMarketCap described as classic contrarian accumulation while retail sentiment remained bearish.

April 8, 2026: Canary Capital Files S-1 for Spot PEPE ETF

Canary filed its registration statement with the SEC, proposing the first regulated fund to hold PEPE directly. Coverage from MEXC, Bitget, CoinMarketCap, and crypto.news emphasized the filing's significance as a test of whether a pure meme coin can qualify for an ETF. The S-1 disclosed PEPE's full volatility history and the 2023 insider incident. PEPE fell 4.58% the next day, and analysts noted the SEC had "shown no appetite for ETFs on purely speculative assets." Sygnum's Fabian Dori had predicted a surge in altcoin ETF filings through 2026, while Bitwise's Matt Hougan argued institutional capital now favors yield-bearing or revenue-generating assets, leaving open whether a PEPE ETF could attract institutional demand.

April–May 2026: Whale Accumulation Continues; Pepeto Presale Competes

Crypto.news reported whale wallets accumulating "at historic" levels through Q1–Q2. Simultaneously, Pepeto, a presale token marketed as coming from an original Pepe co-founder with high staking yields, drew attention and capital away from PEPE, a dynamic CoinMarketCap flagged as a competitive risk.

June 2026: CLARITY Act Delays

CoinMarketCap noted the U.S. CLARITY Act, which could accelerate altcoin ETF approvals, had stalled over stablecoin-yield disagreements, adding regulatory uncertainty to the PEPE ETF timeline.

Early July 2026: 16% Bounce and $7.5 Million in Whale Buys

PEPE posted a 16% single-day gain near the $0.000003 support as large holders added about $7.5 million in tokens and linked wallets accumulated more than 1.3 trillion PEPE. Datawallet's July 17 profile put the market cap near $1.15 billion, roughly 90% below peak.

Late August – September 2, 2026: 46% Weekly Rally

PEPE surged 46.5% in a week to $0.00000378 with a $1.59 billion market cap, printing a weekly bullish engulfing pattern that CoinGape interpreted as the end of a two-week correction. The move coincided with a broad early-September crypto rally led by Zcash and Arbitrum.

September 3–9, 2026: Pullback and Mixed Signals

PEPE retraced roughly 11% to about $0.0000034 as Bitcoin dominance rose to 58.4%. Cryptonomist's September 9 analysis characterized the daily chart as neutral (RSI 57), the hourly as mildly bullish, and the 15-minute as stalling, advising traders to wait for alignment. Some commentary warned of a possible 25% September drop toward $0.0000026 if support failed, while presale promoters (AlphaPepe, Apeing) used PEPE's volatility to market competing frog tokens.

What to Watch (Q4 2026)

• SEC action on the Canary PEPE ETF, with the 240-day window closing around December 2026.

• Whale wallet behavior, the most reliable 2026 signal.

• $0.0000041 and $0.0000055 resistance as confirmation of a trend change; $0.000003 as the line in the sand.

• Bitcoin dominance, which must fall for meme rotations to resume.

• CLARITY Act progress and its effect on altcoin ETF approvals.

• Competing frog tokens diluting attention.

PEPE Marketing, Community, and Cultural Activity

PEPE has no foundation, treasury, or marketing budget. Its visibility comes from five organic sources.

1. The Meme Itself

Pepe the Frog is arguably the most-used reaction image on the internet. Every use of the character, from sports fans to political commentators to crypto traders, is free marketing for the token. No other meme coin borrows a character with this level of pre-existing cultural saturation.

2. The Fair-Launch Origin Story

The 7,200x trade, the "make memecoins great again" slogan, and the no-presale, no-tax, no-team structure became a narrative that crypto media retells with every rally. Bitget's April 2026 profile is representative: PEPE's launch is presented as legend.

3. Influencer and Investor Advocacy

BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has publicly advocated PEPE. Crypto Twitter personalities regularly cite PEPE as the meme-sector bellwether, and "frog season" is a recurring narrative frame.

4. Exchange Distribution

PEPE is listed on virtually every major exchange, including Robinhood and Coinbase since late 2024, giving it retail reach that most memes lack. Exchanges feature PEPE in trading competitions and leveraged-product promotions.

5. The ETF Filing as Narrative Engine

Canary Capital's S-1 turned PEPE into a recurring headline. Each SEC procedural step, amendment, or extension regenerates coverage, and the "first meme ETF" framing has attracted attention from traditional financial media that previously ignored the token.

What PEPE Does Not Have

No official social accounts with accountable operators, no AMAs, no grants, no roadmap, no burn program, and no partnerships. Copycat projects (Pepe Unchained, Pepeto, AlphaPepe, Apeing) exploit the brand for their own presales; none are affiliated with the original PEPE.

Risks and Considerations for PEPE Holders

• 87% drawdown: PEPE remains far below its December 2024 peak with no fundamental floor.

• Whale concentration: Large holders that accumulated in 2026 can distribute just as quickly.

• ETF rejection risk: The SEC has never approved an ETF for a pure meme asset; rejection would remove the primary 2026 narrative.

• Intellectual-property ambiguity: The token uses Matt Furie's character without license; the S-1 lists this as a risk.

• Copycat dilution: Hundreds of frog tokens and presales fragment attention and liquidity.

• Sector dependence: PEPE amplifies Bitcoin and meme-sector moves in both directions.

• Leverage cascades: High derivatives volume produces liquidation-driven volatility.

• Historical governance incident: The 2023 insider sale demonstrates key-holder risk for the reserve wallet.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or legal advice.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is PEPE coin? 

An Ethereum meme coin launched April 17, 2023, named after Matt Furie's Pepe the Frog. It has no utility, team, or roadmap by design.

Who created PEPE? 

An anonymous team. Matt Furie, the character's creator, has no affiliation with the token.

What is the total supply of PEPE? 

420.69 trillion, essentially all in circulation, with about 1.6% burned in 2023.

Was there a PEPE presale? 

No. 93.1% of supply went to a Uniswap liquidity pool with burned LP tokens; 6.9% went to a multisig reserve for exchange listings.

What is PEPE's all-time high? 

About $0.0000282 on December 9, 2024, with a market cap near $11.9 billion.

What is PEPE's price in September 2026? 

Roughly $0.0000034–$0.0000038, with a market cap of $1.4–1.6 billion, about 87% below its peak.

Is there a PEPE ETF? 

Not yet. Canary Capital filed an S-1 with the SEC on April 8, 2026 for the first spot PEPE ETF. A decision is expected by around December 2026.

Can PEPE reach $0.01? 

At 420.69 trillion supply, $0.01 would imply a $4.2 trillion market cap, larger than the entire crypto market. It is not realistic.

Can PEPE reach $0.0001? 

That would require a $42 billion market cap, roughly 3.5x its all-time-high valuation. Possible only in an extreme mania.

What happened with PEPE's team in 2023? 

Three former team members moved 3.8% of supply from the reserve wallet to exchanges. The remaining founder regained control and burned 1.6% of supply.

Where can I buy PEPE? 

Suncrypto, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Robinhood, OKX, Bybit, and Uniswap, among others.

Does PEPE have staking? 

No. The contract has no staking function. Third-party "PEPE staking" offers are unaffiliated and risky.

Is PEPE deflationary? 

Not automatically. The only significant burn was the 2023 founder burn.

What is the PEPE contract address? 

0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933 on Ethereum.

What is the difference between PEPE and Pepe Unchained or Pepeto? 

They are unrelated projects using the Pepe name. Only the contract above is the original PEPE.

Is PEPE a good investment? 

PEPE is a highly speculative asset with no fundamentals, heavy whale concentration, and binary catalysts. Consult a licensed financial advisor.