PEPE (Pepe) Token Price & Latest Live Chart

What is PEPE (Pepe)?

PEPE is a memecoin launched on the Ethereum blockchain, built around the iconic internet character Pepe the Frog. Pepe the Frog was originally created by cartoonist Matt Furie in the mid-2000s as a frog character in an indie comic series. Over time, as internet culture evolved and social platforms accelerated content virality, Pepe gradually transformed from a niche comic figure into a widely used meme that expresses emotions, sarcasm, and irony. Today, Pepe images and stickers are deeply embedded in forum culture, messaging apps, and social media. This highly recognizable visual identity and cultural symbolism laid a natural foundation for later tokenization and brand building in the crypto space.

The PEPE token was born directly out of this meme culture. The team deliberately chose a frog rather than a dog as its core mascot, aiming to break the long-standing narrative dominance of dog-themed memecoins such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB), and various other Inu tokens. From the design and narrative perspective, PEPE’s goal is straightforward: to harness the viral influence of Pepe the Frog and build a frog-themed memecoin ecosystem that challenges the idea that meme tokens must revolve around dog mascots. After launch, PEPE rapidly captured attention across social platforms, driving substantial traffic and community participation. This momentum helped the token quickly climb into the global top 100 crypto assets by market capitalization, at one point approaching the valuation range of more established layer-1 chains and DeFi protocols, and turning PEPE into a flagship example of how the meme sector can temporarily shake up the broader market.

How does PEPE (Pepe) work?

PEPE is a standard ERC-20 token deployed on the Ethereum mainnet, benefiting from Ethereum’s network security and underlying infrastructure. As an ERC-20 asset, it does not run its own consensus mechanism. Instead, it relies on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake consensus for transaction finality and asset security. In practice, this means PEPE’s transaction costs, speed, and congestion levels are all directly tied to overall network conditions on Ethereum. When gas fees spike, the user experience for small transfers can deteriorate noticeably.

In terms of token design, PEPE adopts a fixed total supply with zero transaction tax. The maximum supply is set at 420,690,000,000,000 tokens (420.69 trillion). All tokens were minted at inception, with no further inflation planned. Around 93.1% of the supply was added to liquidity pools, with the LP tokens burned and contract ownership renounced, while the remaining roughly 6.9% is held in a multi-sig wallet for future use cases such as centralized exchange listings, bridge liquidity, and market-making. This structure is intended to reduce the perception that the team holds a large locked allocation that could be dumped at any time, and on the other hand, to preserve a small pool of tokens that can be used flexibly for partnerships and infrastructure integration going forward.

Many market traders describe PEPE as a memecoin with deflationary and redistribution characteristics, meaning that in some models a portion of tokens is burned during transactions while another portion is redistributed to existing holders, creating incentives for long-term holding and a sense of programmed scarcity. However, different platforms and versions of the token sometimes present slightly different mechanics, and the meme sector is notorious for copycats and derivative tokens. As a result, before participating, investors are strongly advised to verify the contract address and consult the latest official documentation to ensure they are trading the main, legitimate PEPE token rather than a high-tax or otherwise dubious clone using the same name.

From an operating logic standpoint, PEPE does not feature a complex yield model like many DeFi protocols, nor does it rely on heavy game mechanics like a typical GameFi project. Its real drivers are community sentiment, liquidity, and narrative rotation. When meme-sector sentiment heats up, community members produce memes at scale, and KOLs and traders focus discussion on PEPE, capital tends to flow in quickly. Conversely, when sentiment cools or capital rotates back into BTC and large-cap layer-1s, PEPE’s price can retrace sharply. This highly emotion-driven dynamic makes PEPE less like a traditional project built around utility or cash flows and more like an ongoing experiment in turning internet meme energy into price volatility.

PEPE (Pepe) market price & tokenomics

PEPE’s market cap and price action have been a clear illustration of how the meme sector amplifies overall risk appetite historically. In the first few weeks after its launch in 2023, the project’s market capitalization surged into the hundreds of millions of dollars, quickly entering the global top-100 by size and, at times, trading with volumes that rivalled or exceeded those of established base-layer chains and infrastructure protocols. Through 2024 and into 2025, as the broader crypto market cycled through multiple bullish and bearish phases, PEPE followed a familiar pattern of trending rallies, euphoric extensions, deep drawdowns, and subsequent consolidation and re-accumulation. Some analyses note that, in certain periods, PEPE experienced cumulative drawdowns of more than 50–60% within 60–90 days, only to later stage short-term rebounds of 10–20% or more once community enthusiasm reignited. This behaviour underlines the fact that the token is overwhelmingly driven by liquidity and sentiment rather than traditional fundamentals.

At the tokenomics level, PEPE follows a deliberately minimalist yet narrative focus project. Its fixed supply and absence of high transaction taxes all send a clear signal to the market that this is not a complex economic machine engineered for the benefit of the team, but rather a meme experiment built for the community. Most liquidity is pushed directly into decentralized pools, and contract ownership is renounced, leading many early participants to view the structure as relatively fair, with limited room for hidden allocations. At the same time, the 6.9% held in a multi-sig wallet still provides some operational flexibility, for example in supporting future CEX listings, market-making programs, or promotional campaigns. Transparency and execution around the use of this allocation are important reference points for mid- to long-term investors assessing project risk.

Why do you invest in PEPE (Pepe)?

For a segment of investors and traders, the appeal of PEPE lies less in any notion of utility or cash flow and more in its role as a bellwether for the meme sector. Pepe the Frog is one of the most recognizable internet memes globally, with cultural penetration far beyond that of most newly created IP. This gives PEPE a built-in advantage when competing for attention and social reach. In addition, across several crypto mini-cycles, PEPE has repeatedly acted as a sentiment gauge for meme-driven rotations. When PEPE sees strong inflows and expanding volumes, it often coincides with broader rallies in other memecoins and small-cap tokens. For participants who like to trade narrative rotations and short-term momentum, PEPE can serve as both a directional vehicle and a reference asset for gauging risk-on behaviour in the meme complex.

The contract design is also relatively straightforward, with near-zero transactional tax overheads, and the token enjoys deep liquidity across Ethereum and multiple major centralized exchanges. This makes PEPE easier to enter and exit compared with smaller meme tokens that are only listed on a handful of DEXs or require cross-chain operations. The ability to move in and out quickly and at size is one of the reasons many short-term traders and quant strategies use PEPE as a preferred instrument for sentiment trading and strategy testing. In a sense, investors are not necessarily buying into a conventional “business model”, but rather into exposure to the meme sector as an asset class and participation in a live, evolving piece of internet culture.

Is PEPE (Pepe) a good investment?

When evaluating whether PEPE is suitable as an investment, several points need to be clearly understood. First, based on messaging from the project and major data platforms, PEPE is explicitly framed as a memecoin with no inherent value, no defined utility, and no expectation of financial return. Its price is primarily a function of community engagement, market sentiment, and speculative capital flows. This implies that no matter how impressive its short-term rallies may look, PEPE should still be categorized as a high-risk speculative asset rather than a long-term value play backed by robust cash flows or a well-defined business model.

From your portfolio allocation perspective, PEPE is generally better treated as a small allocation within a high-risk bucket. If you are already comfortable with meme culture, understand and accept extreme volatility, and are prepared for both sharp upside moves and equally brutal drawdowns, then PEPE can be considered as part of a speculative or “sentiment” sleeve in your portfolio. If, however, your primary objectives are capital preservation, stable returns, or exposure to long-term fundamental growth, then PEPE is likely better suited as a market to watch rather than a core holding. In all cases, it is essential to assess your own risk tolerance, define position sizing and stop-loss rules in advance, and acknowledge that the defining feature of memecoins is that prices are driven almost entirely by crowd emotion.

Find out more about PEPE (Pepe):

• Homepage
• Explorer: Etherscan
• Whitepaper