Coinbase — a publicly traded company operating the largest cryptocurrency exchange platform in the U.S. — created a hullabaloo last week over comments about the PEPE meme coin that triggered a 14% coin price plunge. The crypto token has a dedicated following and investor community, inspired by the illustrious Pepe the Frog meme, its the latest major player in the 2023 meme coin frenzy.
An email sent out to Coinbase clients that described the Pepe meme as a “hate symbol” co-opted by alt-right organizations has generated substantial ire from the PEPE meme coin community.
Borovik.eth, a prominent crypto influencer, took a screenshot of the email newsletter dated May 10 and published it with his 96,000 followers. He referenced a decision made by the Anti-Defamation League in 2016 to include the frog-themed figure in its database of online hate symbols.
Why is @coinbase sending out emails telling people that $pepe is an alt-right hate symbol?? pic.twitter.com/UNzClQlwwv
— borovik.eth (@3orovik) May 11, 2023
Coinbase is about to lose 100,000 customers!
— borovik.eth (@3orovik) May 11, 2023
Imagine hating a frog 🐸 pic.twitter.com/CpBOBdb6Qz
— borovik.eth (@3orovik) May 11, 2023
The description of the token infuriated both fans of the frog-themed meme coin and holders of the cryptocurrency. As a result, there have been demands for Coinbase to make an apology, and customers have begun canceling their accounts with the cryptocurrency exchange.
Pseudonymous Twitter user and solidity developer Kenobi said Pepe is not a sign of hatred. Consequently, he would be shifting assets to the crypto exchange Gemini, which is situated in the United States. He concluded his statement with the hashtag: “#deletecoinbase.”
Contrary to my own assumptions, insiders are telling me that the @coinbase $pepe blunder is legitimately attributable to a single employee in their office.
— PAULY (@Pauly0x) May 12, 2023
It doesn’t matter because their entire brand is now in peril.
Pepe is NOT a hate symbol 🐸#pepeislove #deletecoinbase pic.twitter.com/ivhDso0zVa
Since Binance made the token available for trade on May 5, users of crypto Twitter who own Pepe have requested several cryptocurrency exchanges’ leaders to include the token.
Coinbase has yet to provide a lot of hints or indications about whether or not it plans to add the Pepe cryptocurrency to its exchange yet.
Hours after the news of Coinbase’s description began spreading on Twitter, the price of Pepe saw a decline of 14%. Pepe was trading at $0.00000166 at press time with a 12% decrease.
