Coinbase, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, has faced significant backlash after sending a newsletter to its customers that referred to Pepe (PEPE), a popular meme-inspired token, as a “hate symbol.”
Pepe, which has gained considerable traction in the crypto world since its launch around three weeks ago, is based on the Pepe the Frog meme, which originated as a comic-strip character nearly two decades ago.
Coinbase stated that Pepe has been leading the memecoin activity and that it has a comically huge supply of 420 trillion tokens, flagging its growth as well as other Bitcoin-based meme coins in its latest newsletter on Wednesday, May 10.
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In particular, it noted that Pepe has been co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups.
Email causes backlash
Coinbase faced backlash on Twitter after sending a newsletter that linked the Pepe the Frog meme to some alt-right political circles.
The email caused an uproar among supporters of the Pepe-inspired token, known as PEPE, with many calling for a boycott of Coinbase and urging others to delete their accounts.
The #deletecoinbase hashtag quickly began trending on Twitter, with users expressing their outrage at what they saw as an unfair characterization of the Pepe meme.
Critics of Coinbase’s newsletter argued that the company was unfairly maligning the Pepe meme and stigmatizing an entire community of users. They also accused Coinbase of spreading misinformation and failing to do proper research before sending out the email.
Interestingly, Matt Furie, creator of the legendary Pepe the Frog meme, has admitted lack of knowledge about Pepe despite the token’s recent surge in popularity across the cryptocurrency space but did mention that he was a Dogecoin (DOGE) maximalist.
