Reading 2 minutes Views 2 Published Updated
An email sent to Coinbase customers describing Pepe’s memcoin (PEPE) as a “hate symbol” co-opted by alt-right groups has sparked significant anger from the memcoin community.
Prominent cryptocurrency influencer Borovik.eth shared a screenshot of a May 10 email newsletter with his 96,000 subscribers mentioning the Anti-Defamation League’s 2016 decision to include a frog-themed character 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
Fans and owners of the frog-themed memcoin were outraged by the description of the token, prompting calls for Coinbase to apologize and for users to start deleting their cryptocurrency exchange accounts.
The pseudonymous Twitter user and solidity developer @Kenobi stated that Pepe is not a hate symbol and that as a result he will transfer funds to the US cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, ending his tweet with the hashtag: “#deletecoinbase”.
I will be closing my personal and business accounts with @coinbase and moving them to @Gemini.#PEPE IS NOT A SYMBOL OF HATE@brian_armstrongthe $PEPE community DEMANDS that you retract your vulgar statement about #PEPECOIN!!#DELETECOINBASESHORT $COIN
— Kenobi (@OG_Kenobi_Hello) May 11, 2023
According to Tweetbinder, the “#deletecoinbase” hashtag has hit the Twitter trending strip with over 14,000 tweets in the last 2 hours.
Since Binance listed the token on May 5, Pepe-owning cryptocurrency tweeters have been asking the leaders of a number of cryptocurrency exchanges to list the token as well.
Coinbase has yet to give much indication as to whether it intends to list the Pepe token on its exchange.
A spokesperson for Coinbase said there was “nothing more to add” in the Cointelegraph email response.
Related: Pepe’s Market Cap Down $1 Billion In 5 Days, Some Whales Are Still Buying
Apparently, Gemini CEO Cameron Winkelvoss was listening, and on May 9, the Winklevoss-owned cryptocurrency exchange put memcoin up for sale with a more explicit description of the new token.
The price of Pepe fell 2.6% in the hours following the posting of Coinbase’s description on Twitter. At press time, Pepe is trading at $0.00000184, down 10.4% in the last 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
Cryptocurrency Twitter Hall of Flame, Gabriel Haynes: Shirtless Shitposting and Hunting SBF in Meme Streets