$PEPE - Long story short

Pepe is a global phenomenon that has forever changed the way we interact online, and has had immeasurable influence on art, culture, & the evolution of memes. What you may not know is how Pepe's origin created die hard fans & the impact the meme will have on high art and art-derived memecoins in the future. Pepe the frog was originally created in 2005 by Matt Furie and first appeared in the comic 'Boys Club' Pepe urinates with his pants pulled down to his ankles, and in the last panel Pepe says [it] "feels good man.”

In 2008, this last panel would lead to Pepe's internet stardom when it was posted as a reaction image on the internet forum 4chan, and almost instantly becoming a trend.

As Pepe became increasingly popular, different versions of Pepe were created: happy, sad, smug, and angry... (to name a few). Pepe's expressions conveyed a range of emotions that were easily understood and relatable to people of all backgrounds, all over the world.

Pepe became popular - too popular! In 2015, Pepe was the most shared meme, and the inside joke was starting to lose its comedic value. To keep the comedic value alive, OG fans started to create Rare Pepes, novel versions of the meme that hadn't been seen or shared before. Different versions of Rare Pepes not only expressed a wide range of emotions like the OG Pepes, but they also started to convey ideas, concepts, and complex beliefs Pepe spread and became a global phenomenon.

Pepe was so versatile that it was drawn to express and convey concepts difficult in written language. This included being appropriated as a symbol of hate, but also expressed as a symbol of love.

In a world where information instantly spreads, and the meaning of images changes just as fast, Pepe is the internet's visual medium through which culture and context is conveyed.

Team $Blur truly believes in $PEPE — the memecoin, and while it has round-tripped a few times and currently well below its ATH, we believe that $PEPE will rebound in a spectacular way, whenever that happens! In fact, it may not be a stretch to say that some of $BLUR contributors and investors are true $PEPE founding OGs 😉