Pepe the Frog started out as a backwater comic character brought to life by the pen of Matt Furie back in 2005. Over the years, the creator added a few bits here and there, but it wasn’t until Pepe began to find a home on 4chan in 2008 that he really started to cross over. By 2014, he was seen as a symbol of right-wing hate by some and as a sign of free expression by others. Jump back to the present, and you find Pepe as the face for a $4B cryptocurrency that online casinos are now welcoming.
To learn more about this fascinating collision between meme culture, crypto, and increasingly mainstream adoption, we’re going to dive deep. Keep reading to learn more about how Pepe crossed over in a unique way.
PEPE launched back in April 2023 as an Ethereum meme coin and achieved an impressive $1B market cap in a matter of weeks. This then peaked at $7B the following year, before dipping back to the currency level of approximately $4B. In many ways, PEPE follows in the footsteps of other meme coins like Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, with the majority of the initial adoption being driven by fans of the underlying meme. Speculators and holders then move in once they see that the coin has a solid enough foundation with which to work.
In terms of tokenomics, there is currently a supply of 420.69 trillion coins and a built-in deflationary burning mechanism designed to give the coin a long-term future. And in terms of the enduring appeal, many feel a connection with PEPE due to its combination of internet humor and anti-establishment sentiment. It feeds into the emerging world of “degen” trading, where traders deliberately indulge in high-risk speculation as a form of counter culture.
Big names in the industry like BC.Game, Stake, and Rollbit began adding PEPE support in mid-2023 as they looked to chase an emerging trend. The adoption of crypto coins in general, and meme coins in particular, by the online casinos is something of a gray area in many ways, with the real driver being the popularity of the coin. The rapid expansion of PEPE’s market cap, combined with the enthusiasm of large online communities for the meme, was clearly enough to persuade some of the major players in the online gambling space to sit up and take notice.
The crypto casinos also know that the PEPE audience skews heavily towards young, tech-savvy users who are less concerned by risk than older, more traditional investors. By connecting with this audience in a way that introduces them to a new range of games, they are able to quickly onboard them as the players easily understand the mechanics. Connecting wallets, depositing PEPE, and converting the coins into playable chips all feel like second nature to PEPE holders.
Such has been the competition for new players that casinos now offer PEPE bonuses of 200-300% in the form of deposit matches. There are now entire casinos where all of the graphics and imagery relate to Pepe, creating a sense of community and a deeper connection with PEPE users. Users also have an intuitive understanding of the smart contracts and Layer 2 protocols that make the ETH-based coin run faster than Bitcoin. The result is that online PEPE gambling feels like a natural extension of speculation for many.
A strong gambling subculture built on distrust of traditional institutions and a willingness to flout social and societal norms has emerged. Discussions typically take place on Telegram channels and Discord servers, allowing members to share their wins and offer advice when it comes to strategy, tactics, and timing. As a result, phrases like "diamond hands," "paper hands," and "wen moon" have emerged as players naturally begin to form their own gambling ecosystem and populate it with new terminology.
One of the biggest indicators of the growth of the community is that influencers and streams are now beginning to use PEPE as part of their Twitch and YouTube content. $100,000+ wins on single spins are always sure to go viral—although they are certainly not something players should rely on or chase—with new entrants and followers looking to see what they can learn from such events. Active chat threads during livestreams are becoming increasingly popular, especially during high-stakes gambling by a known influencer.
PEPE is built on ETH, leverages Layer 2, and is cheaper to use than Bitcoin due to lower fees. Because of the highly tech-fluent nature of the users, the use of wallets, conversions, and other features requires little or no explanation on the part of the casinos, allowing players to enjoy the convenience of using PEPE.
The “degen” worldview of many PEPE holders also desensitizes them to risk, especially given the fact that they are generally well-versed in the volatility associated with all meme coins. Massive token numbers can also make players more likely to place bets and attempt to go on runs, even if the actual dollar amount is relatively low. The result is that players feel like they have a higher level of control and a greater tolerance for risk when gambling with PEPE, making it more likely that they will play for longer.
Gambling with a volatile asset means that winnings can quickly lose value in a way that is completely independent from the odds at which they were initially won. In addition, losses when gambling with PEPE can be amplified if the price suddenly surges, leading to a larger loss than the player initially accounted for.
A prudent approach is to quickly convert PEPE winnings to stablecoins, although this is something that tends to be discouraged in the pro-risk world of meme coins. Given that the market is up 24/7 and the coin is inherently volatile, players need to decide whether waking up to a typical 20-30% drop in the value of the winnings is something they are prepared to tolerate.
The Pepe gaming ecosystem includes classic slot games brought to life with frog graphics, lily pad themes, and associated meme sound effects. Games such as "Pepe's Fortune" and "Hoppy Multiplier" lean heavily on Pepe branding and imagery to breathe new life into established betting dynamics. There are also a growing number of games that offer Pepe NFTs as rewards and a series of progressive jackpots that are paid in PEPE.
Due to the startup nature of some Pepe casinos, it’s important to tread carefully when looking for the right place to play. Some titles you will find online will be simple reskins of other games that have been developed on a shoestring budget, while the best Pepe casinos will have been built from the ground up by vastly experienced developers.
The likes of Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, and BONK are all avenues that the biggest online casinos are looking at very carefully, primarily because of the size of their user audiences. Whether they turn out to be as viable long-term as stablecoins and Bitcoin/ETH remains to be seen, with the pro-risk nature of “degen” culture complicating the analysis somewhat. That said, a continually expanding user base that has a passion for the foundational meme and an affinity for the community that has been built around it is certainly a very promising sign.
As a case study on how GenZ approaches finance in a new way, Pepe and the meme coin that he has spawned are without parallel. It will certainly be fascinating to see how this intersection of finance and meme culture continues to evolve in the months and years ahead.
