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What Is the Internet Meme Frog Character That Became the Face of a Popular Cryptocurrency Token?

In crypto, memes don’t just make people laugh — they make millionaires. One unlikely star of this phenomenon is Pepe the Frog, a grinning green cartoon that’s gone from underground internet culture to the face of a multi-billion-dollar cryptocurrency. What started as a doodle in a comic book has evolved into PEPE, one of the most viral meme coins ever launched. Its success wasn’t just a fluke — it was a full-blown movement powered by internet nostalgia, FOMO, and a love for frogs. But Pepe wasn’t the only one to ride the meme wave. Since its explosive debut, a whole ecosystem of frog-themed tokens has hatched — each one with its own community, backstory, and crypto twist. Whether they’re honoring comic book characters, spawned by AI, or brought back from failed projects by die-hard fans, these frog coins have one thing in common: they’ve captured the internet’s attention. In this article, we’ll dive into the origins of PEPE and highlight the top 5 frog meme coins in 2025. Who Is Pepe the Frog? Source: X Pepe the Frog first appeared in 2005 in an indie comic called Boy’s Club by artist Matt Furie. Originally just a chill, bug-eyed frog with a knack for saying “feels good, man,” Pepe wasn’t created to go viral — but the internet had other plans. By the late 2000s, screenshots of Pepe’s laid-back attitude began spreading across MySpace, 4chan, and Reddit, and soon, Pepe became a full-blown meme machine. What made Pepe so sticky was his versatility. There was a Pepe for every emotion: Sad Pepe, Smug Pepe, Angry Pepe — you name it. He became the internet’s go-to reaction face. Despite a rocky period in the mid-2010s when some fringe groups misused his image, creator Matt Furie took active steps to reclaim his creation. Today, Pepe stands as one of the most enduring and recognizable faces in meme culture — which made him the perfect mascot when crypto came calling. Introducing Pepe (PEPE): The Meme Frog Turned Crypto Superstar By the time crypto developers were hunting for the next viral mascot, Pepe the Frog had already cemented his status as a meme legend. So in April 2023, when a mysterious team launched Pepe (PEPE) on the Ethereum blockchain, it instantly caught the attention of meme lovers and degens alike. The token had no presale, no taxes, no roadmap — just pure meme energy. And that was exactly the point. What happened next was internet history in the making. Within weeks, PEPE surged to over $1 billion in market cap, and at its peak, it reached over $10 billion. It dominated crypto X (Twitter), popped up in Elon Musk memes, and found itself listed on major exchanges like Bitget. Fueled entirely by community hype, viral memes, and nostalgic internet culture, PEPE didn’t just become another meme coin — it became the face of a whole new movement in crypto. The frog had officially arrived. Trade Pepe (PEPE) on Bitget now! Frogs, FOMO, and Fortunes: The Rise of Amphibian Tokens After PEPE's explosive rise, it didn’t take long for the crypto world to realize something big: frog memes were money — literally. Investors saw how fast PEPE went from joke to juggernaut, and soon, dozens of new frog-themed tokens started popping up, each trying to ride the wave. Some leaned into nostalgia, others into humor, and a few were just downright weird — but they all had one thing in common: frogs. So why frogs, and why now? It’s a mix of meme history, market timing, and community culture. Frogs like Pepe have been meme royalty for nearly two decades, especially on platforms like 4chan, Reddit, and X (Twitter). They’re instantly recognizable, emotionally expressive, and flexible enough to fit any meme trend — from smug to wholesome. Combine that with the meme coin playbook (zero taxes, locked liquidity, viral marketing), and you’ve got the perfect recipe for low-cap tokens with high upside and cult-like followings. In short: frogs are familiar, funny, and financially tempting. Top 5 Frog Meme Coins in 2025 (Besides PEPE) While PEPE remains the king of frog meme coins, it’s far from alone in the pond. A wave of frog-inspired tokens has splashed onto the scene, each bringing its own twist — from comic book lore to AI-generated origins. Here are five standout frog meme coins that have captured attention in 2025, whether through explosive growth, creative backstories, or passionate communities. 1. Brett (ETH) (BRETT) Brett (ETH) is a throwback to the roots of frog meme culture, based on a character from Matt Furie’s original Boy’s Club comic — the same series that introduced Pepe. Launched in 2023 on Ethereum, BRETT leans into comic-book nostalgia with a clean deflationary model and a capped supply of roughly 69 million tokens. No team allocations or presale made it feel fair and organic from day one, which helped build trust. 2. Turbo (TURBO) Turbo (TURBO) is what happens when AI meets meme coin mania. Created in 2023 by asking ChatGPT to design a meme coin on a $69 budget, Turbo quickly went viral for its unique backstory. The token launched with a massive supply of 69 billion, a fair launch, and no developer taxes — just good old-fashioned meme fuel. Turbo’s branding centers around speed, hype, and humor, and it’s resonated with a wide crowd of degens and casual traders alike. It’s currently one of the top-performing frog coins. 3. Book of Meme (BOME) A mix of art, tech, and meme magic, Book of Meme was launched in 2024 on Solana by digital artist Darkfarms, well-known in the Pepe art scene. The idea behind BOME is to create a decentralized archive of internet memes — sort of like a blockchain museum of meme culture. It uses IPFS and Arweave to store memes forever, while its visual style leans heavily on Pepe-themed illustrations. It’s a token for both traders and internet culture collectors. 4. Fwog (SOL) (FWOG) Fwog is crypto’s version of a comeback story. Originally born from the collapse of a failed project called Flog the Frog, the community rallied together and relaunched it in 2024 as FWOG on Solana — this time with no central dev team and complete transparency. With cute anime-style frog art and a firm belief in decentralized ownership, FWOG became a symbol of what meme coins could be when driven by their holders. It's beloved for its art, energy, and grassroots community. 5. Apu Apustaja (APU) Apu Apustaja , often just called APU, is based on a Finnish meme character known as the “Helper.” This soft, kind-eyed frog stands for wholesomeness in a sea of chaotic meme culture. APU launched in 2024, positioning itself as a transparent, community-first project with no shady tokenomics or anonymous teams. The coin emphasizes fairness, meme contests, and good vibes — and that tone has attracted a loyal following. APU has carved out a niche as the feel-good frog in the meme coin world. Conclusion What started as a simple comic book character has turned into a full-blown crypto phenomenon. Pepe the Frog didn’t just become the face of a meme coin — he sparked an entire movement of frog-themed tokens that continue to shape the meme coin landscape in 2025. From nostalgic icons like Brett, to AI-driven creations like Turbo, and community-first projects like FWOG and APU, each coin reflects a different slice of internet culture brought to life on the blockchain. For investors, frog meme coins represent the wild, unpredictable, and oddly brilliant side of crypto. They may not offer traditional utility, but they offer something else: viral potential, strong communities, and a unique way to tap into the cultural zeitgeist. As always, meme coins are high-risk and highly speculative — but if you're going to bet on a meme, betting on frogs might just be the most internet-native move you can make. Register now and explore the wonderful crypto world at Bitget! Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are for informational purposes only. This article does not constitute an endorsement of any of the products and services discussed or investment, financial, or trading advice. Qualified professionals should be consulted prior to making financial decisions.

Bitget Research: Meme Sector Continues to Rise, PEPE Becomes Market Focus

the past 24 hours, there have been many new popular tokens and topics emerging in the market, and perhaps they could be the next market spotlight. In Summary: 1.Popular Tokens: PEPE (Token) — The Sad Frog-themed memecoin. CZ mentioned in a May 1st AMA that he would not oppose any meme, as long as a meme has enough user demand, it could be listed, and cited SHIB as an example. This information was interpreted by the community as PEPE having a high probability of being listed on Binance. Influenced by this news, the price increased by over 90% today. WSB (Token) — Wall Street-style token, experienced over a 9x increase within a week, with a liquidity pool of US$822,150, and a daily trading volume of US$11 million. It has decreased by 18.88% today; caution is advised when observing this token. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/ether/pair-explorer/0x4360658e680026e4c636e8be0f7d0b9f976c46f0 MONG (Token) — A memecoin that originated from a U.S. Congressman’s incoherent ramblings. In the past 24 hours, on-chain trading volume reached US$18.8 million, with 9980+ holders and 32,341 weekly on-chain transactions, indicating high popularity. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/ether/pair-explorer/0x7054b0f980a7eb5b3a6b3446f3c947d80162775c WOJAK (Token) — WOJAK, which features extremely powerful human meme images, ranks second only to tier 1 memes such as AIDOGE and PEPE in this round of memecoin frenzy. It has seen a more than tenfold increase after bottoming out following the lead of PEPE. The token has experienced a slight pullback recently, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$111 million and a market cap of US$59.45 million. TURBO (Token) — A memecoin with a contract written by AI, TURBO was created by digital artist Rhett Mankind. In the early stages, the project received liquidity from NFT whale Pransky on Uni V3, followed by hype. Its market cap is US$48.44 million with a trading volume of US$25.79 million in the last 24 hours. Beeple tweeted a picture containing “$TURBO,” which was replied to by Elon Musk, generating significant attention. POV (Token) — Pepe Original Version is a Pepe-themed replica on the BSC, claiming to be the most original PEPE. The price today increased by 40.5%, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$15.64 million and a market cap of US$6.63 million. PEPEPAD (Token) — Another Pepe-themed replica on the BSC. On its first day of trading, the price decreased by 42.75%, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$8.17 million. Caution is advised when observing this token. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/bnb/pair-explorer/0x45ae9dab4efc134dd559916d878edaacc45f473d MOM (Token) — Oi! Network token, with 71,000 followers on Twitter, is a Web3 money-making application that allows users to monetize their social network activities into cryptocurrencies while using their existing social media accounts, creating an incentive and task layer on top of their current internet usage experience. The token has now fallen below its issue price, with a single-day decline of 17% and a trading volume of US$745,000. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/polygon/pair-explorer/0xa708d430656aa379b6b0b1d570be8ae1095530e5 mXEN (Token) — Along with the surge in XEN, the Polygon version of XEN has also experienced significant growth due to factors such as low market cap and poor liquidity. The price has started to pull back. It is essential to stay updated on this token. POGAI (Token) — POGAI is a popular memecoin in the Chinese-speaking region, featuring a panda character from expression packs for spreading its popularity. The project’s Twitter followers have grown by over 20,000 in just two days since its launch, showing a rapid growth in popularity. The token operates on Arbitrum and has been fully distributed to the community after an airdrop, with dispersed holder addresses. The current market cap of the token is US$22 million, and its 24-hour trading volume is US$61.29 million. The token is now listed on Bitget for trading. AIDOGE (Token) — A recent popular meme on Arbitrum, characterized by its unique transaction tax mechanism. The larger the trading volume, the stronger the deflationary effect, and the more likely the token is to enter a positive cycle. Recently, AIDOGE continued to push up its price by introducing burn AIDOGE to get ‘AICODE’ token and empowering AICODE through pumping and mining. As rumors of PEPE potentially being listed on Binance emerge within the community, the trading heat of mainstream memecoins has further increased. SOHI (Token) — A POGAI replica on Arbitrum that was launched through an initial airdrop followed by listing on DEX, with initial liquidity of only US$20,000. The price has experienced a significant decline, with a 24-hour drop of 64.04%. The market cap is US$760,000, and the 24-hour trading volume is US$1.44 million. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/arbitrum/pair-explorer/0xb38a3926f37f0a5f98ea158233c611a1b5361698 2.Popular NFTs: There are no popular NFTs for today. 3.Popular DApps: TinyTap Game (DApp) — A decentralized education platform supported by Animoca Brands. Established in 2012, TinyTap is a tech startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel that focuses on user-generated content (UGC). It is among the top 10 highest-grossing children’s mobile apps on the App Store and Google Play. Its community includes over 9.5 million families and 250,000 educators, offering 250,000 interactive lessons from around the world. Recently, due to the impact of Binance Launchpad, TinyTap’s on-chain activity has increased rapidly. LINK3 (DApp) — The protocol behind this product, CyberConnect, announced the launch of its native token CYBER, which will be available for sale to the public through CoinList on May 18th. Users who qualify as early adopters and contributors will have priority access to the CYBER inaugural public offering on CoinList, including Link3 Mystery Box and The Shards NFT holders, as well as W3ST holders. The relevant NFT transactions have increased. ZED RUN (DApp) — A horse racing game that has already launched, with 67,600 followers on Twitter and 205,400 monthly visits according to Similarweb. The majority of visitors are from the United States (47.88%) and the United Kingdom (36.72%). The game is very popular within its community. ODOS (DApp) — A DEX aggregator that supports one-click token swapping. Recently, it has been expanding rapidly on Arbitrum, and it has partnered with Camelot, as well as VE (3,3) Dex ChronosFi, and integrated with their platform. Odos has aggregated most of the DEX pools on Arbi to find the best prices, resulting in high activity on the Arbitrum chain. Manifold (DApp) — This is a creator platform that allows artists to create NFTs using componentized product releases for smart contracts. It is also a platform for users to mint NFTs. The project has a strong partnership with the Foundation NFT platform. Manifold maintains high daily activity due to its NFT minting feature. PinkSale (DApp) — A launchpad/presale platform on the BSC chain. Some small memecoin presales with significant popularity on the BSC chain have boosted its DAU recently, such as the PEPEAI presale, which raised 40 BNB on PinkSale, with 1581 BNB invested and nearly 1200 interactions generated. Lens (DApp) — Lens Protocol Profile, a leading on-chain social platform that has yet to release its token, with expectations of an airdrop. The ecosystem currently includes a variety of projects and has become one of the most active ecosystems on the Polygon chain. Raydium (DApp) — A native DEX on the Solana chain, with no special promotions recently. Its most-read tweet lately is about a bug bounty campaign. Pendle (DApp) — On May 2, Pendle announced a significant upgrade for vePENDLE, which will promote gas savings in voting and reward claim processes. The upgrade is expected to increase gas savings by 70%. Additionally, RealYield rewards will be distributed in ETH after the update. This news has temporarily boosted Pendle’s popularity. MOBOX (DApp) — A cross-chain Metaverse game platform that integrates Web3 elements such as NFT and DeFi to assist game development within the project. On April 28th, it announced the launch of a new NFT called MODragon, revealing only a short GIF. Stay tuned for further developments. Uniswap (DApp) — With the entire market’s focus on memecoins recently, Ethereum’s gas fees are several times higher than usual. According to Dune data, Uniswap’s daily user count has risen from 25,000 in April to a peak of around 65,000, bearing an extremely high memecoin trading volume. XEN (DApp) — Currently, several XEN-related contract addresses appear in the top 10 on Polygon Gas consumption, including RobotXEN, Cointool, and MCTXenft tools that can batch mint XEN, resulting in higher gas usage. XEN has created its own mini-ecosystem, including XENFT, XEN Torrent, DBXEN, and Xenlon. Multiple projects in the XEN ecosystem revolve around the core interaction of “burning XEN.” Founder Jack Levin has announced today that the new protocol TGXen (https://twitter.com/TGXen) will soon be launched. By burning XEN, users can obtain TGXen at a 1:1 ratio, with a limited supply. Chronos (DApp) — A VE (3,3) model DEX on Arbitrum. Since its launch, its TVL has surged to US$246 million, and the project has a 24-hour trading volume of US$9.87 million. A new LP incentive plan has been introduced, with a primary focus on earning rewards through mining. The platform’s token has a 24-hour trading volume of US$3.7 million and a total market cap of US$79.75 million. 4.Twitter Hot Topics: 4TOKEN (Token) — Ignore Fud memecoin on the Core chain, named after CZ’s famous phrase “Ignore Fud” and the hand gesture for “4”. The project has memecoin attributes and supports DeFi features. In the past 24 hours, it had a trading volume of $860,000 and a total market cap of $25 million. https://twitter.com/ignore_fud CGPT (Token) — ChainGPT’s platform token focuses on AI products in the blockchain space, making it an AI sector token. It uses cryptocurrency and blockchain-related information for model training. The project partnered with Alvey Chain today for product integration. The token price has not experienced any significant changes, with a 24-hour trading volume of $4.8 million. 5.Regional Trending Searches: PEPE (Token) — CZ mentioned in a May 1st AMA that he would not oppose any meme, as long as a meme has enough user demand, it could be listed, and cited SHIB as an example. This information was interpreted by the community as PEPE having a high probability of being listed on Binance. As the leading token in the current meme hype, PEPE’s market cap once again surged, nearing $1 billion and ranking among the top 50 cryptocurrencies. In the past 24 hours, its price increased by 90%, with a trading volume of $640 million. Main Body Written by: Bitget Research Data collection time: May 5, 10:30 Data sources: Dune, DApps, Twitter, Google Note: 1) New active users: Refers to wallet addresses that were newly created on the chain in the past 24 hours and had interactions on the chain. 2) Existing active users: Refers to wallet addresses that were created on the chain 24 hours ago and had interactions on the chain in the past 24 hours. 3) DApp daily activity (UAW: unique active wallets) 4) TGE (Token Generation Event) 1.Blockchain Profile — ETH Chain 1.1 User Profile 1.1.1 Core Data Total active users of ETH: 392,870 New active users of ETH: 73,007, with a daily increase of 8.62% Existing active users of ETH: 319,863, with a daily decrease of 5.20% 1.1.2 New User Profile Core data: There were a total of 73,007 new active users on ETH yesterday, with a daily increase of 8.62% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: Bovada (DApp) — A popular gambling website with Similarweb showing monthly visits of up to 30.5 million, with more than 99% of traffic coming from the United States. It is a casino that combines sports betting, poker, and slot machines. Gambling websites typically have large traffic, and some user demographics align with crypto users. 1.1.3 Existing User Profile Core data: The number of ETH active existing users is 319,863, with a daily decrease of 5.20% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: PEPE (Token) — The Sad Frog-themed memecoin. CZ mentioned in a May 1st AMA that he would not oppose any meme, as long as a meme has enough user demand, it could be listed, and cited SHIB as an example. This information was interpreted by the community as PEPE having a high probability of being listed on Binance. Influenced by this news, the price increased by over 90% today. 1.2 Popular Trading Pairs 1.2.1 Uniswap V2 WSB (Token) — Wall Street-style token, experienced over a 9x increase within a week, with a liquidity pool of US$822,150, and a daily trading volume of US$11 million. It has decreased by 18.88% today; caution is advised when observing this token. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/ether/pair-explorer/0x4360658e680026e4c636e8be0f7d0b9f976c46f0 MONG (Token) — A memecoin that originated from a U.S. Congressman’s incoherent ramblings. In the past 24 hours, on-chain trading volume reached US$18.8 million, with 9980+ holders and 32,341 weekly on-chain transactions, indicating high popularity. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/ether/pair-explorer/0x7054b0f980a7eb5b3a6b3446f3c947d80162775c WOJAK (Token) — WOJAK, which features extremely powerful human meme images, ranks second only to tier 1 memes such as AIDOGE and PEPE in this round of memecoin frenzy. It has seen a more than tenfold increase after bottoming out following the lead of PEPE. The token has experienced a slight pullback recently, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$111 million and a market cap of US$59.45 million. 1.2.2 Uniswap V3 TURBO (Token) — A memecoin with a contract written by AI, TURBO was created by digital artist Rhett Mankind. In the early stages, the project received liquidity from NFT whale Pransky on Uni V3, followed by hype. Its market cap is US$48.44 million with a trading volume of US$25.79 million in the last 24 hours. Beeple tweeted a picture containing “$TURBO,” which was replied to by Elon Musk, generating significant attention. 2.Blockchain Profile — BSC Chain 2.1 User Profile 2.1.1 Core Data Total active users on BSC: 1,324,116 New active users on BSC: 191,754, with a daily increase of 3.31% Existing active users on BSC: 1,132,362, with a daily increase of 0.13% 2.1.2 New User Profile Core data: There were a total of 191,754 new active users on BSC yesterday, with a daily increase of 3.31% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: TinyTap Game (DApp) — A decentralized education platform supported by Animoca Brands. Established in 2012, TinyTap is a tech startup based in Tel Aviv, Israel that focuses on user-generated content (UGC). It is among the top 10 highest-grossing children’s mobile apps on the App Store and Google Play. Its community includes over 9.5 million families and 250,000 educators, offering 250,000 interactive lessons from around the world. Recently, due to the impact of Binance Launchpad, TinyTap’s on-chain activity has increased rapidly. 2.1.3 Existing User Profile Core data: The number of BSC active existing users is 1,132,362, with a daily increase of 0.13% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: LINK3 (DApp) — The protocol behind this product, CyberConnect, announced the launch of its native token CYBER, which will be available for sale to the public through CoinList on May 18th. Users who qualify as early adopters and contributors will have priority access to the CYBER inaugural public offering on CoinList, including Link3 Mystery Box and The Shards NFT holders, as well as W3ST holders. 2.2 Popular Trading Pairs 2.2.1 PancakeSwap V2 POV (Token) — Pepe Original Version is a Pepe-themed replica on the BSC, claiming to be the most original PEPE. The price today increased by 40.5%, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$15.64 million and a market cap of US$6.63 million. PEPEPAD (Token) — Another Pepe-themed replica on the BSC. On its first day of trading, the price decreased by 42.75%, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$8.17 million. Caution is advised when observing this token. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/bnb/pair-explorer/0x45ae9dab4efc134dd559916d878edaacc45f473d 3.Blockchain Profile — Polygon Chain 3.1 User Profile 3.1.1 Core Data Total active users on Polygon: 343,531 New active users on Polygon: 90,177, with a daily decrease of 12.42% Existing active users on Polygon: 253,354, with a daily decrease of 4.40% 3.1.2 New User Profile Core data: There were a total of 90,177 new active users on Polygon yesterday, with a daily decrease of 12.42% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: MOM (Token) — Oi! Network token, with 71,000 followers on Twitter, is a Web3 money-making application that allows users to monetize their social network activities into cryptocurrencies while using their existing social media accounts, creating an incentive and task layer on top of their current internet usage experience. The token has now fallen below its issue price, with a single-day decline of 17% and a trading volume of US$745,000. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/polygon/pair-explorer/0xa708d430656aa379b6b0b1d570be8ae1095530e5 3.1.3 Existing User Profile Core Data: The number of Polygon active existing users is 253,354, with a daily decrease of 4.40% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: ZED RUN (DApp) — A horse racing game that has already launched, with 67,600 followers on Twitter and 205,400 monthly visits according to Similarweb. The majority of visitors are from the United States (47.88%) and the United Kingdom (36.72%). The game is very popular within its community. 3.2 Popular Trading Pairs 3.2.1 Uniswap V3 mXEN (Token) — Along with the surge in XEN, the Polygon version of XEN has also experienced significant growth due to factors such as low market cap and poor liquidity. The price has started to pull back. It is essential to stay updated on this token. 4.Blockchain Profile — Arbitrum Chain 4.1 User Profile 4.1.1 Core Data Arbitrum Active Users: 228,036 Arbitrum New Active Users: 49,370, with a daily decrease of 7.07% Arbitrum Existing Active Users: 178,666, with a daily decrease of 8.24% 4.1.2 New User Profile Core data: There were a total of 49,370 new active users on Arbitrum yesterday, with a daily decrease of 7.07% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: POGAI (Token) — POGAI is a popular memecoin in the Chinese-speaking region, featuring a panda character from expression packs for spreading its popularity. The project’s Twitter followers have grown by over 20,000 in just two days since its launch, showing a rapid growth in popularity. The token operates on Arbitrum and has been fully distributed to the community after an airdrop, with dispersed holder addresses. The current market cap of the token is US$22 million, and its 24-hour trading volume is US$61.29 million. The token is now listed on Bitget for trading. 4.1.3 Existing User Profile Core data: The number of Arbitrum active existing users is 178,666, with a daily decrease of 8.24% Popular Sectors Popular Projects Key Projects: AIDOGE (Token) — A recent popular meme on Arbitrum, characterized by its unique transaction tax mechanism. The larger the trading volume, the stronger the deflationary effect, and the more likely the token is to enter a positive cycle. Recently, AIDOGE continued to push up its price by introducing burn AIDOGE to get ‘AICODE’ token and empowering AICODE through pumping and mining. As rumors of PEPE potentially being listed on Binance emerge within the community, the trading heat of mainstream memecoins has further increased. ODOS (DApp) — A DEX aggregator that supports one-click token swapping. Recently, it has been expanding rapidly on Arbitrum, and it has partnered with Camelot, as well as VE (3,3) Dex ChronosFi, and integrated with their platform. Odos has aggregated most of the DEX pools on Arbi to find the best prices, resulting in high activity on the Arbitrum chain. 4.2 Popular Trading Pairs 4.2.1 Uniswap V3 SOHI (Token) — A POGAI replica on Arbitrum that was launched through an initial airdrop followed by listing on DEX, with initial liquidity of only US$20,000. The price has experienced a significant decline, with a 24-hour drop of 64.04%. The market cap is US$760,000, and the 24-hour trading volume is US$1.44 million. https://www.dextools.io/app/cn/arbitrum/pair-explorer/0xb38a3926f37f0a5f98ea158233c611a1b5361698 5.DApp Ecosystem — All Chains Stargate (DApp) — Stargate currently ranks among projects with the top on-chain interactions on the Polygon chain. Developed by the LayerZero Labs team, it is a fully composable liquidity transfer protocol that serves as the core of OmniChain DeFi. With Stargate, users and DApps can transfer native assets across 7 chains (with more to come in the future). Bitget and BitKeep launched an airdrop for the LayerZero futures contract voucher token ($LZBG). By completing the corresponding tasks and holding $LZBG, users are 100% guaranteed to be eligible to receive the official LayerZero token in the future. This has sparked heated discussion within the community, increasing expectations for Layerzero’s airdrop and interaction enthusiasm. 6.DApp Ecosystem — ETH Chain Manifold (DApp) — This is a creator platform that allows artists to create NFTs using componentized product releases for smart contracts. It is also a platform for users to mint NFTs. The project has a strong partnership with the Foundation NFT platform. Manifold maintains high daily activity due to its NFT minting feature. 7.DApp Ecosystem — BSC Chain PinkSale (DApp) — A launchpad/presale platform on the BSC chain. Some small memecoin presales with significant popularity on the BSC chain have boosted its DAU recently, such as the PEPEAI presale, which raised 40 BNB on PinkSale, with 1581 BNB invested and nearly 1200 interactions generated. 8.DApp Ecosystem — Polygon Chain Lens (DApp) — Lens Protocol Profile, a leading on-chain social platform that has yet to release its token, with expectations of an airdrop. The ecosystem currently includes a variety of projects and has become one of the most active ecosystems on the Polygon chain. 9.DApp Ecosystem — WAX Chain WAX chain’s UAW fluctuations are within the normal range. 10.DApp Ecosystem — Solana Chain Raydium (DApp) — A native DEX on the Solana chain, with no special promotions recently. Its most-read tweet lately is about a bug bounty campaign. 11.DApp Ecosystem — Arbitrum Chain Pendle (DApp) — On May 2, Pendle announced a significant upgrade for vePENDLE, which will promote gas savings in voting and reward claim processes. The upgrade is expected to increase gas savings by 70%. Additionally, RealYield rewards will be distributed in ETH after the update. This news has temporarily boosted Pendle’s popularity. 12.DApp Ecosystem — GameFi Sector Across All Chains MOBOX (DApp) — A cross-chain Metaverse game platform that integrates Web3 elements such as NFT and DeFi to assist game development within the project. On April 28th, it announced the launch of a new NFT called MODragon, revealing only a short GIF. Stay tuned for further developments. 13.Gas Fee Consumption — ETH Chain Uniswap (DApp) — With the entire market’s focus on memecoins recently, Ethereum’s gas fees are several times higher than usual. According to Dune data, Uniswap’s daily user count has risen from 25,000 in April to a peak of around 65,000, bearing an extremely high memecoin trading volume. 14.Gas Fee Consumption — BSC Chain LINK3 (DApp) — The protocol behind this product, CyberConnect, announced the launch of its native token CYBER, which will be available for sale to the public through CoinList on May 18th. Users who qualify as early adopters and contributors will have priority access to the CYBER inaugural public offering on CoinList, including Link3 Mystery Box and The Shards NFT holders, as well as W3ST holders. The relevant NFT transactions have increased. 15.Gas Fee Consumption — Polygon Chain XEN (DApp) — Currently, several XEN-related contract addresses appear in the top 10 on Polygon Gas consumption, including RobotXEN, Cointool, and MCTXenft tools that can batch mint XEN, resulting in higher gas usage. XEN has created its own mini-ecosystem, including XENFT, XEN Torrent, DBXEN, and Xenlon. Multiple projects in the XEN ecosystem revolve around the core interaction of “burning XEN.” Founder Jack Levin has announced today that the new protocol TGXen (https://twitter.com/TGXen) will soon be launched. By burning XEN, users can obtain TGXen at a 1:1 ratio, with a limited supply. 16.Gas Fee Consumption — Arbitrum Chain Chronos (DApp) — A VE (3,3) model DEX on Arbitrum. Since its launch, its TVL has surged to US$246 million, and the project has a 24-hour trading volume of US$9.87 million. A new LP incentive plan has been introduced, with a primary focus on earning rewards through mining. The platform’s token has a 24-hour trading volume of US$3.7 million and a total market cap of US$79.75 million. 17.Twitter Trends Token Top 20 4TOKEN (Token) — Ignore Fud memecoin on the Core chain, named after CZ’s famous phrase “Ignore Fud” and the hand gesture for “4”. The project has memecoin attributes and supports DeFi features. In the past 24 hours, it had a trading volume of $860,000 and a total market cap of $25 million. https://twitter.com/ignore_fud CGPT (Token) — ChainGPT’s platform token focuses on AI products in the blockchain space, making it an AI sector token. It uses cryptocurrency and blockchain-related information for model training. The project partnered with Alvey Chain today for product integration. The token price has not experienced any significant changes, with a 24-hour trading volume of $4.8 million. 18.Token Mentioned Frequency by KOLs on Twitter There is no data available for today due to issues with the data source update. 19.Token Mentioned Frequency by VCs on Twitter There is no data available for today due to issues with the data source update. 20.Google Trends — Global More frequently mentioned keywords in Google trending searches: Crypto Bubbles, Coinmarketcap, Crypto Market Cap PEPE (Token) — CZ mentioned in a May 1st AMA that he would not oppose any meme, as long as a meme has enough user demand, it could be listed, and cited SHIB as an example. This information was interpreted by the community as PEPE having a high probability of being listed on Binance. As the leading token in the current meme hype, PEPE’s market cap once again surged, nearing $1 billion and ranking among the top 50 cryptocurrencies. In the past 24 hours, its price increased by 90%, with a trading volume of $640 million. 21.Google Trends Surge — East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan a) Southeast Asia Region Philippines Trending Tokens: BTC, GALA, BNB Indonesia Trending Tokens: ADA, BTC, Uniswap Malaysia Trending Tokens: PEPE b) South Asia Region India Trending Tokens: BNB, XXA, SOL; Trending Keywords: Phantom, Etherscan, Binance, Bscscan, Elon Musk Pakistan Trending Tokens: Zetachain c) East Asia and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan Japan Trending Keywords: XDC virtual Currency, Crypt 22.Google Trends Surge — English-speaking Countries, Europe, CIS Region a) CIS Region Trending Keywords: Crypto Casino b) English-speaking Countries USA Trending Tokens: XRP, WSB, GALA Australia Trending Tokens: ETH, CGPT, 4CHAN, NGS Canada Trending Tokens: ANKR, Casper UK Trending Tokens: WTK, XRP, WSB, GALA c) Europe Switzerland Trending Tokens: Polygon, ETH Spain Trending Tokens: Casper, RNDR, CHZ, PEPECOIN, EDU France Trending Tokens: CSPR, ILV, CHIA, BTC Germany Trending Tokens: DOGE, QUANT, ADA Italy Trending Tokens: GALA, PI, LTC, MICA, AVAX, LUNA Turkey Trending Keywords: Crypto Royal Poland Trending Tokens: ETH, HEX, BTC 23.Google Trends Surge — Middle East, Latin America, Africa a) Africa Trending Keywords: Uniswap, Coinmarketcap, Crypto Bubbles, Binance b) Middle East Trending Keywords: Crypto Prices, Crypto Market Cap; Trending Tokens: PEPE c) Latin America Brazil Trending Tokens: Stellar, PEPE, ETH, BOMB, PEPECOIN Argentina Trending Tokens: LEMON Mexico Trending Tokens: BTC

The Crypto Burrito (Volume II): Terra’s Fall From Grace

We talked about Ethereum Merge, the one good bit of news in 2022, in The Crypto Burrito’s first volume. Nonetheless, 2022 proved itself to be a year to forget, with giants’ season ending almost literally in the blink of an eye. The first event to turn the crypto market upside down is the Terra (LUNA) crash. The Crypto Burrito (Volume I): Ethereum Merge The Crypto Burrito (Volume II): Terra’s Fall From Grace The Crypto Burrito (Volume III): The Never-Ending Saga of FTX The Crypto Burrito (Volume IV): Understanding 2022’s Crypto Bankruptcy Filings How Terra (LUNA) worked Terra (LUNA) emerged in 2018 - 2019 as a Korean-based payment app. Created with a focus on decentralized stablecoins, Terra’s KRW-pegged stable was once accepted in CU (one of the biggest convenience store chains in South Korea) and CJ O Shopping (the so-called founder of the Korean home shopping industry). To issue physically backed stablecoins, the issuer is required to maintain the corresponding holding of cash and cash equivalents in the currency it’s pegged to, for example the US-Dollar (USDT and USDC). Algorithmic stablecoins (also referred to as algo stablecoins, algo stables or algos for short) are crypto-native assets whose value is maintained by an automated set of rules (algorithm). Usually, an algo stablecoin is linked to another crypto asset, in the case of Terra (LUNA), the smart contracts of Terra’s stable currencies constantly adjusted their supply to keep the price stable. The Faulty Design Terra (LUNA) adopts the Seigniorage mechanism, meaning that the burning (supply decrease) and minting (supply increase) of multicoins (in our case LUNA and another Terra stablecoin) are controlled by the algorithm. Simply put, if, for example, UST (now USTC) price is higher than US$1, more UST would be created by burning LUNA (now LUNC). Demand for UST would then be fulfilled, causing its price to return to the 1:1 peg. This is the ‘easy’ scenario because the UST surplus is allocated to the community treasury as rewards and the supply of the reference token (a.k.a. LUNA) is reduced, which would most likely affect its price in a positive way. A win-win situation for stakeholders in the ecosystems. The opposite would be tricky. If the stable price falls below the peg, a part of its supply will be burned to meet demand. More reference tokens will be minted through the process, and here’s the problem: In doubt of a losing peg, investors’ tendency is to swap the stablecoin into a safer asset, could be BTC or physically-backed stablecoins, leading to a bank run on the seigniorage algorithmic stablecoin. Selling pressure further lowers this stablecoin price, thus creating even more reference tokens, which at the same time is under scrutiny by the market. In the worst-case scenario, not only is the Seigniorage mechanism unable to save the stablecoin’s peg, but it also destroys the reference token. That is exactly what happened with LUNA and UST. UST raised to the Top 5 biggest stablecoins in 2021 by market capitalization as the Terra ecosystem flourished. Even at its prime, UST’s deviation from peg was still way higher than the physically backed stablecoins (USDT, USDC, BUSD) and the asset backed stablecoin (DAI), and note that DAI is only soft-pegged to the US-Dollar. There had been several warnings prior to the ultimate endgame in May 2022, such as the bets against LUNA by AlgodTrading and GiganticRebirth. They did predict that LUNA price would fall, albeit most couldn’t visualize how vicious the truth would be. Look at the chart below, which shows the percentage change of LUNA price and UST price versus the percentage change of LUNA supply: Historically speaking, any minimal decrease or increase in UST price results in quite a change in LUNA price. During the course of May, LUNA was destined to hit rock bottom. One week (May 07 to May 14) and UST lost 87.56% of its peg, LUNA lost 99.99% of its value and LUNA supply skyrocketed by 19,087 times. Yes you are reading it correctly. It took LUNA less than six months into the year 2022 to become a memecoin, and of course, talk about UST, it’s safe to say that many teams had to reassess the plan to rely on the Seigniorage economic model after seeing how things went wrong (at warp speed if we must say) for their predecessor. Conspiracy Theory versus What We Know Around the time LUNA/UST crashed, many on social media pointed fingers to some U.S. financial giants, in particular BlackRock and Citadel Securities, since the death spiral of Terra involved multiple transactions of great value. The question is, what is the reason for this move, assuming that it could be true? LUNA advocates and many who believed in the conspiracy theory provided four possible explanations. First of all, UST popularity increased way too fast, eating away the market share of physically backed stablecoins, one of which (USDC) backed by BlackRock and Fidelity. On April 18, 2022, UST became the third largest stablecoin by market cap at US$17 billion, behind USDT (US$82 billion) and USDC (US$49 billion) only. Another motive could be to acquire the Bitcoin reserves of LUNA Foundation Guard (LFG), a non-profit organization established in January 2022 solely to defend UST peg and support the Terra ecosystem. In February 2022, LFG raised US$1 billion through the LUNA sale, with Jump Crypto and Three Arrows Capital being the lead investors. Familiar names, right? You will see these names later. LFG continuously accumulated Bitcoin; as of May 07, 2022, LFG was in the Top 10 Bitcoin holders in the world. This is a breakdown of LFG reserves before everything happened: Social media users argued that LFG made itself the perfect target because (i) Jump Trading (the parent company of Jump Crypto) happened to suggest LFG to create a UST price floor with the help of their Bitcoin reserve, i.e. a ‘backstop short-term UST redemption’ (per Terra founder Do Kwon), (ii) LFG Bitcoin reserves had a lot BTC and (iii) Do Kwon was arrogant enough to imply his project is invincible and brag about LFG. An UST depeg would force LFG to sell Bitcoin at a discounted price to retail investors. Source: CoinDesk LFG indeed had to put their BTC reserve for sale at a much lower price compared to the average purchase price, and that was it. And of course, as the founder of Terra, Do Kwon had the access to manipulate LUNA price at his will, building a house of cards with the trumpery LUNA and the 19.5%-stable-yield decentralized bank Anchor ponzi. But this isn’t just a conspiracy theory; South Korean prosecutors have, in fact, accused Kwon of price manipulation after they obtained concrete evidence about the act. Previously, the Interpol issued a red notice for him at the request of Korean law enforcement authorities. Last but not least, well, some might say UST would sooner or later fall prey to authorities’ investigations, because it was decentralized. What we do know is that this was a complicated plot: Check out Chainalysis’ report here. The complex nature of the action and the transaction sizes are what buoyed up the conspiracy theory started on 4chan, which was then shared to the Twitter community by Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson. The tweet was later deleted. Source: Screenshot from Twitter BlackRock and Citadel Securities quickly put out an official statement denying their involvement in the notorious event. Gemini, which appeared in the story as the intermediary who gave two giants the loans to prompt the move, also denied the legitimacy of this theory. Community Attempt Before the chaos kicked in, Terra was a thriving ecosystem with more than US$21 billion in TVL as of May 2022 (about 10% of DeFi TVL and 90% of Cosmos TVL at that time), its own decentralized stablecoin (an impartial, low-volatility, crypto-native asset as the ecosystem’s central medium of exchange), Mirror - an exchange that allowed for synthetic asset trading (assets that tracked real-world assets such as securities) and home to nearly 100 dedicated projects. The storm swept away US$40 billion from the crypto market and triggered a chain of unfortunate events that sent the market into a grim winter, but that didn’t stop Terra community to continue to root for the chain. Do Kwon and Terraform Labs (TFL) already moved on with Terra (LUNA) 2.0, hence the dismissal of the original project. Disapproved of Kwon and TFL’s opinion, a team of LUNA (now becomes LUNC) diehard supporters created their own community called Terra Rebels, with core developers Edward Kim and Tobias Andersen, and published a roadmap for the revival of the once mighty Terra 1.0 on their official website. One of the key achievements was the implementation of the 1.2% tax burn for on-chain transactions of LUNC and USTC in September 2022, leading to a 250% jump in LUNC overnight. The idea was to encourage as much burn as possible so that LUNC price can recover in the shortest possible time, but apparently, it came with two downsides: • Even with the 1.2% tax burn, it still takes an extremely long time to bring LUNC supply to the amount before May 14; and • A high tax fee may very well dissuade people from trading LUNC and UST, leading to a reduction in daily volume. A new proposal that planned to lower the tax burn to 0.2% and devote 10% of tax revenue for builders passed the vote in October, hence the jump in LUNC volume as well as LUNC burn amount in November. Despite the efforts, LUNC return didn’t seem to improve. With Edward Kim and Tobias Andersen leaving Terra Rebels at the end of December 2022, chances that LUNC could recover become thinner than ever. The Next Dominoes To Fall Terra (LUNA) collapsed, triggering liquidations of both retail and institutional investors. Because of Terra, 2022 has become the year of bankruptcy - FTX victims are not included. At least three moguls - Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Voyager and Celsius - have gone, most likely forever, each dragging several key market participants down with them. Three Arrows Capital The first piece of the puzzle is 3AC. According to the Financial Times (FT), the Singapore-based hedge fund managed a total of over US$18 billion at its peak. However, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reported on June 30, 2022 that 3AC provided false information regarding their asset under management (AUM), which was capped at US$179 million in 2020 and 2021, and their relocation to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) in 2021. During the time when LUNA and UST prices were depreciating, 3AC already received questions about their LUNA exposure, but the co-founder and CEO Su Zhu convinced stakeholders that everything is fine, only to tweet about being ‘in the process of communicating with relevant parties’ on June 15, 2022. Clearly, the soundness of their portfolio was no longer guaranteed, and within the span of a few days, counterparties began to liquidate 3AC’s assets and liquidations:• June 15, 2022: BlockFi liquidated 3AC loans • June 17, 2022: Genesis Trading, FTX, Deribit and BitMEX liquidated 3AC positions • June 29, 2022: BVI court ordered the liquidation of 3AC • July 01, 2022: Deribit, among other parties, initiated 3AC’s liquidation application in BVI court. Now, 3AC is a story about risky leveraging practices and poor communication with counterparties. Note that it could’ve been more fathomable (though still not justified) if 3AC had been a venture capital firm, yet it was a hedge fund. It was discovered that 3AC had long positions of approximately US$560 million in LUNA and UST at their peaks, which shrunk to only $600 in May. Their positions were highly leveraged using counterparty funds stored on Anchor Protocol. The last straw was the depeg of stETH on June 14, which forced 3AC into selling 60,000 stETH and sparked questions about the fund’s solvency. What made the situation worse was a lack of communication between 3AC execs (Su Zhu and Kyle Davies) and counterparties, who lended US$3.5 billion to the fund. Before the tweet on June 15, 3AC went radio silent on Twitter, Zhu even deleted his Instagram. Thereby the remaining 3AC assets in the U.S. were frozen by a district court on July 12, 2022. Communications were already limited during the ‘summertime sadness’, and became much harder after the founders’ flee, although they tweeted a lot and seemed to plot a comeback when FTX crumbled. Hardly has anyone reported about seeing Zhu and Davies ever since, though there are speculations that Zhu is currently in Dubai and Davies in Bali. That doesn’t stop liquidators from pursuing them. For the first time ever, a subpoena was served on Twitter - the addressee being Kyle Livingston Davies. Let us quote nic_carter: ‘Shouldn’t have tweeted so much eh Kyle?’ We’ll discuss the bankruptcy filings of 3AC, together with ‘prominent’ bankruptcy filings of 2022 in a later volume of The Crypto Burrito. Voyager, Celsius, And Others One’s down. Onto the next one: Crypto broker Voyager Digital Ltd., who used to be listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). On June 22, 2022, Voyager announced their exposure to 3AC totalling US$662 million, for which they may issue a notice of default. And because of the liquidity needs arising from Terra’s crash and 3AC loans, Voyager borrowed US$200 million in cash, USDC revolver and a 15,000 BTC revolver from Alameda Ventures 15 days before they filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. One of the most complex and expensive bankruptcy proceedings, Chapter 11 allows a company to restructure its debts and obligations while remaining in operation. While Voyager handled things in quite a swift, decisive manner, Celsius execs waited for over a month after pausing customer withdrawals and transfers to declare Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, and that was after they had paid back loans of US$900 million from MakerDAO, Aave and Compound Finance. Babel Finance, Vauld, BlockFi, Genesis were among the big players hit the hardest during this difficult period. Yet we want to highlight the trouble a major secondary victim of Terra (LUNA) had to go through, that is, Tether - issuer of USDT. There had been US$7.6 billion in USDT redeemed for fiat from May 07 to May 16, 2022, placing enormous pressure on the stablecoin’s peg. On May 12, USDT price fell to as low as US$0.95 on a few exchanges. Source: Cryptowatch Tether had to distance itself from 3AC, citing rumours about their lending exposure to 3AC ‘are categorically false’. With regards to Celsius’ loans, the announcement confirmed that ‘Celsius position has been liquidated with no losses to Tether’. With Tether being the backbone of crypto markets (40-50% dominance), speculation about Tether’s solvency did shake the whole industry to the core, especially when they hardly provided any official audits back then and kept a suspiciously large portion of their holdings in (Chinese) commercial papers, which appeared to be far riskier than the expected risk profile of a stablecoin issuer. Tether accelerated the reduction of commercial papers and declared ‘zero’ commercial paper reserves in October, 2022. Closing Thoughts Crypto investors entered the year 2022 with a rocky start - Bitcoin tumbling to US$40,000, Ether to US$3,200, the Federal Reserve (FED) expecting to turn hawkish to combat inflation and the tension in Ukraine escalating. Fear and uncertainty around the Terra contagion made BTC breach US$25,000, single-handedly defining a new crypto winter. More importantly, the UST failure raises doubts about the feasibility of a true decentralized stablecoin. We need to keep in mind that algo stablecoins have been in a constant state of evolution, and the faults in UST design can serve as valuable input for the development of future algorithmic stablecoins, in particular those with the Seigniorage model. A purging is needed to strengthen the whole industry, which, by the way, needs to move completely on-chain for better transparency. Meanwhile, in the case of Celsius, it should be emphasized that the first creditors to receive full loan repayments were DeFi lenders, allegedly telling us that DeFi is the only way forward. 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