Pepe (PEPE)
Summary
PEPE is an anonymous-team ERC-20 meme coin launched in April 2023 on Ethereum, inspired by the Pepe the Frog internet character. It reached a market cap of $1.6 billion within three weeks of launch and hit an all-time high of $11 billion in December 2024. The project has been marked by a significant insider theft of approximately $15.7 million in August 2023, an SEC Wells Notice issued to a named developer, alleged insider trading by former team members, and unresolved intellectual property exposure stemming from the use of Matt Furie's copyrighted character.
Connected Entities
1 entities- + 3 more
Timeline(13 events)
2023-04-18
CoinGecko begins tracking PEPE; price has already increased significantly since deployment
Fortune2023-04-19
PeckShield identifies phishing site (pepecoin.vip) and fake PEPE Twitter account; 3.56 billion PEPE tokens stolen from users
The Crypto Basic2023-05-09
PEPE market cap reaches approximately $1.6 billion, then retreats to approximately $800 million; token listed on Crypto.com and Binance
Fortune2023-08-24
16 trillion PEPE tokens (~$15.7M, 60% of multi-sig wallet) transferred to Binance, OKX, KuCoin, and Bybit; multi-sig threshold changed from 5/8 to 2/8 signers
CoinDesk2023-08-25
Anonymous PEPE founder publicly blames three former team members for the unauthorized transfer; PEPE price falls approximately 15%; Jeremy Cahen (Pauly) alleges founder is Zachary Testa
CryptoSlate2023-08-26
Jeremy Cahen alleges insider trading by the PEPE team, claiming members held ~$16-17M in PEPE across nine wallets and initiated short positions before public disclosure
Benzinga2023-08-28
Remaining PEPE founder commits to burning all 10 trillion remaining team-held tokens and accepts sole control of updated multi-sig
Decrypt2024-10-22
SEC Division of Enforcement issues Wells Notice to Eric Wallace, a named PEPE developer, for alleged violations of Securities Act of 1933 and Securities Exchange Act of 1934 related to the August 2023 token transfers
PR Newswire2024-11-13
PEPE listed on Robinhood and Coinbase; token surges on major exchange access expansion
CoinDesk2024-12-09
PEPE reaches all-time high price of approximately $0.00002829, corresponding to a market cap of approximately $11 billion
FXStreet2025-02-27
SEC Division of Corporation Finance issues staff statement clarifying that meme coins meeting PEPE's profile do not constitute securities under federal law; enforcement jurisdiction shifts to CFTC
SEC.govDecision Log
- hash: 8JQUVDPFhN8seSXYKh3MhMtAE4fWkkZty9ejvxz1XN2p
- hash: Bow4MuMszkDKf6VkC3WWsbttSpPzdMtyAHpFBVcRcZHg
- hash: DLiFUHRCtuXZrGpRpd1ssbNmSDAzotrvP3PvgiKyh1fg
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain and source URLs are archived via the Internet Archive.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/13/2026, 3:31:47 AM
last updated: 5/14/2026, 6:02:04 AM
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