PEPE is an Ethereum memecoin named after Pepe the Frog, launched in April 2023 with no presale, no team allocation and openly no utility. It reached a market value above $1 billion within weeks and has since become one of the most widely listed memecoins in crypto. It does nothing but trade, so its price depends entirely on attention and liquidity. As of October 24, 2026, Pepe coin traded near $0.0000044, a market cap of roughly $1.86 billion according to CoinGecko, about 84% below its December 2024 peak. Below: where the PEPE coin came from, the incidents that shaped it, what its giant supply means for price targets, and how to buy it without getting caught by a fake contract.
This guide is part of our Memecoin hub, which maps every related guide in one place.
Key takeaways
- PEPE is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum with a supply of roughly 420.69 trillion; most was paired into a Uniswap liquidity pool at launch.
- It has no product, no revenue and no roadmap promises. The project’s own site calls it a coin with no intrinsic value.
- In August 2023, rogue members of the original team moved about 16 trillion PEPE from the project multisig to exchanges, which knocked the price down sharply.
- Because of the huge supply, every $0.000001 of price equals about $420 million of market cap. That arithmetic rules out “$0.01 PEPE” scenarios.
- PEPE trades on major exchanges including Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and OKX; on-chain, always verify the contract address.
What Is PEPE Coin?
PEPE is a fungible token that exists purely as a cultural bet: that a recognisable internet meme plus a fair-looking launch can sustain a liquid market. Holding PEPE gives you no governance rights, yield or claim on anything. It is not affiliated with Matt Furie, the artist who created the Pepe the Frog character in his 2005 comic Boy’s Club; the token’s website includes a disclaimer saying so. If you’re new to the category, our memecoin explainer covers why these tokens exist at all.
Pepe Coin Price and Market Cap (October 2026)
As of October 24, 2026, PEPE coin was priced at about $0.0000044 per token, giving it a market capitalisation of roughly $1.86 billion and a rank of around #52 among all crypto assets on CoinGecko. That is a long way below the all-time high of about $0.000028 set on December 9, 2024, when its market value briefly exceeded $11 billion.
| Metric (as of Oct 24, 2026) | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | ~$0.0000044 |
| Market cap | ~$1.86 billion |
| Market-cap rank | ~#52 (CoinGecko) |
| All-time high | ~$0.000028 (December 9, 2024) |
| Distance from all-time high | ~84% below |
| Supply | Just under 420.69 trillion PEPE, no new issuance |
Treat these as a snapshot. PEPE regularly moves 10% or more in a day, so check a live tracker before acting on any figure. To understand why such a tiny unit price still adds up to a multi-billion-dollar valuation, see the tokenomics table further down.
History: From Stealth Launch to Top-Tier Memecoin
April 2023: the launch
PEPE was deployed on Ethereum in mid-April 2023 by anonymous developers (on-chain records and many outlets point to April 14; some coverage gives April 17). There was no presale and no venture funding. The team’s stated distribution put 93.1% of tokens into a Uniswap liquidity pool, with the LP tokens burned so liquidity couldn’t be pulled, and held 6.9% in a multisignature wallet earmarked for future exchange listings, bridges and liquidity. No buy or sell tax was coded in.
The timing mattered. Ethereum memecoins had been quiet, and PEPE arrived just as traders were hunting for the next Dogecoin- or Shiba Inu-style run. Within roughly three weeks its market value went from nothing to over $1 billion, and quick listings on large exchanges, including Binance in early May 2023, multiplied the attention.
August 2023: the multisig incident
The episode every PEPE holder should know: on August 24, 2023, the signing threshold of the project’s multisig was changed from five-of-eight signers to two-of-eight. Around 16 trillion PEPE were then sent to exchanges including Binance, OKX, Bybit and KuCoin, and the price fell roughly 20% in a day. The project’s account, posted shortly afterward, blamed a faction of former team members it described as driven by “big egos and greed,” said those individuals had removed themselves from the multisig, and noted that about 10 trillion tokens remained. The statement could not be independently verified, but the lesson stands: “no team allocation” did not mean no insider tokens.
2024 onward: the exchange-listing phase
PEPE survived the 2023 slump and rallied with the broader memecoin market in 2024, setting new highs late that year. In November 2024 it was added by both Coinbase and Robinhood, putting it in front of mainstream US retail buyers. Since then it has behaved like a high-beta proxy for crypto risk appetite: rising faster than Bitcoin in speculative phases and falling much harder when sentiment turns.
How PEPE Works
There’s very little machinery. PEPE is a standard ERC-20 token, meaning any Ethereum wallet (MetaMask, Rabby, Ledger and others) can hold it and any Ethereum DEX can trade it. The verified contract on Etherscan is 0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933. The source code includes owner-only functions for blacklisting addresses and setting holding limits, which were used in early anti-bot measures. The project has said ownership was renounced. You can confirm it yourself: if the contract’s owner() function on Etherscan returns the zero address, nobody can call those functions any more.
On top of Ethereum mainnet, bridged versions of PEPE circulate on other networks. Those are representations created by bridges, not the original token, and carry the bridge’s own risk.
Tokenomics: What 420 Trillion Tokens Means
PEPE’s maximum supply was set at 420,690,000,000,000, a double meme number. Etherscan now shows slightly less than that, reflecting tokens sent to burn addresses over time. There is no minting, staking emission or inflation schedule, so supply can only shrink.
The useful skill here is converting price into market capitalisation, because it immediately tells you which price targets are plausible:
| PEPE price | Implied market cap (approx.) | For context |
|---|---|---|
| $0.000001 | $420 million | Small-cap memecoin territory |
| $0.00001 | $4.2 billion | Top-tier memecoin |
| $0.0001 | $42 billion | Larger than most Layer 1 blockchains |
| $0.001 | $420 billion | Comparable to the very largest crypto assets |
| $0.01 | $4.2 trillion | Bigger than any crypto asset has ever been |
So when social posts ask “can PEPE hit a cent?”, the answer is that it would need to be worth more than Bitcoin has ever been, with no business behind it. Scenario-based outlooks with explicit assumptions are in our PEPE price prediction.
How to Buy PEPE Coin
Option 1: A centralized exchange (simplest)
- Pick a regulated exchange available where you live that lists PEPE. Coinbase and Kraken serve US users; Binance, OKX and others serve many other regions.
- Complete identity verification and deposit funds by bank transfer or card (cards usually cost more).
- Search PEPE, place a market order for a small test amount or a limit order at your price.
- Decide whether to leave it on the exchange or withdraw to your own wallet. If you withdraw, select the Ethereum (ERC-20) network.
Option 2: Uniswap or another DEX
- Fund an Ethereum wallet with ETH for both the purchase and gas fees.
- Get the contract address from Etherscan, CoinGecko or CoinMarketCap and confirm it matches the address above. Scammers deploy look-alike “PEPE” tokens constantly.
- Open the DEX, paste the contract address rather than searching by name, review the quote and price impact, and confirm.
- Gas on Ethereum mainnet can make tiny purchases uneconomical; check the fee before you buy $20 worth.
Full screenshots-level walkthroughs are in our how to buy PEPE guide, and DEX basics are in our Uniswap tutorial.
Where to Buy Pepe Coin
Pepe coin is listed on most large centralized exchanges and trades on Uniswap. As of October 2026, CoinGecko’s market data showed PEPE trading pairs on these platforms, among many others:
| Where you live | Exchanges listing PEPE (Oct 2026) | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US, Robinhood | Some products and states are restricted; confirm in the app |
| Outside the US | Binance, OKX, Bybit, Bitget, KuCoin, Crypto.com, Bitvavo, Upbit, Bithumb | Availability depends on local licensing |
| On-chain | Uniswap (Ethereum) | Paste the contract address; don’t search by name |
For most beginners, a regulated exchange with a simple buy screen is the safer starting point: there is no contract address to get wrong and no gas fee to estimate. If you are still choosing a platform, compare fees and features in our best crypto exchange guide. Whichever venue you use, the “PEPE” ticker is also used by copycat tokens on other chains, so match the Ethereum contract address before buying on a DEX or withdrawing to a wallet.
Can You Stake or Earn on PEPE?
PEPE has no native staking because Ethereum tokens don’t secure the network; only ETH does. Any “PEPE staking” offer is really one of three things: an exchange lending your tokens out, a liquidity-pool position that exposes you to impermanent loss, or a scam site. Treat high advertised yields on PEPE with suspicion.
Risks and Is PEPE a Good Investment?
- No fundamental floor: If attention moves to the next meme, there is no cash flow or utility to support the price.
- Whale concentration: Large wallets and exchange hot wallets hold a big share of supply; a few sellers can move the market.
- Insider history: The 2023 multisig transfers show that tokens outside the liquidity pool can be dumped.
- Fake tokens and phishing: Copycat contracts and fake airdrop sites target PEPE buyers.
- Volatility: Daily moves of 10–20% are common, and drawdowns of 70%+ have happened more than once.
A balanced way to frame it: in a strong crypto bull market with rising retail participation, established memecoins like PEPE have tended to outperform; in a risk-off market, they have tended to fall the furthest. If you hold any, size it as money you could see go to near zero, and compare it with alternatives in our best memecoins roundup.
FAQ
Who created PEPE coin?
PEPE was launched by anonymous developers in April 2023. It has no connection to Matt Furie, who created the Pepe the Frog cartoon, and the project’s site says so. Because the team is anonymous, there is no company or identifiable person accountable for it, which is normal for memecoins but an important risk to understand.
Will PEPE reach $0.01?
Almost certainly not at the current supply. At about 420 trillion tokens, a price of $0.01 implies a market value of roughly $4.2 trillion, more than any crypto asset has ever reached. Even $0.001 would require a valuation in the hundreds of billions. Burns so far have been tiny relative to supply.
Is PEPE on Coinbase?
Yes. Coinbase added PEPE in November 2024, and it is also available on Kraken, Binance, OKX, Robinhood and many other platforms, depending on your country. Availability changes, so check the exchange’s asset list for your region before depositing funds.
What happened to PEPE in August 2023?
The project multisig’s signing threshold was lowered and around 16 trillion PEPE were moved to exchanges, causing a sharp price drop. The project blamed former team members who then left the multisig. It remains the main cautionary tale about insider-held supply in otherwise fairly launched memecoins.
Is Pepe coin a good investment?
That depends on your goals and risk tolerance, and nobody can answer it for you. Pepe coin has no revenue, product or cash flow, so its price rests entirely on demand from other traders. It has delivered large gains in bull markets and lost more than 80% from its December 2024 high by October 2026. If you buy any, treat it as a speculative position you could afford to lose entirely.
How much is Pepe coin worth today?
As of October 24, 2026, one PEPE was worth about $0.0000044, so $1 bought roughly 227,000 tokens, and the total market cap was about $1.86 billion (CoinGecko). Because the price is so small, quotes are often shown in scientific notation or with many decimal places. Always check a live tracker before trading.
Where can I buy Pepe coin in the US?
US residents can buy PEPE on Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, Binance.US and Robinhood, subject to state restrictions, or on Uniswap with a self-custody Ethereum wallet. Exchange listings change, so confirm PEPE appears in the app for your state before you deposit funds.
Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.
