The Anti-Defamation League has banned certain Pepe the Frog memes on grounds of him representing a symbol of hate. This began after the media onslaught associating Pepe with Donald J. Trump, who they have labeled as being “worse than Hitler”, as reported by The Independent. Pepe’s notoriety has actually gained him some worthwhile adoration amongst collectors, and he’s now trading at up to $150 per card through Bitcoin groups.
Trump hasn’t killed anyone or put anyone in gas chambers, but due to weaponizing memes for political purposes, people have considered him to be one of the worst men in power throughout all of history… according to media reports from outlets like Paste Magazine.
The media marrying Trump with Pepe came after Hillary Clinton’s official website labeled Pepe a symbol of white supremacy. To quote directly from the site…
“Trump has retweeted his white supremacist supporters with regularity, but the connection between the alt-right and his campaign continues to strengthen. Trump has been slow to disavow support from Ku Klux Klansmen and white supremacy groups, and he recently hired Breitbart.com’s Steve Bannon as his campaign CEO (and Bannon isn’t shy about the fact that his “news” organization is the “platform for the alt-right”).
“Now white supremacists have given Pepe the cartoon frog some Trump hair—and the candidate’s own son says he is “honored to be grouped with” him.”
This landed some rare Pepe memes on the ADL’s banlist and he has now become a symbol of hate.
This news seemed to fare well for people who have a collection of rare Pepe memes. A Bitcoin trader explained via e-mail…
“The internet meme Pepe The Frog (aka Rarepepe) currently making bad news as being put on the ADL’s banlist, is traded on the Bitcoin blockchain using Counterparty, a system that allows the issuance of limited tokens and a decentralized way to trade these assets.
“Only PEPEs that were verified by specialised scientists are traded on the blockchain.” […] “The rarity of a PEPE [can] be guaranteed now. No more stealing of rare PEPEs!”
It may seem like a joke but if you check the Bitcoin trade index on XCP Dex, you will see that after Pepe was banned, certain rare Pepes like HeisenPepe – based on Heisenberg from AMC’s Breaking Bad – or the Kim Jung Il Pepe are being sold for over $100.
Bizarre as it is, the fact that the ADL banned the Pepes that they feel represent hate speech means that fewer people will use the meme and fewer memes will be made. This has made Pepe trade higher on the Bitcoin index, thus making some people with very rare Pepes a lot of money.
According to the blockchain rep, John, only three Jong Pepes exist, thus making them quite the catch. 400 Hillary Pepes are currently out in the wild, but they’re only selling for 0.4 XCP, which is equivalent to $1 USD.
As absurd as it is, you can actually search through the Bitcoin Blockchain to see the rare Pepes and what they’re trading for.
While the ADL may be attempting to curb hate speech through the limitation of spreading certain Pepe memes, they’ve also managed to turn Pepe into a hot commodity in the Bitcoin community. According to the XCP Dex, the rare Pepe transactions are picking up lots of steam and so long as Pepe is considered a symbol of hate, expect Bitcoin traders to continue to make a lot of bank on this absurd phenomenon.
