Calls to boycott Coinbase have arisen in response to the company's labeling of Pepe as a hate symbol

By: Michael Wilson

Calls to boycott Coinbase have arisen in response to the company's labeling of Pepe as a hate symbol

May 11, 2023 6:31 AM

On May 10th, Coinbase clients received an email newsletter that sparked widespread criticism from the Pepe community.


In response to an email issued to Coinbase users in which the Pepe meme was described as a "hate symbol" co-opted by alt-right organizations, the PEPE memecoin community has expressed strong displeasure. 


In a May 10 tweet to his 96,000 followers, prominent crypto influencer Borovik.eth included a screenshot of an email→ message that references an Anti-Defamation League ruling from 2016 that included the frog-themed character in its database→ of internet hate symbols.

 


Fans and traders of the frog-themed meme-coin were disgusted by the token's description, prompting calls for Coinbase to issue an apology and customers to begin canceling their accounts with the crypto exchange.


On Twitter, the pseudonymous user and solidity developer Kenobi said, "#deletecoinbase" after declaring that Pepe is not a sign of hate and adding that he would be shifting his funds to the U.S.-based crypto exchange Gemini as a result.

 


According to Tweetbinder→, there have been over 14,000 tweets using the hashtag "#deletecoinbase" in the previous two hours.


Pepe holders on Crypto witter have been petitioning the heads of several cryptocurrency exchanges to list the token since Binance made it tradeable on May 5.


Coinbase has not yet provided any concrete details regarding the listing of the Pepe cryptocurrency on its exchange.


On May 9, the Winklevoss-owned cryptocurrency exchange Gemini offered the meme-coin for trade with a more generalized description→ of the new token, proving that Gemini CEO Cameron Winkelvoss was paying attention.

 

Gemini's description of the Pepe token. Source: Gemini


In the hours after news of Coinbase's explanation spread on Twitter, the value of Pepe dropped by 2.6%. According to statistics provided by CoinGecko→, the current price of Pepe is $0.00000184, a drop of 10.4 percent in the previous 24 hours.