The recursive inscription project The Pepes gains popularity, sparking controversy over oversupply but attracting massive purchases
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The recursive inscription project The Pepes gains popularity, sparking controversy over oversupply but attracting massive purchases
Behind the high popularity of the Bitcoin NFT project The Pepes is not only the widely recognized Pepe (the Sad Frog) meme image, but also its decision to hand control over NFT rarity to users, which has further attracted community attention.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: Nancy, PANews
Recently, a Bitcoin NFT project called "The Pepes" has taken the overseas NFT community by storm, quickly climbing to the top of trading volume charts. Beyond leveraging the widely recognized Pepe (the Sad Frog) meme, its decision to let users determine NFT rarity has further captured community attention.
As the first 10K Pepe recursive inscription project on Bitcoin, The Pepes did not conduct whitelist sales or team allocations and opened public minting on January 7.
The Pepes uses recursive inscriptions, allowing users to freely combine elements such as clothing, hats, accessories, eyes, and noses—meaning NFT rarity is entirely determined by user choices. For example, many community members have noted that during the minting process, rare traits like BAYC-style laser eyes became common due to mass minting.
However, because the team initially failed to clearly disclose minting progress and total supply, The Pepes was over-minted—originally planned for 10,000 units, the total now exceeds 18,000, with numerous duplicate NFTs. This has led some users to accuse the team of intentionally profiting from transaction fees. According to Mempool data, at the time of writing, the Bitcoin address associated with The Pepes held approximately 3.7 BTC (worth over $174,000). Minting has now been halted, and the team is working on indexing. However, duplicates will not be included in the official collection, and the team has not directly addressed refund requests, stating only: "In the blockchain world, whether a transaction is confirmed is inherently a game of time and money—users must bear inscription risks themselves."
Despite these issues, The Pepes has triggered strong FOMO sentiment, even drawing participation from artist Beeple through derivative creations. Without an official account or formal community established, The Pepes was proactively listed by NFT marketplace Magic Eden, leading to an immediate surge in trading volume. According to Magic Eden data, as of January 8, The Pepes ranked second on the platform with over 13.5 BTC (worth more than $591,000) in trading volume and over 3,100 unique holders.
It's worth noting that under Ordinals rules, inscription number (i.e., creation time) is often considered the primary indicator of collectible value—the earlier the number, the higher the perceived value. However, The Pepes' inscription numbers are relatively late, adding uncertainty to their long-term value.
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