Pepe's Big Rebound: Exploring the Frog-Themed Meme Family Tree and Its Underlying Culture
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Pepe's Big Rebound: Exploring the Frog-Themed Meme Family Tree and Its Underlying Culture
Keep this Pepe family tree handy—just in case the "frog market" ever arrives.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsWritten by: TechFlow
With BTC stabilizing after its drop, the Meme sector, which had been quiet for some time, is finally showing signs of rebounding. Leading this resurgence is the top-tier Memecoin $Pepe, but this time it’s not alone—numerous “family members” are riding the wave alongside it.
This year, enthusiasm for Memecoins continues to grow. A single Pepe can no longer satisfy market speculation demands. As a result, previously undifferentiated little frogs collectively known as Pepe have now been individually selected by the market and transformed into various new Memecoins.
TechFlow has compiled a list of currently popular Pepe-family-named tokens in the market, guiding you through the native frog Meme culture ecosystem.
Keep this Pepe family tree handy—after all, who knows when the next “frog market” might strike?
PS: Since there's no unified consensus yet on the identities within the Pepe family, the Twitter accounts introduced here represent the most prominent projects associated with each Meme image at present.
Pick your fighter and start losing money
Pepe
Official Twitter: https://x.com/pepecoineth
Contract Address:
0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933
As the most iconic character in frog Meme culture, $Pepe was also the first frog-themed Memecoin to gain popularity in the crypto world—an outcome that exceeded many people’s expectations. The wealth story of Pepecoin needs no elaboration. Tracing back culturally, Pepe is the original figure in the frog family, created by cartoonist Matt Furie. It first appeared in 2005 in Furie’s comic “Boy’s Club,” then gained favor among users on the 4chan forum, gradually evolving into a widely circulated Meme on the platform.
Today, Pepe has become an undeniable IP in the crypto world. From inception to becoming a dominant force among Memecoins, the much-watched $Pepe achieved prominence in less than a year.
Pepecoin (Same-name Token)
Official Twitter: https://x.com/pepecoins
Contract Address:
0xA9E8aCf069C58aEc8825542845Fd754e41a9489A
Additionally, following the surge in popularity of $Pepe last year, several same-name tokens emerged attempting to ride the hype. Among them, $Pepecoin appears to be more than just a copycat. According to their official article, the team claims they had planned to launch a virtual currency based on the Pepe character as early as 2016, but were unable to do so due to various reasons. The breakout success of $Pepe in 2023 reignited their passion, prompting the team to launch their token shortly afterward. There remains ongoing debate over the "legitimacy" of issuing rights to the "frog Pepe" IP.
According to our research, $Pepecoin has a relatively large liquidity pool. When $Pepe skyrocketed earlier this year, $Pepecoin also surged significantly and, although halved since then, has not yet collapsed to zero.
However, it’s clear the market is no longer satisfied with speculating on a single frog Meme—the wealth effect and IP influence brought by $Pepe have now spread to other frog Meme characters.
Smug Pepe
Notably, because the spread of frog Meme culture cannot keep pace with the speed of crypto market speculation, Smug Pepe has long been used as the logo for the $Pepe token. To this day, the official Pepecoin Twitter still uses Smug Pepe as its profile picture—reflecting how most people don’t care deeply about nuanced distinctions within frog culture. Whether the icon represents one frog or another is a minor detail irrelevant to speculative trading.
After some investigation, we found there is currently no unified market consensus around the Smug Pepe image. Existing Smug Pepe-related Twitter accounts vary widely, liquidity pools are shallow, and participation carries high risk. Interested readers may explore further but should proceed with caution.
MonkaS
Project Twitter: https://x.com/MonkasErc20
Contract Address:
0xdc7ac5d5d4a9c3b5d8f3183058a92776dc12f4f3
MonkaS originated on Twitch TV as a derivative emoji based on Pepe, symbolizing a “shocked and sweating Pepe,” commonly used during tense moments in gaming streams.
Being one of the closest variants to Pepe, MonkaS was quickly separated out and promoted as an independent IP. It wasn't until seeing people trade CX MonkaS that I realized MonkaS isn't actually the same character as Pepe in Meme culture—a testament to how Memecoins help propagate niche internet cultures.
Apustaja (Apu)
Project Twitter: https://x.com/ApusCoin
Contract Address:
0x594daad7d77592a2b97b725a7ad59d7e188b5bfa
The crudely drawn juvenile frog Apustaja is another popular frog Meme character. Since debuting in 2016, it has enjoyed explosive popularity (the author is also a fan). The internet has generated countless Apustaja-based Meme images, with users projecting real-life experiences onto the character. It's common to see Apustaja inserted into various real-world scenarios, and many crypto projects love using Apustaja as a thematic Meme figure.
Currently, $Apu is listed on Bybit exchange.
Ashbie
Project Twitter: https://x.com/ashbiemooncoinx
Contract Address:
0x789E29153A3c5E6598368716f8C146B5eBEfF969
Mentioning Apu brings us to his girlfriend Ashbie. At some point, netizens assigned the beloved character Apu a cute girlfriend named Ashbie. Gradually, memes featuring dates between Apu and Ashbie began circulating online. This slightly contrasting pairing surprisingly felt natural—and even became a representative image for the romantic meme “This could be us.”
Notably, before launching the $Ashbie token, the dev team airdropped free tokens to users who commented their addresses on Twitter. At the token’s peak price, these airdrops were worth nearly $2,500 per account.
Peepo
Project Twitter: https://x.com/PEEPOCOIN_ARMY
Contract Address:
0xaada04204e9e1099daf67cf3d5d137e84e41cf41
Peepo is another member of the Pepe family, a young frog character. Most people may recognize Peepo from the wide variety of stickers available on WeChat (?).
Since its launch, the $Peepo token has maintained strong community engagement, and the project team remains active on Twitter.
Currently, $Peepo is listed on Bitget exchange.
Groyper
Project Twitter: https://x.com/GroyperOnETH
Contract Address:
0x6942806d1b2d5886d95ce2f04314ece8eb825833
The Groyper image also originated on the 4chan forum, though its exact origin and meaning remain unclear (it simply caught on over time). Notably, this frog character with hand on chin is rarely used to represent “wisdom.” Instead, it has often been adopted by far-right and alt-right groups or individuals as a profile avatar on social media.
Speculation is fun, but protecting your principal comes first
Now that you understand the differences among Pepe family members, you’ll never again feel confused about why certain Pepe memes “look similar but somehow different.”
Still, most tokens based on Pepe family concepts remain in an early, chaotic phase of speculative growth. Consensus is fragmented, liquidity is poor, and rug pulls are possible—participate with caution.
Perhaps even more frog-family Memecoins await discovery
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