An email sent to Coinbase customers describing the Pepe meme as a “hate symbol” co-opted by far-right groups has sparked significant anger from the PEPE memecoin community..
Noted crypto-influencer Borovik.eth shared a screenshot of the May 10 email newsletter to his 96,000 followers.which cites a 2016 decision by the Anti-Defamation League to place the frog character in its online hate symbols database.
why is @coinbase sending out emails telling people that $pepe is an alt-right hate symbol?? pic.twitter.com/UNzClQlwwv
— borovik.eth (@3orovik) May 11, 2023
Why is @coinbase sending out emails telling people that $pepe is a right-wing hate symbol? pic.twitter.com/UNzClQlwwv
Fans and holders of the frog-themed memecoin were outraged by the token’s description, prompting calls for Coinbase to issue an apology.and users will start deleting their accounts from the crypto exchange.
The pseudonymous Twitter user and solidity developer Kenobi declared that Pepe is not a symbol of hate and that, consequently, he would transfer his funds to the Gemini crypto exchange.based in the United States, completing his tweet with the hashtag: “#deletecoinbase”
I will be closing my personal and business accounts with @Coinbase and moving them to @Gemini.#PEPE IS NOT A SYMBOL OF HATE@brian_armstrongthe $PEPE community DEMANDS that you retract your vulgar statement about #PEPECOIN!!#DELETECOINBASESHORTS $COIN
—Kenobi (@OG_Kenobi_Hello) May 11, 2023
I will be closing my personal and business accounts at @Coinbase and moving them to @Gemini. PEPE IS NOT A HATE SYMBOL @brian_armstrong the PEPE community DEMANDS you retract your vulgar statement about #PEPECOIN #DELETECOINBASE, SHORT $COIN
The hashtag “#deletecoinbase” has made it to Twitter’s trending bar, and it has more than 14,000 tweets in the last two hours. and counting, according to data from Tweetbinder.
Since Binance listed the token for trading on May 5, Members of the Twitter community holding Pepe have been calling on the leaders of a number of crypto exchanges to list the token as well..
Coinbase has not yet made much indication as to whether it intends to list the Pepe token.
A Coinbase spokesperson said the exchange had “nothing further to add.” in an email response to Cointelegraph.
Evidently, Gemini CEO Cameron Winkelvoss was listening and on May 9, the Winklevoss-owned cryptocurrency exchange listed the memecoin for trading, with a more open description of the new token..
Pepe’s price fell 2.6% in the hours after news of the Coinbase description circulated on Twitter. At press time, Pepe is trading at a price of USD 0.00000184, down 10.4% in the last 24 hoursaccording to data from CoinGecko.
Update (May 11, 4:44am UTC): made a correction to the article to clarify that the Pepe meme was described as a symbol of hate, not the memecoin.
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