Memes, internet jokes and references to popular culture have become an integral part of online communities. Because of this, cryptocurrencies have inevitably given rise to a new wave of assets called “memecoins”. While some argue that these coins are just a fad, others might also believe in their potential to bring financial gain to their investors.
One of the most popular memecoins that has recently launched is a frog-themed token called PEPE. The token gained traction amid the bear market and garnered a lot of support from various community members despite its official website. saying “the play is completely unnecessary and for entertainment purposes only.”
According to its creators, PEPE is on a mission to “Make Memecoins Great Again,” a play on former US President Donald Trump’s political slogan, Make America Great Again. The project has also expressed its intention to outdo dog-inspired meme pieces that “have already had their day” and have Pepe, who they consider the world’s most recognizable meme, take his place as than “king of memes”.
As it heads to the top, PEPE must surpass the current king who sits atop the memecoin charts – Dogecoin. In a Cointelegraph Twitter poll on April 25, DOGE still came out on top when Twitter was asked what it thought would have the largest market cap in 2025. However, PEPE came close and claimed second place. .
$PEPE community prepares for Twitter polls: pic.twitter.com/SeTRgAdf5s
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) April 25, 2023
PEPE and Dogecoin (DOGE) have their similarities and will inevitably perform differently from each other. Both crypto tokens have gained a large following and were created for a similar reason, which is entertainment. However, the difference is in their journey to market cap of $1 billion and their performance after reaching market cap.
Dogecoin’s journey to the top of the memecoin world
Dogecoin was created four years after the mining of the genesis block of Bitcoin (BTC). It was created by software engineers Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer, attempting to make fun of the cryptocurrency space.
The memecoin gained traction in January 2014 when it reached a market capitalization of $60 million. Four years later, the market capitalization of the token reached $1 billion for the first time as the price of the coin hit $0.0100.
A few days after DOGE broke the milestone, the cryptocurrency continued to inflate all the way to $0.0175, taking its market cap to $1.98 billion before dropping to $784 million, when the price is fell to $0.0069 on January 16, 2018.
Almost four years later, the crypto has had another run, breaking its previous all-time high. On May 8, 2021, the token reached a market capitalization of $88 billion as its price reached an all-time high of $0.7315 per token. The price action is usually associated with the 2021-2022 bull run where token prices soared as BTC reached new highs.
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Contrary to the expectations of its founders, DOGE has become one of the most important cryptocurrencies to ever exist. At the time of writing, the token sits at a market cap of $10 billion, surpassing tokens like Solana (SOL) and Polygon (MATIC) which arguably have more use cases than DOGE.
PEPE’s performance after reaching a market capitalization of $1 billion
Unlike DOGE, which took almost four years to reach the milestone, PEPE gained popularity very quickly. Just three weeks after its launch, the meme-inspired crypto almost instantly reached $1 billion in market capitalization. The token gained support and was listed on various exchanges, from Bybit to Binance.
The token performed quite similarly to DOGE after hitting the $1 billion mark. After hitting $1 billion on May 5, the promising memecoin also nearly reached a market cap of $2 billion on the same day. However, after hitting $1.82 billion in market cap, the token’s market cap quickly dropped to $725 million on May 9.
At the time of writing, the token is trading at $0.00000192 per token with a market cap of $800 million.
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