After sending out a newsletter on Wednesday, Coinbase received backlash from the Pepe Twitter community which lead to more than 80,000 trending #DeleteCoinbase tweets.
The false statement quickly spread on social media with thousands of Twitter users sharing photos of themselves deleting the Coinbase app and closing their accounts in protest.
A majority of users have moved to buying $PEPE on Gemini and other crypto exchanges that provide the people with what they want, and the people want $PEPE.
The newsletter referred to the Anti-Defamation League’s classification of Pepe the Frog as a hate symbol, stating, “The token is based on the Pepe the Frog meme, which first surfaced on the internet nearly 20 years ago as a comic-strip character. Over time it has been co-opted as a hate symbol by alt-right groups, according to the Anti-Defamation League.“
After the newsletter was sent, the market cap of Pepe coin decreased by over 15%. Additionally, Coinbase’s stock declined by more than 3% (about $400 million) as a result of the backlash on Twitter, which brought mass attention to the situation.
It was at that moment, Coinbase knew they had screwed up.
Within 24 hours of the newsletter being sent, Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, posted a tweet apologizing on behalf of the company for the false information presented in the newsletter email.
However, the community has expressed that Paul’s apology is insufficient. While his Twitter account has only 35k followers, Coinbase has over 5 million followers, in addition to millions of newsletter subscribers who received the false newsletter.
Pepe coin holders and potential buyers of $PEPE have been eagerly anticipating its listing on Coinbase, as other tier 1 exchanges such as Binance and Gemini have already listed the coin.
The community is now asking Coinbase to prove its sincerity by listing Pepe on its exchange and issuing a formal apology as a company. Twitter users are now adopting a new hashtag #ListPepe in an attempt to get Coinbase to list the coin.
In response to the situation, a Twitter user named Mike Dudas claimed that the newsletter was sent by a “dumb intern.”
Although it’s not clear who sent the newsletter, Pauly0x, a prominent member of the Pepe community, believes that the newsletter was sent under the direction of Coinbase’s executives, rather than by an intern.
There are many who believe that the newsletter was sent with the intention of driving down the price of $PEPE, allowing Coinbase to purchase it at a lower price before listing it on their platform. This is commonly referred to as market manipulation.
Coinbase has yet to state whether or not they will ultimately list $PEPE. But either way, this is a huge win for the Pepe community and crypto in general. Market manipulation has been going on since the creation of centralized exchanges (CEXs) like Coinbase.
This movement is something much greater than just Pepe or even crypto. It’s exposing multi-billion dollar companies and their bad practices.
