the first Bitcoin NFTs

1 Who is Pepe the frog?

To understand the Rare Pepe we must go back to its origins. In other words, travel back in time to the year 2005. At that time, the life of a funny green frog and her friends began, a character created by Matt Furie for his comic Boy’s Club.

The design was simple: an anthropomorphic frog with a humanoid body. And your motto? Well, she had an unmistakable phrase in English: “Feels good, manor “Feels good, man.” According to his creator, Pepe represented doing what we like and the difficulties to carry it out.

What started as a comic soon became an Internet meme, and even a political symbol. According to the 2020 documentary Feels Good Manthe Frog Pepe has been used by far-right groups and anti-government protesters alike Chinese in Hong Kong. Likewise, it stood out as one of the most shared illustrations among users of 4chan, Gaia, Myspace, Tumbl and Twitter. The old internet, right?

By 2014, the Pepe meme was already beginning to have commercial connotations. 4chan users edited images of the frog to create various characters, such as the sad, upset or crisis version of him. Little by little, these unique and anonymous digital items were being traded on eBay, thus paving the way for the NFTs we know today.

2 What is the story behind the Rare Pepe?

Rare Pepe as an NFT was born in 2016. An anonymous Counterparty user, identified as Mike, and who some believe to be Shekles —the creator of the platform—, created three card models with the Pepe meme. The design of it was not like its eBay predecessors, but rather they mixed the idea of ​​the green frog with events and symbols of the cryptocurrency community.

Among the first letters created by Mark, are the Nakamoto Cardwhich refers to the creator of Bitcoin, Gox Euphoriawhich refers to one of the most popular exchanges of the moment, and the Shitcoin Cardwhich spoke of speculation with low value coins. The letters came in limited number and were registered in the Bitcoin blockchain, features that attracted users.

The initiative attracted a variety of designers, users, and buyers, who uploaded their own Rare Pepes to Counterparty and traded them through a Telegram group. Likewise, a portfolio was created (the Rare Pepe wallet) to be able to interact with the NFTs, a currency to buy the cards (Pepe Cash) and a directory where all the Pepe created were stored.

Although anyone could create their own Rare Pepe, not everyone had the possibility to enter the board. For example, Users were required to be original letters in order to be listed and removed any content deemed offensive. For the year 2018, the famous directory stopped receiving new letters.

By that same year, the digital art trade in blockchain was beginning to move. For example, at the Rare Art Fest event held in New York, the first sale of one of these Rare Pepes was held at auction. It was about the letter Homer Simpson Rare Pepewhich sold at the time for just over $30,000.

The madness would be unleashed three years later, when in 2021 that same letter was sold again, but now for 300 thousand dollars. We are talking about one of the most expensive Rare Pepe and NFT in historybecoming a legend for art auctions and items related to the world of cryptocurrencies.

2021 was exactly the golden year for Rare Pepes and all collectible digital items. At that time, Matt Furie himself, the artist behind the character, created a DAO (Pegz) to market his art. Among his creations, the letter stood out FeelsGoodMan that the community saved for him and that, later, he was able to sell for 500 thousand dollars. A controversial NFT since it also involves a lawsuit, where Furie is accused of providing true value to the object.

In parallel with these events, the Ethereum network was also claiming the first NFTs in history for its markets. With the advent of the protocol Emblem Vaultmuch of Rare Pepe cards could be migrated to the smart contract network as “wrapped” nuggets. That is, representations of the NFT on another network. In this way, an increasingly large market began to be created around this meme on the Opensea platform.

5 Are the Rare Pepe a good investment?

It depends on what the investor is looking for. Non-fungible tokens are a sector of cryptocurrency that has grown in popularity in recent years, but many people question the true artistic and collectible value of these digital images. In this sense, there is a lot of speculation and little consistency around the prices of these pieces. Today they can be worth a lot and tomorrow nothing, as well as vice versa.

Among other features to take into account, it is important to note that Rare Pepes are not the most popular NFTs on the market. Series like the Bored Ape and the Cryptopunks have achieved a greater movement of money, as well as juicier sales, which is why they are usually preferred by investors.

Neverthelessthe Rare Pepe have the historical context in their favor. Being some of the first tradable Internet memes and the first NFTs in cryptocurrency history, they have the potential to become huge pieces over the years. Although, of course, everything will depend on the rarity of the card and its context.