In This Article
Pepe Unchained, a layer-2 meme coin, has surged past the $5 million presale mark and looks set to be the next meme coin to take the market by storm. The currency is fairly unique in that it aims to trade on the current popularity of meme coins like Pepe but, unusually, it has bonafide utility thanks to its layer 2 architecture.
The team behind the coin claims that it will offer a faster and lower cost means of launching meme coins in the future when compared to the likes of Ethereum. Some of the market sees value in the project and analysts are stating it has the potential to be the next big thing in the meme coin market.
The Maturing Cryptocurrency Market
The cryptocurrency market has seen a lot of change over the past year, with the launch of spot ETF products based on both Bitcoin and Ether. These changes have brought an air of maturity to a fledgling investment market. That maturity has seen Bitcoin prices settle down somewhat. Gone are the days of 1,000% profit from the big coins. And, as that opportunity has passed, investors have turned their attention to presales and the bonuses and potential they have to offer.
Pepe Unchained
One project that has piqued the interest of existing and new investors is Pepe Unchained, listed at the top of the best crypto presales found here. According to tech editor, Kane Pepi, $PEPU is looking to emulate the success of Pepe but by using its own ecosystem.
The project only launched in June 2024 but in the month and a bit since its launch, it has managed to amass over $5 million in presale investment. As the presale progresses, bonuses get smaller, but there is still an opportunity for new investors to get additional bonuses, especially if they are willing to stake their Ether investments for the good of $PEPU.
The Rise Of Meme Coins
Dog-based meme coins were once the center of attention for meme coin investors. Dogecoin started the craze when it launched in 2013. The coin was meant as a lighthearted alternative to currencies like Bitcoin but thanks to its popularity on social media sites and with crypto investor groups, it garnered a lot of attention.
Then, celebrities including Snoop Dogg and, of course, Elon Musk also got on board with the coin and it truly erupted. Although the coin has no real underlying utility, holders can now buy Tesla merchandise, although not Tesla cars, using Dogecoin, and it is a very popular currency for use on crypto gambling websites.
Following on from the success of Dogecoin, many other meme coins launched using the Shiba Inu meme as the basis of their currency. Shiba Inu is one of the most notable examples.
Frog-Based Meme Coins
But, as is true of the memes they are based on, attention shifted away from the dog memes, focusing instead on frog-based memes. Specifically, Pepe launched in 2023 and was based on the Pepe the Frog cartoon drawn by Matt Furie in 2005 for his comic Boy’s Club.
The frog became popular in the early 2000s on sites like 4chan and Reddit, so crypto communities on these sites were quick to adopt the coin. Barely a year later, Pepe has a market capitalization of approximately $5 billion and is not far from breaking the top 20 coins, surpassing Litecoin on its way.
Like Dogecoin before it, Pepe has spawned a host of other meme coins that borrow from its meme-based avatar. Pepecoin is an obvious example and these two lead the pack for 2024 frog-based gains. PEPE has increased nearly 750% since the turn of the year and PEPECOIN has seen nearly 250% gains.
Unchaining Pepe
Pepe Unchained has obvious links to Pepe. It uses the same art style and clearly targets the meme coin crowd, but it offers more. It is a layer-2 coin, which means it is built on top of the Ethereum network, rather than directly on it. This second layer of protocols reduces transaction times and costs.
According to the team behind the project, this is what the unchained element of the name refers to. Until now, Pepe has been held back by being on a layer-1 blockchain network. Although it is developed on the Ethereum network, Pepe Unchained will process transactions up to 100 times faster. It will presumably target other meme coins, but may also be beneficial for other types of decentralized apps.
Meme Coin Launcher
And there is success to be had for projects that are used to launch meme coins. Solana was launched in 2020, less than five years ago. It operates on its own layer-1 network, unlike Pepe Unchained, but it is faster and cheaper than other blockchains. It has become very popular with meme coin projects for these reasons, and this popularity has seen its price surge. Solana is now the 5th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization and could move higher. It has a total cap of over $80 billion. Only Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Binance come out ahead of it.
Other Presales – The Meme Games
Pepe Unchained isn’t the only presale currently available. The Meme Games is being billed as cryptocurrency’s official Olympics coin and has raised $250,000 in one week of presale.
And, it has a twist on the usual presale bonuses. Investors choose one of the five MGMES characters they want to back when they buy a token. If they choose the winning racer, they receive a 25% bonus. This unique twist, as well as the fact that the Olympics kicks off in Paris this month, are the reasons the presale has performed reasonably well. But, will the coin retain traction once the Olympics have passed by the end of August?
Other Presales – Wiener AI
Wiener AI launched in April 2024, just a couple of months before Pepe Unchained. It is being developed on the Ethereum network and by the middle of July it had raised an impressive $7 million in its presale.
Wiener AI combines cryptocurrency with one of the most popular emerging technologies, artificial intelligence. Specifically, it is an AI-powered trading bot that will use artificial intelligence to search the market and look for trading opportunities based on the user’s preferences. It can quickly analyze major and decentralized exchanges and find coins and tokens from among the thousands that exist. The user is presented with a list of potential investment opportunities, as well as Wiener’s reasons for highlighting the trade, and can then quickly place a trade order directly through the Wiener AI dashboard.
Conclusion
Pepe Unchained is a layer-2 meme coin that aims to combine the popularity of meme coins, and especially the current trend for frog-based meme coins, with the power of a layer-2 blockchain and the faster transaction times that this offers. It has surpassed $5 million in presale, which has led some analysts and market commentators to speculate that it could be the next meme coin to reach 100x or higher levels of returns for early investors.
