Coinbase Apologizes to Crypto Community for Disrespecting $PEPE

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase, apologized on Twitter for Coinbase's degrading Pepe the Frog, mascot for meme coin $PEPE, in a previous newsletter.

In May 10th's newsletter, Coinbase said, "the token ($PEPE) 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." The description was widely criticized by the crypto community, with the term "#deletecoinbase" becoming trending on Twitter at one time.

In his public apology, Paul Grewal said, "we screwed up and we are sorry. Yesterday we shared an overview of the $PEPE meme coin to provide a fact-based picture of a trending topic. This did not provide the whole picture of the history of the meme and we apologize to the community."