Coinbase Apologizes After Describing Pepe Meme As A ‘Hate Symbol’- Backlash Heat Cools Down

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Updated: 12 May 2023

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Coinbase, one of the leading exchange platforms for crypto and non-fungible tokens, has remorsefully apologized to its customers and the entire crypto community after unintentionally describing the popular Pepe meme coin as a “hate symbol” in its recent newsletter.

Coinbase Describes PEPE As A Hate Symbol

On May 10, 2023, the crypto exchange emailed one of its customers describing the Pepe meme as a “Hate Symbol” co-opted by alt-right groups. Coinbase cited a 2016 decision from the Anti-Defamation League to place the flog-themed character in its database of online hate symbols.

Why is @coinbase sending out emails telling people that $pepe is an alt-right hate symbol?? pic.twitter.com/UNzClQlwwv

— borovik (@3orovik) May 11, 2023

The email newsletter attracted heated community backlash among Coinbase customers and the entire Pepe Community. Followers demanded the crypto exchange immediately withdraw the sentiments and issue an apology.

Furthermore, die-hard fans of PEPE memecoin launched an initiative called “#DeleteCoinbase” to boycott the crypto exchange, vowing to move their funds to the United States-based crypto exchange Gemini. According to Twitterbinder, the “#Deletecoinbase” hashtag attracted more than 14,000 tweets in less than two hours.

https://twitter.com/OG_Kenobi_Hello/status/1656476914280722434?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1656476914280722434%7Ctwgr%5E0e25dcc39204e181b01cb03db8ea57e69fb67092%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcointelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Fcoinbase-calls-pepe-a-hate-symbol-prompting-calls-to-boycott-the-exchange

Coinbase Apologizes To Entire Crypto And Pepe Community

In a May 11 blog post, Paul Grewal, the chief legal officer at Coinbase, apologized to the crypto and the PePe community, lamenting that the fact-based picture of the trending topic did not provide the intended history of the memecoin.

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.

— paulgrewal.eth (@iampaulgrewal) May 11, 2023

The crypto community is yet satisfied with the Grewal apology and demands the crypto exchange issue an official apology on its social media handles and email. Coinbase has already begun suffering from its sentiment, with its stock plunging by 3.6% in just hours.

In the meantime, $PEPE appears to be crawling back to its feet after suffering from Coinbase’s awful sentiments. Pepe’s price today is US$0.000001291, with a 24-hour trading volume of US$633 million. The memecoin is -27.27% in the past 24 hours.

PEPE Market Health: Source – CoinMarketCap

Nonetheless, $PEPE is currently -41.91% from its 7-day all-time high of $0.000004213 and 28.97% from its 7-day all-time low of $0.04951. The PEPE memecoin has a circulating supply of 391 trillion, according to on-chain market aggregator CoinMarketCap.

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