Coinbase Supports Listing PEPE Among Online Hate Symbols

Coinbase sent out an email to its customers describing the hot new meme coin Pepe (PEPE) as a “hate symbol,” which caused a lot of controversy, Cointelegraph wrote.

A well-known crypto influencer shared a screenshot of Coinbase’s email dated May 10 to his almost 100,000 followers, which cited an Anti-Defamation League decision to include the frog-themed character among hate symbols in its online database.

Outrage across the board

Holders and fans of the frog-themed token were livid, insisting that Coinbase apologize. Some customers even deleted their accounts on the crypto exchange.

The controversy gave rise to the hashtag #deletecoinbase, which Twitter user and solidity developer Kenobi came up with. He tweeted he would be taking his business to crypto exchange Gemini and ended his post with the hashtag, which hit the trending bar of the social medium soon thereafter.

Gemini showed support for the token

Binance was the first major exchange to list the token for trading. Holders of Pepe are calling on other exchanges to list the token as well. Gemini listed Pepe on May 9. The exchange wrote on its blog:

Pepe is now available for trading on the Gemini Mobile App and website for USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, HKD, and SGD pairs and on our API/FIX and ActiveTrader applications for the USD trading pair.$pepe is also available for custody on Gemini. $pepe continues the tradition of giving the control of money back to the people. We’re not here to tell you what money is. We’ll leave that up to you. We’re here to empower you with greater choice, independence, and opportunity, as we continue on our mission to unlock the next era of financial, creative, and personal freedom.

However, Pepe lost almost 3% of its value on the news of Coinbase’s description. At the time of publication, Pepe is trading for $0.000002, down 8.75% in the last 24 hours according to Coinmarketcap data.