- Coinbase cited Anti-Defamation League decision to list character as hate symbol
- Holders and fans of the frog-themed token are livid
- Binance and Gemini have listed the token, but it has lost 9% today
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:
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.
