PEPE Coin's Wild Ride: From Scam Allegations to 7000% Surge

Pepe, a new memecoin inspired by an anthropomorphized frog popular in internet memes, surged nearly 7,000% in the 17 days after its April 16 launch, hitting a market value of $1.8 billion by May 5. This has sparked renewed investor interest in memecoins as a whole, with overall trading volumes jumping to $2.6 billion in the first week of May from $408,000 the week before. However, market players warned that traders and investors could get badly burned by memecoins, which lack practical use beyond speculation.