The next Pepe is the meme coin that runs from a few million to billions in market cap this cycle, the way PEPE did in 2023. The four candidates I watch right now are CATE on Solana, Marscoin on BNB Chain, Cashcat on Robinhood, and ZCAT. It could also be a coin that has not launched yet. Below I cover the original PEPE run, why the next one is being born now, and what each candidate has going for it.
The Pepe DM I Still Think About
In April 2023, a friend sent me a DEXTools chart and asked if I was in “this $pepe shitcoin”. He had YOLOed 0.15 ETH into it and was afraid to sleep because the number kept going up.
PEPE sat at roughly $3 million market cap when he messaged me. I had already seen it at $2 million and thought I was late. My reply was that I don’t chase trends. Either I am in early, or I sit out.
That logic made sense at the time. We were in Q2 of 2023, deep in a bear market. Pump.fun did not exist yet. WIF and the Solana meme wave had not happened. Memes did not run high, and $2 million was already rich for a fresh meme coin. So I sat out.
Later I did jump on the train, somewhere around $10 million. By then I knew my original thesis was wrong. I still treated it as a trade, not a hold. Instead, I took a modest 3x and got out, then watched it run to billions. I swing traded it along the way, some trades green and some red, but I never held the bag that mattered.
The lesson is simple. Some memes run to billions. They get born in periods like this one, when everyone is still scared. And when they finally run, the FOMO of the people who passed at $2 million becomes the fuel that sends them higher.
A Short History of Pepe and the PEPE Token
Pepe the Frog came from Matt Furie’s comic Boy’s Club in the mid 2000s. The internet adopted it, twisted it, and turned it into one of the most recognizable memes ever made. Furie never controlled that. To my knowledge the character is effectively public domain in practice, which is why he never really made money from the meme, even though he is a legend. I wrote more about that in the Pepe the Frog story.
Crypto tried to tokenize Pepe every single cycle. Rare Pepes on Bitcoin’s Counterparty in 2016. Multiple “Pepe” ERC-20 tokens in 2017 and 2021. All of them died. Then in April 2023 an anonymous team launched PEPE with no roadmap, no utility, and a “most memeable memecoin” tagline. That one ran from a few million to over a billion dollars in weeks, and later topped out at multiple billions.
Why that one? Timing and liquidity, which I get into below. The launch itself was far from clean, though. Early wallets held a heavy chunk of supply, KOLs with questionable reputations shilled it hard, and in August 2023 the team dumped trillions of tokens from the multisig after quietly lowering the signer threshold. The team never gave Matt Furie a cent. The person who did was Pauly0x, the loudest PEPE promoter at the time. He sent Furie around $1 million in PEPE, and Furie sold. Pauly0x later fell out with the team, doxxed the founder, and went on to launch Pond0x and a string of tokens that all collapsed by 98% or more. He is now in serious legal trouble of his own. None of it killed PEPE. The coin is still a top meme today, years after launch. That is what a real meme looks like. It survives its own scandals and the people around it.
Why the Next Pepe Is Born Right Now
The next Pepe does not launch at the top of a bull market. It launches when traders still flinch at every red candle. That is the period we are in.
Here is the pattern. A meme coin gets traction while sentiment is bad. Early holders build a community. Most people, me included in 2023, look at a $5 million or $10 million market cap and decide they are late. The coin keeps grinding. Then the market turns, one big listing or one viral moment hits, and everyone who passed earlier piles in at once. FOMO is the catalyst, not the fundamentals.
If you want a framework for spotting these early, read what makes a good meme coin first. Community, distribution, and a meme that people actually want to share matter far more than a whitepaper.
A Lot of Sidelined Money Still
This part is the core of my thesis. I have been DCAing into coins since August. Even so, about 75% of my money is still liquid, waiting to enter the market. I have DCA orders on a time schedule and limit orders sitting lower, in case we get a final sweep.
Maybe the bull already started. Maybe we still get one more flush. I wrote about both scenarios in my four-year cycle bottom post. What I know for sure is that I am not alone. A huge amount of capital is sidelined and waiting for a reason to come in.
That is exactly the setup a meme coin needs. When one coin runs to $100 million, then $250 million, then $500 million, there is enough free liquidity to keep buying the hot coin of the moment. Nobody needs to sell something else to fund it. That is why PEPE went from a few million to over a billion in roughly a month. The money was already there, waiting.
What Is the Next Pepe? Four Candidates Right Now
Four coins are on my list today. None of them is a guarantee. Run your own checks with the memecoin due diligence guide before you touch any of them.
CATE (Solana)
CATE is trending on TikTok, which is where retail meme discovery happens now. It has around 100,000 unique holders and a live $1 million market cap thesis on FOMO. It sits on Solana, which is arguably still the best chain for memes. My full breakdown is in the what is CATE guide.
Marscoin (BNB Chain)
Marscoin lives on BNB Chain, and its angle is unusual. Holders receive airdrops tied to SpaceX stock. Binance recently announced it will support those SpaceX airdrops for anyone holding Marscoin on the exchange. A meme with a real distribution hook and Binance backing the hook is rare. Details are in the what is Marscoin guide.
Cashcat (Robinhood)
Cashcat is the main meme on Robinhood’s chain. The bet here is not just on the coin. It is a bet that Robinhood becomes this cycle’s chain for memes. If that happens, owning the biggest meme on the chain is the obvious play. Read the what is Cashcat guide for the full picture.
ZCAT
ZCAT bundles two narratives into one token. Holders get ZEC airdrops, so you ride the Zcash hype and the cat meme trend at the same time. Two narratives stacked on one coin is how several past runners got their first leg up. I covered it in the what is ZCAT guide.
For a wider view, the best meme coins shill list tracks the top names per chain.
How I Am Positioned
Right now I only hold CATE. I am eyeing the other three for an entry. Two things can happen with each of them. Either I take a trade and exit on strength, or, if I see enough volume and hype build, I hold for the billions runner.
That second option is the one I got wrong with PEPE. I traded a coin that deserved a hold. This time I want at least one position that I let run.
If you want to trade these on an exchange, I keep an updated list of the best places to trade meme coins.
Don’t Miss the Next Pepe Because of the Chain
One reason people miss a runner is boring but real. It launches on a chain where they hold no funds. Look at the four candidates above. One is on Solana, one on BNB Chain, one on Robinhood, and the next one could just as easily be on Ethereum or Base. Almost nobody keeps money bridged everywhere. So when the hot coin shows up on the wrong chain, most traders spend a day bridging, get a worse entry, or skip it entirely.
The FOMO app fixes that. You hold USDC in one place and buy on any supported chain in a few clicks. No bridging, no juggling five wallets, no gas token hunting. For meme trading that removes most of the friction that costs people the early entry. It is also where I track every coin in this post, and where the CATE thesis lives. Set it up now, so the chain is never your excuse for missing the next Pepe, the way sitting out was mine in 2023.
The Next Pepe Might Not Exist Yet
One important caveat. The next Pepe is not necessarily one of these four. It might not even be live yet. PEPE itself launched in April 2023, months after most people had given up on the cycle.
So the point of this post is not to tell you which coin wins. The point is that this is the period to keep your eyes open. Watch which memes gain holders while sentiment is bad. Watch which ones survive a 50% drawdown and come back. Somewhere in that group is the coin that runs to billions. I will update this post as the field changes.
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Final Words
I passed on PEPE at $2 million because I thought I was late. It went to billions. The mistake was not the entry price. It was reading the market by bear market rules while the next runner was being born in front of me.
The same setup exists today. Sidelined money, bad sentiment, and a handful of memes quietly building holders. CATE, Marscoin, Cashcat, and ZCAT are my watchlist. The real winner could still be a coin nobody has launched yet. Keep your eyes open, keep funds ready on every chain, and this time, let at least one runner run.
FAQ
What is the next Pepe?
The next Pepe is the meme coin that goes from a few million to billions in market cap this cycle. Candidates I watch are CATE, Marscoin, Cashcat, and ZCAT, but the winner could be a coin that has not launched yet.
Why did PEPE succeed when older Pepe coins failed?
Timing and liquidity. PEPE launched in a bear market with sidelined capital waiting. When it started running, FOMO from everyone who passed early pushed it to billions.
Did Matt Furie make money from PEPE?
He does not control the Pepe meme, so he never earned from it directly. The PEPE team paid him nothing. Promoter Pauly0x sent him around $1 million in PEPE tokens, which he sold.
Is it too late to buy the next Pepe?
PEPE looked “late” at $2 million and ran to billions. Early market cap is not the only signal. Look at holder growth, community, and how the coin behaves during drawdowns.
Which chain will the next Pepe launch on?
Nobody knows. Solana remains the strongest meme chain, but BNB Chain, Robinhood’s chain, Ethereum, and Base all have contenders. Keep funds ready to buy on any of them.
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