Pepe Unchained shines in its ICO, raising nearly $12M and outpacing other memecoins with its Ethereum Layer 2 utility.

A new memecoin called Pepe Unchained (PEPU) is thriving in its ICO – it has raised almost $12 million, outpacing all other memecoin presales.

Though it’s categorically a memecoin, the project is rooted in utility. It’ll be the first Pepe-themed token with an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain.

Early Pepe investors made millions; will Pepe Unchained buyers too?

The similarities between Pepe and Pepe Unchained do not end at their names and frog mascots. Both projects launched in adverse market conditions and exploded out of the gate.

But the OG Pepe is almost 18 months old now, so we can look back retrospectivley and make sense of its meteoric rise.

It launched in April 2023 when the crypto bear market was in full swing. Investors were losing money left and right, yet Pepe came along and made many people rich.

Cointelegraph published a write-up a couple of months back on how one legendary trader ran a $3K investment into $46 million by investing in Pepe. That works out at a  profit return of over 15,000x.

Imagine that. Even a $100 investment would have been life-changing, turning into $1.5 million.

Earned more than $46M on $PEPE with only $3K, a gain of 15,718x!😱

This super big winner sold 255B $PEPE($2.3M) for profits again after the price of $PEPE increased.

He spent only $3K to buy 4.9T $PEPE($56M currently) on Apr 15, 2023, and sold 1.41T $PEPE for $7.4M, with 3.5T… pic.twitter.com/VKGxmK9gCt

— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) May 15, 2024

Indeed, it wasn’t just down to dumb luck. The trader was savvy, holding through multiple peaks and troughs and exiting in May just before Pepe reached its highest-ever price.

And this was far from the only trader who made such gains. 

However, its market cap now sits above $3 billion, so the opportunity to yield such returns has long gone.

Indeed, many of Pepe’s existing 281K holders will understand this and would welcome a second chance at such gains. This could well be why Pepe Unchained is thriving during its presale.

It’s not every day a presale raises $12 million, especially in challenging market conditions like today’s.

Umar Khan, an analyst who hosts for the 99Bitcoins YouTube channel, recently noted that Pepe Unchained may present a big opportunity for those who missed Pepe.

“If you wish you bought into Pepe early, here’s a Pepe-styled meme coin currently in presale.”

However, as mentioned, Pepe Unchained has more substance than the average memecoin. It’s also building an Ethereum layer 2 blockchain.

Pepe Chain: Ethereum’s fast and low-fee home for memecoins 

Ethereum’s most pressing issue of scalability has been resolved by the uniqueness of layer 2 blockchains.

These are separate blockchains that are interconnected with Ethereum. This makes it easy to move funds and data while they also offer low fees and high speeds.

Layer 2 activity is surging and recently reached its highest-ever levels. 

This shows that investors favor these Ethereum offshoots, but until now, there has not been one to accommodate the $38 billion memecoin sector.

This is where Pepe Unchained comes in. It’s a meme coin-focused Ethereum layer 2 with 100x faster speeds and lower fees than Ethereum.

It’s also sweetening the deal with huge staking rewards currently valued at over a 171% APY.

That’s over 20x higher than staking on the Ethereum main network, with ETH stakers currently earning a 7% APY at best.

Built on technical innovation and meme culture, Pepe Unchained is a cryptocurrency with the best of both worlds.

While it remains to be seen how far it can go, its early momentum undoubtedly makes it one to watch in the coming months.

The project’s presale is ongoing and currently priced at $0.0094982. However, this is expected to rise throughout the campaign, with the next increase in under two days.

For more information, visit the Pepe Unchained presale website or follow the project on X and Telegram.