Matt Furie
| Matt Furie | |
|---|---|
| Person | |
| Also known as | Pepe creator |
| Role | creator |
| Active since | 2005 |
| Known for | Cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog and Brett in the comic Boy's Club |
| Status | Active |
Matt Furie is a US cartoonist who created Pepe the Frog in his comic Boy's Club, the character behind the Ethereum memecoin Pepe.[1][2] Brett, the character behind the Base token Brett, also comes from Boy's Club.[3]
Background[edit]
Pepe first appeared in Boy's Club, dated to 2005 by Decrypt and to 2006 by the Associated Press; Fantagraphics published Furie's later Pepe strips.[1][2] Far-right trolls adopted the character before the 2016 US election, and the Anti-Defamation League listed Pepe as a hate symbol in September 2016.[2] In May 2017 Furie killed off the character in a one-page Fantagraphics strip showing Pepe in an open casket; in an essay for Time he called the association a "nightmare" and wrote that "Pepe is love".[2]
Copyright actions[edit]
Since 2017 Furie has stopped uses of Pepe by Richard Spencer's AltRight.com, Arktos Media, Baked Alaska, the r/The_Donald forum and The Daily Stormer, according to his lawyers at WilmerHale.[4] In early 2018 he sued Infowars over a poster pairing Pepe with Alex Jones and Donald Trump; after a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected Infowars' fair-use defence, Infowars settled in June 2019, paying $15,000, more than the roughly $14,000 it made from the poster, and agreeing never to sell Pepe merchandise again.[4] His lawyer said Furie would keep enforcing his copyrights, especially against those linking Pepe to hateful images or ideas.[4]
Memecoins and NFTs[edit]
The PEPE token launched in April 2023 has no official connection to Furie or the original character.[1][5] Furie has released NFT collections with the studio ChainSaw. On 18 June 2025 an attacker took over ChainSaw's Replicandy contract, withdrew mint proceeds and dumped newly minted NFTs; the same address took over the Peplicator, Hedz and Zogz contracts on 23 June.[6] ZachXBT estimated the ChainSaw losses at more than $310,000 and linked the fund trail to indicators associated with North Korean IT workers; no statement from Furie or ChainSaw was reported.[6]
Timeline[edit]
- 2016-09: ADL lists Pepe as a hate symbol[2]
- 2017-05: Furie kills off Pepe in a Fantagraphics strip[2]
- 2018: Furie sues Infowars over a Pepe poster[4]
- 2019-06: Infowars settles for $15,000[4]
- 2023-05-11: Coinbase apologises for a newsletter calling the Pepe meme a hate symbol[1]
- 2025-06-18: ChainSaw's Replicandy contract is taken over[6]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ 'We Screwed Up': Coinbase Apologizes for Pepe Comments as #DeleteCoinbase Trends, Decrypt, 2023-05-11
- ^ Pepe croaks: Cartoonist kills off frog turned hate symbol, Associated Press via MPR News, 2017-05-09
- ^ It Looks Like Pepe The Frog Has Been Killed Off By Its Creator, The Fader, 2017-05-08
- ^ Pepe the Frog's Creator Obtains Monetary Settlement from Infowars, WilmerHale, 2019-06-10
- ^ What Is Pepe? The Ethereum Meme Coin Inspired by the Iconic Cartoon Frog, Decrypt, 2024-11-13
- ^ Pepe meme creator's NFT projects hit for $1 million as contract hijackers drain collections, CryptoSlate, 2025-06-27