Rare Pepe Cards 1-15

As Ethereum based NFTs exploded in 2021, buyers looked to the past for "Archeological finds" that predated those offerings. Enter the Rare Pepe set, minted on Counterparty (XCP) from 2016-18, long before the barrage of today's "normie" NFTs. Counterparty assets exist in the OP_RETURN data on the Bitcoin blockchain and are traded via the XCP Dex. For years the XCP Dex was a ghost town, but in 2021 when the NFT action heated up, the market looked for the origin of this tokenized creativity, and that search ended at the "Nakamoto Card," XCP asset RAREPEPE, Series 1, Card 1 of the Rare Pepe collection. An asset stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, the most secure in the world.

The Rare Pepe collection is unique in that it was a crowd sourced project. There is no company or organization behind it. The set spawned organically from a joke in a Counterparty chat, then a telegram group, then websites, and now into the history books. The cards range from crude humor, to social commentary, to markers of important events in Bitcoin, politics, and human history.

The first 15 cards of the set are a walk down memory lane for Bitcoin OGs. The Nakamoto card, RAREPEPE, then GOXPEPE, depicting Karpeles and his fall from grace during the Mt. Gox debacle. SHITCOINCARD captures the feels that Bitcoin'ers had during the early days. PEPENATION was created by Pepe Scientist Theo Goodman to make fun of the Bitnation project, and has bonus content. Card 5 is DANKPEPE, with 420 Issuance, the first "weed Pepe" of many in the set. Card 6 is TRUMPRARE, minted 9/16/2016, right before the highly polarized USA presidential election. PEPEPARTY "Spamming the blockchain since 2014" highlights the (then) fierce debate over what info should be stored on the blockchain. KEISERPEPE is a nod to Max Keiser, one of the earliest and most vocal proponents of Bitcoin. BUPEPE commemorates Bitcoin Uncensored, the podcast where most of the early Rare Pepe jokes came from. STILLPEPE depicts Snoop and Dre, from The Chronic. An influential album to most of the early Pepe creators. Card 11 is PEPECASH, the iconic card and currency of Rare Pepe. To this day XCP assets are still traded in XCP & PEPECASH pairs. LOVEPEPETATO, Card 12, has quickly become the "stopper" in Series 1 sets, with only 100 issuance and far less in circulation. PEPEJOINTSPH, card 13, the second of many "weed Pepes" and the first "common" of the set with 50,000 issuance. GURUPEPE was an interesting guest on Bitcoin Uncensored, and HYIPPEPE satirized the many HYIP scams that circulated during the early days of Bitcoin.