PEPE, a meme token based on Ethereum, has recorded massive gains of close to 38,900% ROI for early investors in its first month. This has led to increased interest in the original BRC-20 token standard, which was used to create the Bitcoin-based PEPE in March 2023. The BRC-20 token standard is an experimental mechanism for launching tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain network, created by a pseudonymous on-chain analyst called Domo.

It allows fungible tokens, including memecoins, to be created and sent via the Bitcoin protocol without using smart contracts. The popularity of the BRC-20 standard has led to a surge in market capitalization and transaction volume, outperforming Bitcoin by over 50% between April 29 and May 2, 2023. However, caution should be exerted as the BRC-20 standard is still in its experimental phase.