The 2016 Origin of Rare Pepes
How an anonymous trader named Mike, a Counterparty Telegram chat, and a developer named Joe Looney built every component of an NFT before the term existed.
The Archive
Articles
Every piece in the archive, newest first. Each article is built on primary sources and footnoted at the bottom.
How Rare Pepes Actually Work: Counterparty, XCP, and Token Issuance on Bitcoin
The protocol mechanics. What gets written to Bitcoin, what gets parsed off-chain, and why the design has aged better than most of its 2014-era peers.
Joe Looney and the Rare Pepe Wallet
The mechanical engineer who built the first cryptoart marketplace, took no commission, and shipped features in 2016 that NFT platforms re-discovered five years later.
PEPECASH: The Currency That Powered Rare Pepe Trading
A Counterparty asset that became both a marketplace currency and a collectible in its own right. Issuance, distribution, and what its existence proved.
The Rare Pepe Directory: How 36 Series Were Curated
A guide to the official Rare Pepe catalog, the series structure, and how a community of volunteer curators ran the world's first cryptoart archive.
The Rare Pepe Scientists and the Submission Process
The volunteer curators who decided what became a Rare Pepe, how the rules evolved, and what the process tells us about decentralized curation.
Notable Rare Pepes and Their Sales History
Homer Pepe at the 2018 Rare Digital Art Festival. The Nakamoto Card at Sotheby's-era pricing in 2021. The trades that made the market visible.
Rare Pepes vs Ordinals: First Bitcoin NFTs vs Newest
A direct comparison of the two main Bitcoin NFT protocols. What each does well, where they actually differ, and what their coexistence says about Bitcoin.
How to Buy and Trade Rare Pepes in 2026
A practical guide to acquiring, holding, and trading Rare Pepes. Wallets, marketplaces, fees, and the things to check before parting with money.
Why Rare Pepes Predicted the NFT Boom Years Before It Happened
The structural argument. Every feature of the 2021 NFT market existed in functioning form by late 2016. Here's the inventory.