Fake Rares

On September 21, 2021, Rare Scrilla, a prolific Rare Pepe artist and DJ known for his work on the original Rare Pepe Directory (2016-2018), got banned from the official Rare Pepe Trading Telegram group. His offense: sharing FREEDOMKEK, a Pepe card that had been rejected from the official directory back in 2018. The ban violated the community rule that only official Rare Pepes could be shared in that group.

In response, Scrilla immediately created a new Telegram channel called "BEWARE OF FAKE RARES," a tongue-in-cheek safe space for sharing unofficial Pepe art. He offered the FREEDOMKEK card (originally minted October 8, 2017, with an issuance of 300) to anyone who shared it in the Rare Pepe chat as a "Proof of Ban" card. This act of memetic rebellion turned into the founding mythology of Fake Rares.

The timing mattered: in 2021, the NFT market was booming, and many were minting Pepe NFTs on Ethereum to cash in on the bull market. Fake Rares emerged partly as a reaction to this, championing Bitcoin-native NFTs through the Counterparty protocol that the original Rare Pepe community had pioneered.

Fake Rares marks a significant moment in crypto art history, bridging the original Bitcoin NFT movement of 2016-2018 with the mainstream NFT boom of 2021. By creating a "Salon des Refusés" for rejected Pepe art, the project challenged notions of curation, authenticity, and value in the NFT space.

The project's success sparked a renaissance on the Counterparty protocol, with over 100 new directories emerging in its wake. It showed that community-driven, humor-based crypto art could achieve both cultural relevance and commercial success, as seen in gallery exhibitions at major art events like Art Basel and collaborations with mainstream artists like Ghostface Killah.

Fake Rares also helped preserve and extend the cultural legacy of Pepe the Frog within crypto communities, reclaiming the character for creative expression and satirical commentary on NFT market dynamics.