{"id":936490,"date":"2026-10-17T14:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936490\/"},"modified":"2026-10-17T14:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-17T14:02:12","slug":"montreals-viral-raccoon-has-become-the-face-of-a-cryptocurrency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/936490\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal&#8217;s viral\u00a0raccoon has become the face of a cryptocurrency"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a matter of weeks, Pepper the raccoon went from being a <a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/a-montreal-man-and-his-unconventional-pet-went-viral-now-pepper-the-raccoon-is-hiding-from-the-law\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/a-montreal-man-and-his-unconventional-pet-went-viral-now-pepper-the-raccoon-is-hiding-from-the-law\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">wild animal wanted by the Quebec government<\/a> to the face of a million-dollar cryptocurrency \u2014 but crypto experts warn it could become a pump-and-dump scheme.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Pepper coin is one of many cryptocurrencies capitalizing on viral memes and animals with online followings to attract buyers. While most \u201cmemecoins\u201d are intrinsically worthless and piggyback off the attention economy, a few have misled buyers into believing they are supporting a charitable cause, experts caution. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It began when officers from Quebec\u2019s Environment Ministry served Louka Berman a search warrant and a fine for keeping a live raccoon in his Plateau apartment without a permit. Since the search, Berman and Pepper have been on the move around Montreal to prevent the raccoon from being seized and potentially euthanized, an outcome Berman fears due to the <a href=\"https:\/\/montrealgazette.com\/news\/quebec-rabies-cat-monteregie-st-anicet\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">raccoon rabies outbreak<\/a> in the province.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a matter of weeks, Pepper the raccoon went from being a wild animal wanted by the Quebec&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":936491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-936490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/936491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}