I understand:
Meme Coins
are silly. Not serious. A waste of time. They give the impression that the crypto industry is trivial, full of speculators. Vitalik Buterin is probably right, the industry would be better off if people focused on legitimate projects. But – the only thing worse than trying to financialize meme coins is complaining about meme coins. You can have profound insights on how meme coins have become a symbol of this “financial nihilism” era, but speaking out loud is shameful – especially if you still hold losing positions yourself.
I don’t think meme coins should be praised, especially not for the most common reasons. In the current cycle phase, it is clear that even “blue-chip stocks” like Shiba Inu (SHIB) or Dogecoin (DOGE) – they haven’t really brought new users; at least not yet. I think it is worth questioning whether the “community” formed around investing in meme coins is sustainable in the long run. And, the claim that these tokens can create “generational wealth” for people is irresponsible.
Meme coins are highly speculative investment tools. People seem to have almost infinite interest and capital invested in them, which essentially proves that “speculation itself is a use case,” whether you agree with this statement or not.
As Riva Tez said in her speech at the 2024 Consensus Conference, meme coins help
cryptocurrencies
win the “narrative war” by meeting people’s real needs.
Criticism of casinos or state-sanctioned gambling, such as lotteries, from an ethical perspective, is reasonable, but the existence of meme coins is for the same reason – people like to fantasize that their lives can change instantly without effort. This is a desire that cannot be eliminated by willpower alone, and the results show that gambling on tokens based on
blockchain
is as effective as scratch cards.
On a more profound level, the role of meme coins as tools for coordinating and measuring attention is becoming increasingly evident. Their essence is imitation – the process of gaining cultural influence through dissemination.
Ravi Bakhai, developer of the Hype meme coin trading platform. He believes that meme coins have evolved into a large general betting market that can reflect the relevance of things at any given moment. Take Iggy Azalea’s MOTHER token, for example, it actually gives value to her personal fame and reflects the ability of this rapper to attract a group of cryptocurrency enthusiasts.
Over the years, there have been many discussions about the position of cryptocurrencies in the “attention economy,” with the core idea being that attention itself is a scarce commodity, and evaluating the value of popularity through “crowdsourcing” can easily be overestimated. Essentially, meme coins reveal the duality of this world: people can like cute dogs and also be racists.
However, this does not mean that the fundamental concept supporting meme coins does not have the potential to become more valuable in the future. Just as prediction markets use mechanisms where participants honestly express their true opinions based on their own interests to help us capture real market sentiment, meme coins could also become a tool for discerning signals and eliminating distractions.
This is the idea behind the emerging field of “PoliFi” (a blend of politics and finance), and tokens like JEO BODEN, MAGA, and elizabath whoren, some people use them as indicators to bet on the reelection odds of those candidates. But this does not necessarily have to be limited to politics. As Solo Ceesay, CEO of Calaxy, recently wrote in an article for The Defiant: “Meme coins perfectly demonstrate how any collective group can create economic infrastructure to promote business, trade, and collaboration without the need for intermediary participation. Before blockchain technology, this was almost impossible.”
Ultimately, as demonstrated by Dogecoin (DOGE) born at the end of 2013, meme coins are essentially a blank canvas for people to engage in so-called “performance art.” As Tez said, Dogecoin’s co-founders Billy Markus and Jackson Palmer saw DOGE as a joke against Bitcoin.
This actually touches on the most profound criticism of meme coins: they expose all the financial and psychological mechanisms behind all cryptocurrencies. While Bitcoin (BTC) is unlikely to go to zero in value, the reason it has value is simply because others agree it has value, which is the same reason why BALD tokens were once given value (and then lost it).
The real difference lies in the fact that Bitcoin is supported by a belief that the digital age needs an effective store of value; while meme coins are more based on mocking the head of Coinbase. Some consider this as evidence that Bitcoin is a huge Ponzi scheme, while others marvel at this economic miracle that connects people through shared interests.
Similarly, the worst aspects of cryptocurrency that meme coins display also apply to other cryptocurrencies. Celebrities launch tokens and then use their fan base as a source of liquidity when exiting, a behavior that is despicable. The so-called “rug pulls” scams are outrageous. The endless pursuit of wealth is unsettling. But in a sense, meme coins are more honest because they do not disguise their gamelike nature.
One’s attitude towards meme coins may ultimately depend on how seriously they view the issue. Some sincerely believe that meme coins bring a bad reputation to cryptocurrencies, without realizing that most people already hold such views about cryptocurrencies.
I may never buy tokens like Dogecoin myself. But opposing these popular cryptocurrencies does not seem like a wise strategy.
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