Memecoins
Vitalik Buterin criticizes celebrity memecoins for lacking real-world value
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin expressed strong disapproval of the recent trend of celebrities experimenting with cryptocurrencies by creating memecoin.
In a social media post on June 5th sendButerin pointed out that most celebrity-backed memecoins do not have a practical utility or specific use case to support their creation.
He added that financialization – or the process of turning something into a tradable good – is justified only if it serves a purpose that brings value to society, such as improving healthcare, supporting open source software and promoting ‘art.
Buterin believes that the main goal of any project should be to provide a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction to participants, even if the project ultimately fails or the tokens become worthless. He added:
“The north star should be: have a project where even if in the end all the tokens involved go to zero, the average person who participated is happy they did it. Regular companies and charities always achieve this! It’s a low bar, but the things we build should also meet this bar.
Approval criteria
The Ethereum co-founder provided a set of criteria that a celebrity crypto project should meet to earn his respect.
First, these resources must serve a public good beyond simply enriching celebrities and early adopters. He cited the example of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ Stoner Cats NFT collection as “much more honorable” than other memecoins launched by celebrities this year because the project funded an actual show.
Buterin further suggested that celebrity memecoins should feature engaging mechanisms like Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO), activities that would promote community participation and help tokens grow beyond just trading.
Furthermore, he emphasized that these tokens should be designed to last more than ten years and not just trade for a few months and be easily forgotten.
Celebrity Memecoin
In recent weeks, celebrity memecoins have become a new trend in the cryptocurrency industry, with superstars such as Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea and Davido launching several tokens via the Solana-based Pump Fun application.
While the results of these experiments have been varied, blockchain data shows that the assets have mostly benefited early traders who have amassed a substantial position in them. For example, blockchain analyst Lookonchain reported that an address associated with Nigerian record producer Davido made a profit of more than $470,000 in just 11 hours.
Meanwhile, Iggy Azalea’s Mother Iggy token continues to generate interest after rising approximately 500% over the past seven days, based on CryptoSlate data.