I
get
it:
Meme
coins
are
dumb.
Unserious.
A
waste
of
time.
They
give
the
impression
that
the
crypto
industry
is
trivial.
Full
of
speculators.
Vitalik
Buterin
is
probably
right
to
say
the
whole
industry
would
be
better
off
if
people
instead
focused
on
legit
projects.
This
is
an
excerpt
from
The
Node
newsletter,
a
daily
roundup
of
the
most
pivotal
crypto
news
on
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You
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Note:
The
views
expressed
in
this
column
are
those
of
the
author
and
do
not
necessarily
reflect
those
of
CoinDesk,
Inc.
or
its
owners
and
affiliates.
But.
Buuuuut
–
the
only
thing
lamer
than
trying
to
financialize
memes
is
complaining
about
meme
coins.
You
can
have
many
deep
thoughts
about
how
meme
coins
are
emblematic
of
this
age
of
“financial
nihilism,”
but
shame
on
anyone
uttering
them
aloud
–
especially
if
you’re
holding
a
bag.
I
don’t
necessarily
think
meme
coins
should
be
celebrated,
particularly
not
for
the
reasons
most
often
given.
At
this
point
in
the
cycle,
it’s
clear
tokens
–
even
“blue
chips”
like
shiba
inu
(SHIB)
or
dogwifhat
(WIF)
–
aren’t
really
bringing
in
new
adopters;
at
least
not
yet.
I
think
it’s
dubious
to
suggest
that
the
“communities”
that
form
around
investing
in
meme
coins
are
at
all
long
term
sustainable.
And
it’s,
of
course,
irresponsible
to
suggest
these
tokens
are
creating
“generational
wealth”
for
people.
Meme
coins
are
what
they
are:
highly
speculative
investment
vehicles.
That
there
appears
to
be
a
near
endless
amount
of
interest
and
capital
to
plow
into
them
essentially
proves
that
“speculation
is
a
use
case,”
no
matter
whether
you
agree
with
the
sentiment
there.
As
Riva
Tez
put
it
in
her
recent
speech
at
Consensus
2024,
meme
coins
are
helping
crypto
win
the
“narrative
war”
by
fulfilling
a
genuine
need
that
people
have.
Meme
coins
meet
people
where
they
are.
Fair
enough
to
criticize
casinos
or
state-sanctioned
gambling
like
the
lotto
on
moral
grounds,
but
meme
coins
exist
for
the
same
reason
–
people
like
to
dream
their
lives
can
change
in
an
instant,
without
really
having
to
do
much
work.
It’s
an
itch
that
cannot
simply
be
willed
away,
and
it
turns
out
gambling
on
blockchain-based
tokens
is
as
good
as
a
scratch-off.
More
substantially,
it’s
becoming
evident
that
meme
coins
are
tools
for
coordination
and
measuring
attention.
It’s
in
the
name:
meme
coins
are
about
mimetics
–
or
the
process
by
which
ideas
gain
cultural
currency
by
getting
shared.
As
Ravi
Bakhai,
who
is
building
a
meme-coin
trading
platform
called
Hype,
explained,
meme
coins
have
essentially
become
a
big,
generalized
betting
market
for
determining
how
relevant
anything
is
at
any
given
time.
For
instance,
Iggy
Azalea’s
MOTHER
token
literally
put
a
price
on
her
fame,
and
the
rapper’s
ability
to
draw
an
audience
of
crypto
enthusiasts.
Now,
a
lot
has
been
said
over
the
years
about
crypto’s
place
in
the
“attention
economy,”
based
around
the
idea
that
attention
itself
is
a
scarce
commodity,
and
it’s
easy
to
overstate
the
value
of
“crowdsourcing”
popularity
this
way.
In
essence,
what
meme
coins
have
revealed
about
the
world
is
that
people
like
cute
dogs
and
can
be
incredibly
racist.
But
that
doesn’t
mean
that
primitives
behind
meme
coins
can’t
one
day
be
more
useful.
In
the
same
way
that
prediction
markets
help
us
understand
sentiment
because
users
with
“skin
in
the
game”
are
incentivized
to
tell
the
truth,
meme
coins
may
also
help
cut
through
the
noise.
This
is
the
idea
behind
the
emerging
category
of
“PoliFi,”
a
portmanteau
of
politics
and
finance,
and
the
array
of
tokens
like
JEO
BODEN,
MAGA
and
elizabath
whoren
that
some
people
are
using
as
metrics
to
gamble
on
those
candidates’
re-election
odds.
But
this
doesn’t
have
to
be
limited
to
politics.
As
Calaxy
CEO
Solo
Ceesay
recently
wrote
in
a
piece
for
The
Defiant:
“Memecoins
are
a
prime
example
of
how
any
collective
group
of
individuals
can
create
the
economic
infrastructure
to
facilitate
commerce,
trade,
and
collaboration
without
the
need
for
an
intermediary.
Before
blockchain,
this
was
virtually
impossible.”
Finally,
as
the
creation
of
dogecoin
(DOGE)
in
late-2013
showed,
it’s
worth
noting
that
meme
coins
are
essentially
just
a
blank
canvas
for
“performance
art,”
as
Tez
puts
it.
Co-creators
Billy
Markus
and
Jackson
Palmer
said
DOGE
was
just
a
spoof
of
Bitcoin.
That
actually
gets
to
the
heart
of
the
most
cutting
criticism
of
meme
coins:
that
they
reveal
the
financial
and
psychological
mechanisms
that
essentially
make
all
cryptocurrencies
tick.
While
it’s
unlikely
bitcoin
(BTC)
is
going
to
zero,
it
only
has
value
because
a
crowd
of
people
say
it
does,
which
is
the
same
reason
why
something
like
the
BALD
token
momentarily
had
value
(and
then
didn’t).
The
only
real
difference
is
that
one
is
backed
by
the
belief
that
the
digital
age
needs
a
functioning
store-of-value
and
the
other
by
a
desire
to
mock
the
person
running
Coinbase.
Some
see
this
as
evidence
that
BTC
is
a
gigantic
Ponzi,
while
others
weep
at
the
beauty
of
the
economic
miracle
of
aligning
people
through
shared
interests.
Likewise,
the
worst
aspects
of
meme
coins
are
true
too
for
the
rest
of
crypto.
Celebrities
launching
tokens
and
using
their
fans
as
exit
liquidity
is
unseemly.
Rug
pulls
are
reprehensible.
The
relentless
chase
for
riches
is
upsetting.
But
in
a
real
way,
there
is
something
more
honest
about
meme
coins.
They
make
no
illusions
about
the
game
being
played.
Ultimately,
where
one
stands
on
meme
coins
will
likely
come
down
to
how
self-serious
they
are.
There
are
genuinely
people
out
there
who
think
meme
coins
are
giving
crypto
a
bad
reputation,
oblivious
to
the
fact
that
most
people
view
crypto
this
way
anyway.
I
don’t
think
I’ll
ever
buy
a
dog
token.
But
betting
against
the
monetization
of
virality
seems
like
a
losing
strategy.
