Messari Labels Meme Tokens as a ‘Trojan Horse’

Meme coins will remain a vital part of the crypto industry and potentially evolve into a new asset class, according to The Block, citing a statement by Martje Bas, Head of Research at Messari, at the BUIDL Asia conference.

“Cryptocurrency is often criticized for lacking use cases for the average person, and this is a fair point. But meme coins have actually been consistently successful in bringing people together on-chain,” she noted.

According to Bas, these tokens possess numerous attractive factors for investors beyond their entertainment function. She described the current rally as a “full-scale meme mania,” fueled by the bullish cycle following the approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs.

The Head of Research described new assets as a way to monetize attention, which can easily be turned into a prediction market in the case of tokens based on U.S. election candidates.

Meme coins can also be viewed as a “long-tail speculative service” akin to lottery tickets or penny stocks.

Such assets “unintentionally” introduce newcomers to Web3 to the basics of cryptographic concepts, including decentralized exchanges and crypto wallets, Bas believes. She called meme tokens a “Trojan horse” for the next era of crypto-native consumer applications.

The Messari representative also highlighted other trends: the convergence of digital assets and AI, DePIN, and the scaling of EIP-4844.

Earlier, CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju expressed concern over the boom in the meme token segment. The expert believes such projects simply harm the crypto industry.

Experts at Franklin Templeton concluded that meme coins lack “native” value and are highly volatile.