The surge in meme tokens is causing more disillusionment and departure among developers than even the bear market, according to Michael Dempsey, managing partner of Compound’s venture division.
Seeing memecoins leading to disillusionment/churn of crypto builders to a degree more extreme than even the bear market the past few years.
Increasingly find it hard to square VCs who think these are beneficial with those who also say they care about the long-term fulfilled… pic.twitter.com/uZW9iG3X7l
— Michael Dempsey (@mhdempsey) April 24, 2024
His view was supported by a16z Crypto CTO Eddy Lazzarin, who noted that these assets are “not very interesting from a technical perspective.”
“It’s no surprise they are unattractive to creators,” he added.
Mike Dudas, co-founder of The Block, disagreed. He argued that memecoins are “super interesting” to users, as evidenced by their “extremely broad” adoption across networks like Base, Blast, and Solana.
They’re super interesting to users as evidenced by the extremely broad adoption and usage across multiple chains (Base, Blast, Solana, etc.)
— Mike Dudas (@mdudas) April 24, 2024
He emphasized that transactions with such coins are merely one type of on-chain activity, which does not hinder other blockchain use cases.
Memecoins alter how the public, regulators, and entrepreneurs see crypto.
At best, it looks like a risky casino. Or a series of false promises masking a casino.
This deeply affects adoption, regulation/laws, and builder behavior.
I see the damage every day. You should too.
— Eddy Lazzarin ?? (@eddylazzarin) April 24, 2024
“Memecoins change how the public, regulators, and entrepreneurs view cryptocurrencies. At best, they resemble a risky casino. Or a series of false promises masking gambling. This deeply affects adoption, regulation/laws, and developer behavior,” Lazzarin responded.
In March, Messari’s head of research, Martje Bas, stated that meme tokens act as a “Trojan horse” for cryptocurrencies, aiding their widespread adoption. Later, Pantera Capital’s managing partner, Paul Veradittakit, made a similar comparison, highlighting the benefits of these assets for the entire Web3 ecosystem.
Some industry experts have expressed concerns about a potential bubble burst in meme tokens. CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju compared the situation to the 2018 ICO mania, which resulted in most investors losing their funds.
Earlier, on-chain researcher ZachXBT discovered that at least 12 Solana meme coins, which collectively raised $26.7 million in presales, were abandoned by their teams within a month.