Ethereum
Why Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin isn’t happy with this cycle’s celebrity experimentation
Celebrity memecoins have been the latest craze to dominate the crypto space as of late, but Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin says these projects need to be more than what’s currently on offer.
Vitalik Buterin would prefer that celebrity crypto projects were more valuable if they had some sort of fun mechanic that goes beyond just trading tokens.
Shutterstock
Posted June 6, 2024 at 1:16 AM EST.
It’s been a few weeks since celebrity tokens burst into the crypto space, featuring famous personalities like Davido, Iggy Azalea, Rich The Kid, Trippie Redd, and Caitlyn Jenner. memecoins which saw a sharp increase in commercial activity.
In most cases, these celebrity tokens have experienced sharp price increases, followed by a sharp and rapid drop in value. A exception is Azalea’s Solana-based MOTHER token, which surged 2,260% after an initial decline and now sits at a market cap of over $100 million.
The frenzy around the token prompted Placeholder VC partner Chris Burniske to tweet that if MOTHER were to embark on sustainable value creation, it would also be the mother of this cycle’s celebrity experimentation.
Burniske’s comments invoked a response from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who said he felt “pretty unhappy” with the “celebrity experimentation of this cycle” so far.
For a celebrity crypto project to earn respect, Buterin said it would have to offer some sort of public good end goal, rather than simply enriching the celebrity who issued the token and the early adopters.
In his opinion, these projects would be more valuable if they had fun mechanics beyond just swapping tokens.
“As much as I don’t like token voting DAOs, at least they give *something* for people to do and organize. The DAO should not entirely decide the agenda, but it can have some influence,” Buterin said.
“Do something that lasts for more than 10 years, rather than bubbling away for a few months and then being forgotten.”
It’s worth noting that Buterin doesn’t have a problem with memecoins himself, saying in a March statement Blog post on the topic that he appreciated people’s desire to have and preferred the crypto space to swim with that current rather than against it.
“I want to see higher quality, fun projects that contribute positively to the ecosystem and the world around them (and not just by ‘attracting users’) garner more interest,” he said at the time.
Kaito AI data shared last month watch that memes were the most dominant crypto narrative after AI, increasing its market mindshare by 53% from the start of the year through May.
