Solana Co-Founder Lambasts Meme Coins, Faces Backlash
Meme cryptocurrencies have been Solana’s bread and butter, but co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko does not seem to be a fan.
In a recent social media post, Yakovenko has slammed memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as “digital slop” that lacks any semblance of intrinsic value.
Meme coins and loot boxes
Yakovenko has compared them to loot boxes in mobile games that players earn during gameplay or buy with real money. He added that people splurge a total of $150 billion per year on mobile gaming.
While responding to criticism, Yakovenko noted that Apple would be able to receive only negligible revenue from iOS without loot boxes.
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“Just because a person is willing to pay X for something doesn’t give that thing any fundamental value. It just gives it a price,” he said.
“A disappointing take”
The frank admission comes despite the fact that Solana derives most of its activity from meme coins and NFTs. Hence, it rubbed some members of the community the wrong way.
“Beanie” (@beaniemaxi), a prominent crypto influencer involved in projects such as Pixel Vault and Wolf Game, claims that Yakovenko is not wrong per se, but Solana would see as little activity as Tezos, a long-forgotten “Ethereum killer,” without the aforementioned “digital slop.”
Meanwhile, Solana (SOL) is currently valued at a whopping $104 billion, which makes it the sixth-largest cryptocurrency.
Adam Hollander, CMO at NFT marketplace OpenSea, also criticized Yakovenko. “Disappointing take. And just flat out wrong. The concept of provable transparent digital ownership isn’t going anywhere,” he commented.
Some other users have also recalled that they got into Solana because of NFTs in the first place.