With crypto prices reaching all-time highs again recently, there’s a risk of too much speculation, especially given the buzz around memecoins. Why does the market keep repeating these cycles, instead of supporting the more productive blockchain-based innovations that will truly make a difference?
Memecoins are crypto tokens used mostly for humour, born of joining an online community that’s in on the joke. You’ve probably heard of Dogecoin, based on the old doge meme featuring images of Shiba Inu dogs. It emerged as a loose community online when someone ironically added a cryptocurrency that later had some financial value. This kind of memecoin embodies various facets of internet culture and is mostly harmless.
But my goal here is not to defend or to diminish memecoins. It’s to point out the absurdity of a regulatory regime in the US that lets meme-only tokens thrive — while crypto companies and blockchain tokens with more productive uses face hurdles. We see this everyday while working with entrepreneurs and start-ups. Any mememaker can easily create, launch, and even automatically list tokens. But entrepreneurs trying to build something lasting? They get stuck in regulatory purgatory.