Benzinga – When Vitalik Buterin helped found Ethereum in 2013, he envisioned using the platform and blockchain technology as a force for good. He envisioned the network as a means to increase social welfare and provide users access to valuable projects. It makes sense, then, that Buterin has criticized the meme coin craze overtaking the crypto community in 2024. Buterin stated he is not a fan of the meme coin frenzy and prefers the community push “things in a better direction.”
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Buterin’s comments were in response to a post on X regarding the Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token, a project centered on rapper Iggy Azalea. “If $MOTHER breaks into sustainable value creation, it’ll also be the mother of this cycle’s celebrity experimentation,” said Chris Burniske on X.
The Ethereum co-founder responded, stating he is “feeling quite unhappy about with [sic] ‘this cycle’s celebrity experimentation’ so far,” and that he can respect the means “if the end is worthy (health care, open source software, art, etc).”
Buterin argues that the creators of these tokens use celebrities’ names to attract investors while providing little value in return. He contends this practice detracts funds from more useful projects and contradicts his original vision for Ethereum.
Celebrity memecoins have recently become popular among crypto investors. Tokens centered around celebrities like Donald Trump, Caitlyn Jenner, and Elon Musk have attracted billions in investment without providing much value.
While most of these meme projects are antithetical to Buterin’s grand vision for Ethereum, he mentioned one project that used its funds to add value, though not to the scale he hoped for.
“Ashton and Mila’s Stoner Cats was vastly more honorable than anything we’ve seen from this 2024 celebrity memecoin era — at least there was an actual show being funded,” Buterin noted. The Stoner Cats project featured an NFT collection, which funded an animated show. The project raised enough to hire Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Chris Rock, and Buterin himself as voice actors.
Stoner Cats is an example of how crypto project funds can create valuable content. However, the SEC sued Stoner Cats over its NFT offering, resulting in a $1 million civil penalty.
With many projects aiming to drive up token prices or make quick money, Buterin asks, “How do we push things in a better direction?” It will be interesting to see how projects respond to his call-out.
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