Vitalik Buterin criticizes celebrity meme coins for lacking real-world value.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has expressed strong opposition to the recent trend of celebrities experimenting with cryptocurrencies by creating memecoins.
In a June 5 social media post, Buterin pointed out that most celebrity-backed memecoins lack practical utility or specific use cases to support their creation.
He added that financialization, or the process of turning something into a tradable asset, is only justified if it serves a purpose that provides value to society, such as improving healthcare, supporting open source software or promoting the arts.
Buterin believes that the main goal of any project is to provide participants with a sense of accomplishment or satisfaction, even if the project eventually fails or the tokens become worthless. He added:
“The North Star should be to have a project that the average person involved is glad they did, even if in the end all tokens involved end up at zero. Businesses and charities achieve this goal all the time! “It’s a low bar, but the products we make must also meet it.”
Approval criteria
The Ethereum co-founder provided a set of criteria that high-profile cryptocurrency projects must meet to earn respect.
First, these assets must serve the public good beyond simply enriching celebrities and early adopters. He cited Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ Stoner Cats NFT collection as an example that was “far more prestigious” than other memecoins launched by celebrities this year because they funded physical shows.
Buterin also suggested that celebrity memecoins should feature attractive mechanisms, such as decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) activities, to foster community participation and help the token grow beyond simple transactions.
He also emphasized that these tokens should be designed to last 10 years or more, rather than just being traded for a few months and easily forgotten.
Celebrity Meme Coin
In recent weeks, celebrity memecoins have become a new trend in the cryptocurrency industry, with superstars like Caitlyn Jenner, Iggy Azalea, and Davido launching several tokens through the Solana-based Pump Fun application.
The results of these experiments have varied, but blockchain data shows that the assets mostly benefited early traders who accumulated significant positions. For example, blockchain analyst Lookonchain reported that an address associated with Nigerian record producer Davido generated more than $470,000 in just 11 hours.
Meanwhile, Iggy Azalea’s Mother Iggy token continues to generate interest after surging nearly 500% over the past seven days, based on CryptoSlate data.
