Vitalik Buterin slams celebrity memecoins, calls for “better direction”

  • Celebrities like Iggy Azalea launched memecoins, showcasing widespread crypto adoption among public figures.
  • Vitalik Buterin critiques celebrity memecoins, but community support remains strong.

As a seasoned analyst with a strong background in the crypto industry, I’ve closely followed the recent trend of celebrities launching memecoins and Vitalik Buterin’s critique of this phenomenon. The widespread adoption of memecoins by public figures, such as Iggy Azalea and other celebrities, is undeniably a significant development in the crypto world. However, it’s important to consider the implications of this trend from various perspectives.


As a researcher in 2024, I’ve observed an intriguing surge in popularity for memecoins. Notable figures like American rapper Iggy Azalea have even jumped into the pool by introducing their own tokens, such as MOTHER IGGY on Solana [SOL].

Caitlyn Jenner and musicians Soul Ja Boy and Rich The Kid are the latest celebrities to introduce their own crypto tokens into the market.

Buterin voices dissatisfaction!

Vitalik Buteran, a co-founder of Ethereum [ETH], voiced his disappointment over the proliferation of memcoins backed by celebrities and underscored the importance of developing more substantial projects within the cryptocurrency industry.

In his recent X post, Buterin noted, 

“I’m not too pleased with the way ‘celebrity experiments’ have gone in this cycle. I understand the concept of using finance to achieve goals, but only if those goals are worthwhile, such as healthcare, open source software, or art.”

He further added, 

As a researcher examining the current trend of celebrity-backed memecoins in 2024, I’ve noticed that Ashton and Mila’s Stoner Cats project stands out as more honorable compared to others in this realm. At least with their venture, there’s a tangible outcome – the production of a show. To steer things towards improvement, perhaps we could:

In this text, Buterin talks about “Stoner Cats,” a popular webcomic created by Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis that gained significant acclaim in the year 2023. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brought charges against its creators for an unregistered sale of NFTs as mentioned in their filing.

As a crypto investor, I’ve witnessed an astonishing sale event by Stoner Cats. They managed to offload their entire NFT collection in a mere 35 minutes, raking in over $8 million. Surprisingly, most of these tokens didn’t end up as collectibles in investors’ wallets but were instead resold in the secondary market within months.

As a crypto investor, I can’t help but share my apprehensions when it comes to the increasing hype around memecoins and the involvement of celebrities. This trend makes me ponder over a pressing question: Is the future direction of cryptocurrency potentially misguided?

Buterin’s advice to scale celebrity-backed memecoins

The Ethereum co-founder proposed several approaches for boosting the success of celebrity-endorsed cryptocurrency projects. He emphasized the importance of promoting public benefit, creating captivating content, and ensuring long-term project sustainability. In essence, he advised focusing on these key elements to increase the viability and appeal of such ventures.

Vitalik Buterin slams celebrity memecoins, calls for “better direction”

Memecoin craze despite crictsism

In the community sphere, responses have mostly been favorable towards meme coins based on Gumshoo’s latest findings from their X post analysis.

“In just a week, Iggy transformed from being labeled as a scammer to engaging in meaningful discussions about celebrity meme coins with Ethereum’s key figures like Vitalik. Impressive, wouldn’t you agree?”

Although Buterin had voiced apprehensions regarding memecoins, sparked by a tweet from Chris Burniske, Mother Iggy underwent a significant jump of approximately 40% within the last 24 hours. In contrast, Ethereum experienced a more subdued growth of around 1.16% during the same period.

All in all, ‘Aden | The Wolf of X’ put it best when he said, 

“#Memecoin season 2024 unstoppable.” 

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2024-06-06 16:08