Obviously, there is a meme coin mania in town. Fuelled by the Elon Musk-inspired, insane rise in the price of Dogecoin over the past few months, more and more meme coins are now being created both on the Ethereum and Binance blockchain. Some examples of meme coins include Safemoon, Akita, Doggy, Pig, etc.
Let me state that meme coins are not bad in themselves, except that it is now taking the shape of ponzi schemes, a get-rich-quick scheme, where $100 can become a million dollars in few weeks.
It is sad that investors, especially the newbies, are no longer interested in the fundamentals of digital assets but in merely what profit can be made within the shortest period of time. The unfortunate thing is that the harder the meme coins moon, the harder the crash, burning the fingers of the later investors while the early investors smile to the bank. How is that different from what happens in a typical ponzi scheme?
A few hours ago, news broke that the revered co-founder of Ethereum, Vitalik Buterin, has donated about $1 billion worth of the SHIB meme token in efforts towards Covid-19 relief in India. While I applaud the humanitarian actions of Buterin, questions should be asked as to how he was able to accumulate such a huge amount of the meme coin. Also, one should be worried about other undisclosed quantity of that coin in the wallet of Buterin and his friends.
On the first question, how did Buterin acquire such a staggering quantity of SHIB? There is no question that he must have been the creator of the coin or perhaps one of the earliest investors. For the creator of Ethereum, one of the most innovative blockchains in the world, to be involved in a shitcoin that has delivered over 50,000% in just few months should bother any right-thinking person, should make us question the whole essence of crypto. Is it still about technology, innovation, freedom, or money?
On the second question, what quantity of SHIB does Buterin hold? To what extent did Buterin use his cult following and influence to drive the success of this so-called Doge-killer? Were his actions ethical and what would be the fate of naïve investors whose life-savings might go up in flames for investing in such a dangerous and risky venture, a venture which has the hands of Buterin in it?
Permit me to end this contribution by stating that the creation of these new and highly risky meme coins and the involvement of whales and crypto influencers in it might have some very strict regulatory consequences for the cryptospace in the days ahead. The vision of Satochi Nakamoto for Bitcoin is under attack, crypto is evolving into a ponzi scheme, a gambling vehicle, and every investor might have to face persecution from regulators in the days ahead.
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