‘Memecoins are toxic’: Vitalik Buterin urges crypto to shun the $50B hype
Key Takeaways
Why is Buterin backing prediction markets over memecoins?
He argued that almost all memecoins are dangerous with little real-world utility, in contrast to structured prediction markets.
Will memecoin merchants shift to prediction markets?
That is still to be seen, however there have been nonetheless appreciable losses in each segments.
Ethereum [ETH] Co-Founder, Vitalik Buterin, has heightened criticism in opposition to memecoin playing.
In an X (previously Twitter) put up, Buterin decried that they’re short-term “dangerous bizarre issues” that don’t make monetary sense and needs to be shunned.
“Memes glorifying being ‘all in’ in a monetary sense on belongings you didn’t even learn about 5 years in the past are poisonous and needs to be pushed again in opposition to.”
Supply: X
He was reacting to a different consumer who claimed that “playing” is unhealthy and shouldn’t be promoted to the mainstream. However prediction markets had been higher and needs to be allowed to function freely.
Subtly, Buterin’s response equated playing to buying and selling memecoins whereas viewing prediction markets as a greater choice.
Unsurprisingly, he has all the time embraced prediction markets like Polymarket because the “supply of reality.”
In distinction, memecoins are detrimental to the trade, in line with him. Nonetheless, he solely helps these that concentrate on charity or neighborhood empowerment.
Memecoins vs prediction markets
The memecoins narrative turned overheated in 2023-2024 because the phase printed returns of as much as +1000%. The catalyst? A rebellious crypto pattern that boycotted “VC-tokens” being dumped on retail discovered solace in memecoins.
New shiny memecoins like dogewifhat [WIF] and others popped up and noticed huge upside earlier than the steam ran out.
In 2025, the DEX perps, prediction markets, privateness cash, and stablecoins turn into high narratives. With inadequate consideration to the memecoins, the phase has underperformed previously few months.
From peak hype to say no
The entire memecoin market cap has dropped almost 3x from $130 billion+ to $50 billion on a year-on-year foundation.
Supply: CoinMarketCap
Though prediction markets have turn into essential information instruments for danger administration, the merchants concerned even have their fair proportion of struggles.
In keeping with Dune, over 85% of open positions had been within the purple, with solely 15% exhibiting revenue. Equally, like memecoin buying and selling, a good portion of retail traders seemed to be underwater within the prediction markets.
The first distinction is that memecoin is usually related to rug pulls, whereas prediction markets let you specific an opinion on an occasion.
