Why Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin is Unhappy With This Cycle’s Celebrity Experimentation – Unchained

Celebrity memecoins have been the latest craze to dominate the crypto space, but Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin says there needs to be more to these projects than what’s currently on offer.

It’s been a few weeks since celebrity tokens broke into the crypto space, with famous personalities like Davido, Iggy Azalea, Rich The Kid, Trippie Redd, and Caitlyn Jenner all launching memecoins that saw large boosts of trading activity.

In most cases, these tokens associated with celebrities saw wild upswings in price, followed by a sharp and rapid plunge in value. One exception is Azalea’s Solana-based MOTHER token which surged 2,260% after an initial decline and now sits at a market cap of over $100 million.

The frenzy around the token prompted a Placeholder VC partner Chris Burniske to tweet that if MOTHER breaks into sustainable value creation it would also be “the mother of this cycle’s celebrity experimentation.”

Burniske’s comments invoked a response from Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who said he was feeling “quite unhappy with ‘this cycle’s celebrity experimentation’ so far.”

In order for a celebrity crypto project to gain his respect, Buterin said it would have to offer form of public-good end goal, rather than simply enrich the celebrity who issued the token and early adopters.

In his view, these projects would have more value if they had some fun mechanics that go beyond just trading a token. 

“As much as I dislike token voting DAOs, at least they give *something* for people to do and organize around. The DAO should not fully decide the agenda, but it can have some influence,” Buterin said.

“Make something that lasts 10+ years, rather than bubbling around for a few months and then being forgotten.”

It is worth noting that Buterin doesn’t have a problem with memecoins itself, saying in a March blog post on the subject that he valued people’s desire to have fun, and would rather the crypto space swim with this current than against it.

“I want to see higher quality fun projects that contribute positively to the ecosystem and the world around them (and not just by “bringing in users”) get more mindshare,” he said at the time. 

Data from Kaito AI shared last month shows that memes were the most dominant crypto narrative after AI, growing its mindshare within the market by 53% from the start of the year until May.