Arthur Hayes Believes Memecoins Could Net Positive for Blockchains Despite Criticisms
Crypto derivatives exchange BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes has a positive outlook on memecoins, which he believes would add value to the crypto sector.
Speaking with Real Vision founder Raoul Pal, Hayes argued that memecoins bring attention to the value of blockchains. He also turned-down the community’s portrayal of memecoins as “stupid and valueless,” stressing the importance of approaching them with care.
“You can poo-poo these things as stupid and valueless, but if it brings attention and more engineers to the space, it’s positive value for the chain itself.”
He added that the blockchain that support these memecoins are going to be “chains that have value.”
He signaled Solana as a primary benefitting platform from the memecoin trend due to its user-friendly interface. According to Hayes, this increases the platform’s visibility and pulls developers and people intrigued by memecoins.
Arthur Hayes further praised the decentralized character of memecoin buying and selling, describing it as “powerful.” Though many are skeptical of their intrinsic value and trading with responsibility is inevitable, Hayes described it as “pure emotion.”
“Whatever someone wants to list, they just do it and it either succeeds or fails instantly, and I think that’s super powerful. Some of it is tasteless memes but whatever.”
Memecoins Come to the Fore
The deepening memecoin mania has lured crypto leaders to take keen note on the growing asset class.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, for instance, acknowledged the unsavory side of memecoins, but valued “people’s desire to have fun” and noted that it has avenue for good.
Last week, Buterin penned a post on memecoins noting that they are “heating up again.” He also added that there is nothing particularly new and interesting about the memecoins culture.
His reply comes after a pseudonymous Ethereum blogger Polynya highlighted the “aggressive cultural shift” in crypto.
“Things have hit an all-new bottom with 2024: racist, sexist, and other shitheaded memecoins which are merely a vehicle to transfer wealth from the many to the most obnoxious people on the planet,” the blog read.
Further, during a conference in Seoul, a panel of crypto community leaders debated whether Solana blockchain, which hosts many memecoin trading, should try filtering out racist memecoins, per a recent CoinDesk report.
