 
 
Although the meme coin mania has brought attention and activity to Solana, the blockchain’s founder doesn’t seem to be a fan.
Anatoly Yakovenko dismissed memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) as just “digital slop” in recent posts on X.
Solana Boss Likens Memecoins To Loot Boxes In Mobile Games
“I’ve said this for years. Memecoins and NFTs are digital slop and have no intrinsic value,” Yakovenko quipped on Sunday, comparing the crypto tokens to loot boxes in free-to-play mobile games. He claimed that people spend a total of $150 billion per year on mobile gaming.
Loot boxes are in-app virtual rewards present in numerous free-to-play games in the Apple App Store. Detractors maintain that they exploit players by promoting repeated spending without guaranteed results. The lack of transparency around the loot boxes has led to intense regulatory scrutiny in multiple countries, such as Australia and Germany.
Yakovenko’s comment came during a discussion with Base creator Jesse Pollak over whether memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have fundamental value.
 
He admitted that Solana wouldn’t be where it is today without memecoins, but argued that Apple would only rake in negligible revenue from iOS if it weren’t for loot boxes.
“Just because a person is willing to pay X for something doesn’t give that thing any fundamental value. It just gives it a price,” Yakovenko added.
“Distasteful” Take
Yakovenko’s latest comments sparked renewed criticism from crypto community members.
Widely-followed crypto commentator going by the online alias Karbon stated: “I’m not a huge fan of how Vitalik handled memecoins […] but I find Toly’s approach much more distasteful, actively promoting them constantly while believing they’re worthless.”
Adam Hollander, CMO at NFT marketplace OpenSea, also slammed the Solana co-founder. “Disappointing take. And just flat out wrong. The concept of provable transparent digital ownership isn’t going anywhere. And absolutely has intrinsic value,” he noted.
With a market cap of $103.7 billion, Solana is currently ranked sixth on the crypto leaderboard.
The meme coin boom has triggered a flurry of activity for the wider Solana ecosystem, with decentralized exchanges on the network exceeding those on its rival chain, Ethereum, in terms of overall transaction volume on several occasions.
“If Solana had stuck to being an Ethereum clone with slightly faster blocks and zero community energy, it’d be Cardano,” another X user commented. “The reason Solana isn’t Cardano is because of the loot boxes, not in spite of them.”
Source: https://zycrypto.com/solana-co-founder-under-fire-for-calling-memecoins-and-nfts-digital-slop-with-no-intrinsic-value/