Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko sparked controversy after calling Memecoin and fungible Tokens “digital slops” despite Solana’s substantial Memecoin-driven revenue.
“I’ve been saying this for years. Memecoin and NFT are digital slops and have no intrinsic value,” Yakovenko compared Crypto Tokens to loot a box of mobile games for free.
Yakovenko’s comments came in a discussion with base creator Jesse Pollak about whether Memecoins and NFT have fundamental values, and if so, whether they are worth it.
The CEO of Solana Labs argued that their value comes through market-driven price discovery, but Pollak countered that the content itself has intrinsic value.
“The content itself is valuable. Just as the painting is fundamentally valuable, whether or not the painting charges the people in the museum to see it.”
Solana Memecoins are like Apple’s booty box
Yakovenko admitted that without Memecoins, Solana would not be where it is today, but insisted that Apple’s revenue could also be ignored if there were no looting boxes.
Lootbox is an in-app virtual reward found in many free-to-play games on the Apple App Store. Critics argue that they exploit players by encouraging repeated spending without guaranteed consequences. The lack of transparency around the booty box has led to regulatory scrutiny in several countries, including Australia and Germany.
Yakovenko’s previous X posts show that he has held the view that Memecoins and NFTs are worthless since at least January 2024.
Jacovenko hits criticism
Yakovenko’s latest comments received new criticism from members of the Crypto Community, including Flaunch Contributor and X user “Caps.”
Crypto commentator and X user Karbon added: “I’m not a huge fan of the way Vitalik handled Memecoins (…), but Toly’s approach is far more offensive and constantly advertised, believing it’s not worth it.”
Solana is still very dependent on Memecoin activities
According to Solana-focused infrastructure company Syndica, MemeCoins accounted for 62% of Solana Network’s decentralized app revenue in June.
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MemeCoin’s activities drive the majority of Solana’s $1.6 billion revenue in the first half of 2025.
The majority of Memecoin’s revenue comes from Solana-based Memecoin LaunchPad Pump.Fun and Pumpswap. Pums and Pumpswap act as distributed Exchange aggregators for Pump.Fun-Launched Mecoins.
However, rival platform Letbonk has recently emerged as a serious competitor for Pump.Fun, surpassing it with 24-hour revenues as Solana’s top Memecoin Launchpad.
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