As highly speculative meme coins continue their inevitable plunge, crypto executives and analysts have been throwing their thoughts into the arena, and they are not very complimentary.
Some meme coins have clearly gone too far lately, to the extent people are insider trading, said Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, before adding, This is illegal, and people should understand that you will go to prison for this.
In every crypto cycle, there is a get-rich-quick crowd that comes and goes and learns this lesson the hard way, he continued.
However, Armstrong was not fully critical of meme coins, arguing that theyve been with us since the beginning, referring to Dogecoin.
Meme coins are a canary in the coal mine that everything will be tokenized and brought onchain, he said.
On memecoins
Memecoins have generated a lot of buzz recently, and Ive gotten some questions on how I think about them. I am personally not a memecoin trader (beyond a few test trades), but theyve become hugely popular. Arguably, they’ve been with us since the beginning
Brian Armstrong (@brian_armstrong) February 19, 2025
Meme coins are unquestionably over, said Bitcoiner Nic Carter, who added that they had no purpose beyond their launch mechanic, which was supposed to be a fair launch, benefiting retail as much as venture capital giants.
The meme coin trade was entirely based on a claim that was ultimately exposed as a lie – that the casino was at least fair.
Carter concluded that meme coins are cooked, adding that there will still be launches and probably some winners, but the meta is done.
Retail will still be farmed here as many are not extremely online and unaware of how extractive the sector is, but the endless coterie of scandals in memecoin land will turn off the smarter investors and eventually the mass market.
Meanwhile, Uniswap founder Hayden Adams said, Turns out the financial nihilists that said meme coins have better fundamentals than tokens with real projects behind them were clearly wrong.
Others mentioned flights to quality and the demise of meme coins, which has recently become a common theme.
All memecoins are going to zero.
People are realising theyre holding something which has no value.
Its officially over.
Thanks for playing pic.twitter.com/Z10uU2CMQ1
Crypto Beast (@cryptobeastreal) February 18, 2025
The proof is in the performance as meme coins continue to melt down regardless of minor gains today.
The top five memes by market capitalization are all heavily down from their all-time highs. Dogecoin (DOGE) is down by 65%, Shiba Inu (SHIB) has lost 82%, PEPE has plunged by 66%, TRUMP has tanked by 77%, and both BONK and FLOKI are 73% down from their peak prices.
Perhaps the biggest loser from the meme coin fiasco has been the Solana network, which has been the go-to place to mint and trade them. SOL has fallen back to October price levels and has lost more than 40% in just over a month as meme coin mania fades.