I’m not against crypto. In fact, I still think the idea behind Bitcoin is incredibly powerful. But I hate meme coins.
Most of the time, there is no product, no real idea, no cash flow, and no problem being solved. There is a picture, a ticker, a few slogans, some FOMO, and the hope that someone else will buy it from you for more.
That doesn’t feel like investing to me. It feels much closer to buying a lottery ticket. And the lottery is gambling.
You put your money into something with terrible odds because there is a tiny chance that $100 might turn into $100,000. Social media makes sure you see the person who pulled it off. You rarely see the thousands of people who lost on the other side.
That is probably what bothers me most about meme coin culture.
Someone posts a screenshot showing that they made $2 million. Great. But where did that $2 million come from?
It didn’t appear out of nowhere. There were buyers on the other side of those trades. People who bought higher. People who believed the story. People who arrived late. Some lost $50, some lost $500, and some lost far more.
There is no honest way to say that one person making $2 million means exactly a certain number of people lost money. Markets do not work that neatly. It could be hundreds of people. It could be thousands. But ultimately, someone has to be on the other side of the exit.
Then there are rug pulls.
A token launches, attention builds around it, and the price starts climbing. Then the founders, insiders, or large holders dump their positions or drain the liquidity. Everyone left behind suddenly realizes that what they thought was a “community” may have been someone else’s exit plan.
Of course, not every meme coin is a rug pull. That distinction matters. Some are simply extremely speculative markets that people knowingly enter.
In other words, everyone walks into the casino voluntarily.
I’m not sure that makes them much more meaningful.
They call it “community.” They call it a “fair launch.” They say “diamond hands.” Rockets, dreams of 100x returns, and screenshots of absurd profits are everywhere.
But almost nobody shows you the graveyard.
The wallets that bought the top. The people who lost money chasing the next 100x. The people who convinced themselves they were investing rather than gambling.
Just because the casino runs on a blockchain doesn’t make it an investment.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to make money. I want to make money too. But I want there to be something underneath it: a company, a product, a technology, an asset, a service.
Anything that creates actual value beyond convincing the next person to pay more.
Maybe I don’t actually hate meme coins.
Maybe I hate what they represent:
A lottery ticket pretending to be an investment.
And sometimes,
a rug pull pretending to be a community.