Founder of Synthetix: Meme Coins Have a Significant Role in the Cryptocurrency Space
At the MemeGlobal Sydney conference, Cain Warwick, the founder of Synthetix, shared his opinion on meme coins, which many consider speculative and useless. According to Warwick, meme coins play an important role in the cryptocurrency space, despite the criticism.
Warwick emphasized that while meme coins are often seen as speculative assets, they draw attention to decentralized finance systems (DeFi) and cryptocurrencies in general. Trading meme coins contributes to increasing trading volumes on decentralized exchanges (DEX), prompting platforms to improve their trading tools. This leads to the formation of a whole ecosystem around these tokens, which Warwick considers a significant achievement.
According to DefiLlama, in March, the trading volume on DEX reached nearly $268 billion, close to the record of November 2021 at $292 billion. Warwick noted that meme coins are often difficult to list on centralized exchanges due to their short-term nature, making DEX the primary place for their trading.
Warwick also explained that meme coins, along with NFTs and gaming tokens, touch on human emotions and cultural ideas, making them more appealing to a wide audience compared to the technical aspects of DeFi. In his opinion, meme coins act as a «hook,» attracting people’s attention to the world of cryptocurrencies by connecting finance, culture, and tokenization.
However, not everyone agrees with Warwick’s position. Eddie Lazzarin, the CTO of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, believes that meme coins harm the reputation of major cryptocurrencies and blockchains. Independent «crypto detective» ZachXBT added that most meme tokens created on the blockchain often turn out to be questionable in terms of their value and security.
