This dynamic creates a moral dilemma. Darrien Justice, community manager of Garlicoin, another joke token, said that he would never advise anyone to buy the meme coin as an investment — not even his own community — precisely because this reason. “Ordinary investors are perfectly capable of exiting liquidity, but they don’t quite understand it,” he said. “I don’t want people to lose money buying Garlicoin. So bad.”
Lane grappled with the same issue as CumRocket’s value skyrocketed. She made enough profit from holding her own token to allow her to quit and cover the cost of developing the use case, but she feels conflicted about the losses she incurs. may cause harm to others by doing so. “I feel bad dumping. I don’t want to be greedy,” she said. “When it’s your own chart, it’s your baby. I want everyone to win.”
The trend of meme coins rapidly increasing in value also creates fertile ground for FOMO-hunting scam tokens. Simply by perpetuating the coin meme tradition—by creating recklessness among investors stemming from the feeling that buying a coin early will lead to wealth—even innocuous projects also creates a cloud cover for scams and other scams.
Of the several meme coin investors who spoke to WIRED, most said they attempted to assess the risk of fraud before buying into a new token. But there is a limit, according to Dyma Budorin, founder of crypto-audit firm Hacken, to the diligence someone can do with publicly available tools.
While the underlying code is generally uncomplicated (and thus easy to check for security flaws or hidden mechanisms to defraud buyers), there is little verified information about the distribution of meme tokens. at launch. This means that developers can quietly reward themselves with large batches of their own coins, which they can then sell in bulk, driving up prices – a textbook pump-and-sell game .
“The lack of information creates a huge risk for every coin meme; Budorin said. “The code can be great, without any potential vulnerabilities, but since there is no token audit, the token can be very solid.”
For their part, the creators emphasize that the coin meme plays an integral role by attracting new faces to the cryptocurrency. The accessible branding creates a pathway for people who might be alienated by the technical learning curve or ideological underpinnings of cryptocurrency, Lane said. “Obviously not everyone can win,” she said, “but that is the nature of it.”
Those most passionate about trading meme coins tend to share the belief that investors don’t need to be pampered, wrapped in cotton wool. Seth Zaraki, a longtime investor in meme coins, said emphasizing profit over utility is part of what he cherishes most about the meme coin culture. It was a refreshing honesty and level of selflessness found nowhere else in the field, he said.
Zaraki said he couldn’t stop laughing when he and his wife bought their first meme coin in 2018.
“PEPE is clearly not designed for low-risk investors,” he said. “Most people who are willing to put money into something like this know what they are doing is gambling. They do it simply because it makes them feel good.”
Ace, who was once “played” by a scam project, has a similar view. “If as a normal person you put over $50 in a meme token, you are stupid,” he said. “You’re just not suitable for this shit.”
