Following a string of high-profile collapses and dangerous press in 2022, crypto largely felt like its personal market sector from which the remainder of the tech world stored a cautious distance. With a memecoin-brandishing President Trump now in workplace, that appears to be shifting: The techies like memecoins.
Since Trump got here to workplace, a number of more-mainstream tech gamers have both launched or endorsed memecoins — a few which have seen main value drawdowns, just like the TRUMP token. It’s maybe an indication that animal spirits are again in crypto, and tech gamers desire a seat on the desk, previous qualms be damned.
Final evening, Venmo co-founder Iqram Magdon-Ismail launched a token for his new startup, a form of TikTok-meets-FaceTime app referred to as JellyJelly. The token launched on the Solana memecoin launchpad pump.enjoyable and shortly raced to over $230 million in market capitalization. Lower than a day later, it crashed to underneath $100 million in market cap.
Magdon-Ismail stated right this moment on a podcast that one among Solana’s co-founders texted him expressing pleasure concerning the launch, and he was in talks with somebody on the Solana Basis as effectively.
Sam Lessin, basic associate of Gradual Ventures, which invested in each Venmo and Solana, then posted a clip of himself waxing poetic about how cash is only a type of communication, and memecoins are the expression of a viewpoint. Lessin promoted the memecoin on his X account, and it’s not clear how a lot of the token he owns, if any.
The saga got here shortly after a co-founder of the defunct video sharing app Vine launched a memecoin of his personal, which additionally noticed its market cap spike earlier than shortly retracting. Nikita Bier, an entrepreneur who has launched a number of viral social media apps, posted after which deleted a meme saying he could be launching a memecoin, too.
Silicon Valley’s new memecoin apologists have a tendency to speak about such tokens utilizing phrases like “enjoyable” and “group,” however not everybody thinks memecoin as a capital formation device will show auspicious for startups.
“I don’t imagine that startups launching memecoins will acquire any actual traction over any cheap size of time,” Dragonfly basic associate Rob Hadick stated. He cited consideration dilution, the damaging feeling traders get from dropping cash and vital regulatory danger as marks towards startup cash.
Folks in crypto and tech have a tendency “to overreact to short-term market dynamics. We noticed very related discourse about NFTs in 2021, which turned out to be virtually totally unsuitable,” Hadick stated.
