Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko has sparked controversy after referring to memecoins and non-fungible tokens as “digital slop,” despite Solana’s substantial memecoin-driven revenue.
“I’ve said this for years. Memecoins and NFTs are digital slop and have no intrinsic value,” Yakovenko said in a X post on Sunday while comparing the crypto tokens to loot boxes in free-to-play mobile games.
Yakovenko’s comment came during a debate with Base creator Jesse Pollak over whether memecoins and NFTs have fundamental value, and if so, where that value lies.
The Solana Labs CEO argued that their value is derived through market-driven price discovery, while Pollak countered that there is intrinsic value in the content itself.
“The content itself is valuable. just like a painting is fundamentally valuable, regardless of whether you charge people at the museum to see it.”
Solana memecoins are like Apple’s loot boxes
Yakovenko acknowledged that without memecoins, Solana wouldn’t be where it is today, but claimed that Apple’s revenues would also be negligible if it weren’t for loot boxes.
Loot boxes are in-app virtual rewards found in many free-to-play games in the Apple App Store. Critics argue they exploit players by encouraging repeated spending without guaranteed outcomes. The lack of transparency around the loot boxes has resulted in regulatory scrutiny in several countries, including Australia and Germany.
Previous X posts from Yakovenko show that he has held the view that memecoins and NFTs have no value since at least January 2024.
Yakovenko hit with criticism
Yakovenko’s latest comments received renewed criticism from members of the crypto community, including Flaunch contributor and X user “Caps,” who called out the Solana boss for mocking his user base.
Crypto commentator and X user Karbon added: “I’m not a huge fan of how Vitalik handled memecoins […] but I find Toly’s approach much more distasteful, actively promoting them constantly while believing they’re worthless.”
Solana is still ultra-reliant on memecoin activity
According to Solana-focused infrastructure firm Syndica, memecoins accounted for 62% of the Solana network’s decentralized app revenue in June, a new all-time high.
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Memecoin activity has driven the majority of Solana’s $1.6 billion in revenue during the first half of 2025.
A large share of memecoin revenue has come from Solana-based memecoin launchpad Pump.fun and PumpSwap, which functions as a decentralized exchange aggregator for Pump.fun-launched memecoins.
However, rival platform LetBonk has recently emerged as a serious competitor to Pump.fun, at times surpassing it in 24-hour revenue as Solana’s top memecoin launchpad.
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