Crypto hype So what exactly is a memecoin?

Why are meme coins so popular when so many people have lost money on them? Is the industry just a scam? Matt Shea asks the cryptocurrency experts

- Matt Shea

Is every meme coin a scam?

"Basically, literally, yes," according to David Gerard, author of Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain.

"All of this is like a big game of pretend with made-up financial instruments," he said. "You print your own Monopoly money and then people buy it from you for real money."

The best thing you could possibly say about internet meme coins is that they initially felt like a funny, counter-cultural way to participate in internet culture. They satirised a financial system that increasingly looked like a silly game to those on the outside.

Sander Lutz, the US's first crypto-focused White House correspondent, said: "Another way of defining a meme coin is a cryptocurrency token that has an acknowledged inherent lack of value. The crypto world, outside of meme coins, is full of so many people who are trying to pitch you on tokens that are 'actually really profound' or 'represent a stake' in some kind of 'useful network', but are equally worthless. What makes meme coins different is that there's none of that noise."

In other words, all crypto is bullshit, but meme coins are consciously bullshit.

Meme coins distil the attention economy into a tradeable asset, monetising the ebb and flow of viral internet hype. This has created a system in which the biggest attention-seekers on the planet - Logan Paul, Andrew Tate, Elon Musk, Donald Trump - can bleed their followers for profit. The more controversial they are, the more viral they are; and the more viral they are, the more their meme coins increase in value.