Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko ignited criticism from the crypto community by likening memecoins to loot boxes in mobile games.
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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 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 that their value is derived through market-driven price discovery, while Pollak 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 that without memecoins, Solana wouldn’t be where it is today, but 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 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 out the Solana boss for mocking his
Crypto commentator and X user Karbon “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
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.
Related:
Memecoin activity has driven the majority of Solana’s during the first half of 2025.
A large share of memecoin revenue has come from Solana-based and , 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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