Memecoins are bruised, discredited, and out of favor—but not dead, according to MoonPay president Keith A. Grossman. He says the sector will resurface in a new form after its first chaotic boom collapsed under speculation and scandals.
Grossman argues that the recent downturn does not invalidate the core innovation behind memecoins. In his view, their real breakthrough was proving that attention can be tokenized cheaply and efficiently through blockchain technology. That shift, he says, opened the door to a decentralized attention economy.
Before crypto, Grossman noted, attention was monetized almost exclusively by platforms, brands, and a small group of influencers. Everyday users created value through likes, memes, trends, and online communities, but received nothing in return. That economic value largely stayed locked inside centralized platforms.
Memecoins briefly flipped that dynamic by allowing communities to assign financial value to culture and participation. While many projects failed, Grossman said the idea itself remains intact, even if the first wave collapsed under excess and abuse.
He compared today’s bleak outlook for memecoins to predictions that social media would disappear after early platforms imploded in the early 2000s. Those failures, he argued, did not kill social media. They cleared the way for a more durable second generation.
Data supports how dramatic the reversal has been. Memecoins were among the best-performing crypto sectors in 2024 and dominated investor narratives that year, according to CoinGecko. Enthusiasm faded quickly as critics intensified claims that memecoins and social tokens lacked intrinsic value.
The collapse accelerated in the first quarter of 2025 after multiple high-profile token failures. Sharp drawdowns, widely labeled rug pulls by the crypto community, crushed confidence and sent investors fleeing.
Political tokens amplified the damage. In the U.S., President Donald Trump launched a memecoin ahead of his January 2025 inauguration. The token surged to about $75 before collapsing more than 90% to roughly $5.42, according to CoinMarketCap.
In Argentina, President Javier Milei endorsed a social token called Libra in February. The token reached a $107 million market cap before crashing, leaving about 86% of holders with realized losses of $1,000 or more. The collapse sparked lawsuits, a government probe, and calls for Milei’s impeachment, despite his efforts to distance himself from the launch.
Grossman says these failures mark the end of memecoins’ first chapter, not the conclusion of the story. Attention still has value, he argues—and crypto will find a more sustainable way to capture it.
