Solana Co-Founder Declares Meme Coins and NFTs as Digital Waste Amid Controversy

The CEO of Solana Labs, Anatoly Yakovenko, engaged in a debate with the creator of Base, Jesse Pollack, regarding the intrinsic value of meme coins and NFTs. Their discussion caught the attention of the cryptocurrency community.

«I have been saying for years that meme coins and NFTs are digital garbage with no real value,» Yakovenko stated.

The co-founder of Solana likened these assets to loot boxes in mobile games, which generate income for developers but often face criticism for exploiting users. He argued that the worth of «funny coins» and non-fungible tokens is solely driven by market demand.

Pollack countered, emphasizing that their value lies in their content.

«The content is valuable in its own right, just like a painting in a museum that people pay to see,» said the creator of Base.

Users on social media criticized the remarks from Solana’s co-founder, accusing him of dismissing his own community. Crypto enthusiast Karbon described Yakovenko’s stance on «funny coins» as hypocritical.

«I don’t particularly like how Vitalik deals with meme coins (he simply destroys tokens with one click when someone sends them to his wallet). But Tolya’s [Yakovenko’s] approach seems far less acceptable – he constantly promotes these coins while considering them worthless,» he commented.

During the argument with Pollack, Yakovenko acknowledged that Solana would not have achieved its current success without «funny coins.» Two major meme coin generation platforms, LetsBonk and Pump.fun, operate on this network and are actively competing for dominance in the sector.

«Funny coins» are significantly profitable for Solana. According to Syndica, they accounted for 62% of all revenue from dapps on the network in June.

In the first half of 2025, the project generated $1.6 billion thanks to meme coins, largely fueled by the platforms Pump.fun and LetsBonk.

Additionally, on July 24, the Solana network increased the block capacity by 20% to 60 million compute units (CUs). Following this news, the price of SOL exceeded $200.