Solana co-founder declares meme tokens and NFTs have no intrinsic value

What’s new? Solana blockchain co-founder and Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko has drawn criticism from the crypto community with his comments about meme tokens and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). During a dispute with Jesse Pollak, the creator of the Base network from the Coinbase crypto exchange, on the X platform, Yakovenko stated the following: “I’ve said this for years. Memecoins and NFTs are digital slop and have no intrinsic value.”

Source: X.com

What else is known? Yakovenko argued that their value is determined by market pricing, while Pollak objected that the content itself has intrinsic value. In addition, Yakovenko compared meme tokens to Apple’s loot boxes.

The developer acknowledged that Solana would not be where it is today without meme coins, but argued that Apple’s revenues would also be negligible without loot boxes.

Loot boxes are virtual rewards built into apps that can be found in many games on the App Store. Critics argue that they exploit players by encouraging them to make repeat purchases without a guaranteed outcome. The lack of transparency surrounding loot boxes has attracted the attention of regulators in several countries, including Australia and Germany.

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According to Yakovenko’s page on X, he has held the opinion that meme tokens and NFTs have no intrinsic value since at least January 2024.

Yakovenko’s statements have been criticized by members of the crypto community, who have accused the developer of mocking users, noting that he actively promotes meme tokens while claiming they are useless.

It is noteworthy that last year Solana was at the center of the meme coin craze, with many of the assets now at the top of the market capitalization rankings created on this blockchain. This was also facilitated by the launch of the PumpFun launchpad, which allowed any user without programming knowledge to create their own meme coin in a few clicks.

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At the moment, Solana is still extremely dependent on activity in the meme coin segment. According to Syndica, in June, meme coins accounted for 62% of the revenue of decentralized applications (dApps) on the Solana network, which is a new all-time high.

In addition, activity in this segment accounted for the majority of Solana’s revenue of $1,6 billion in the first half of 2025.

A significant portion of the revenue was generated by PumpFun and PumpSwap, a decentralized exchange (DEX) for assets issued on PumpFun.