In a recent X post, Ethereum founder, Vitalik Buterin, calls out celebrity-endorsed memecoins, showing his dissatisfaction at the trending “experimentation”.
In a similar development, Nigerian celebrity Davido launched the $Davido token on the Solana Network. Given Davido’s past involvement in controversial projects, an X user, ZachXBT, who is popular for exposing crypto scam projects and rug pulls voiced his concern on the token.
Buterin further emphasized in his post that financialization is only justified when it facilitates access to essential services and public goods, such as healthcare, open-source software development, and artistic endeavors, rather than being the final product.
Calling out most of the celebrity memecoins released, especially in 2024, as dishonorable, Buterin said about Stoner Cats, “Ashton and Mila’s Stoner Cats was vastly more honorable than anything we’ve seen from this 2024 celebrity memecoin era—at least there was an actual show being funded.”
Stoner Cats NFTs
Hollywood A-list actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis launched the Stoner Cats NFT project taking inspiration from the Stoner Cats web series. The duo released 10K NFTs in July 2021 with Buterin voicing one of the characters in the series.
The team launched the NFT drop, sparking frenzied demand that sold out the tokens in 40 minutes, despite the relatively steep price of 0.35 ETH per token. At the end of the sale, the project raised 3,650 ETH which is currently worth over $13 million according to data on Coingecko.
However, the SEC charged the company behind the Stoner Cats tokens for selling unregistered securities in 2023. Following the charge, the company agreed to pay a $1 million fine, relinquish all remaining NFT, and create a settlement fund to repay investors, according to the SEC order.
Buterin’s Blueprint for a Successful Celebrity Crypto Projects/Memecoins
With regards to his remark about the Stoner Cats project and other celebrity-backed tokens, Buetrin shared his checklist of what a celebrity crypto project should have before it earns his respect in a later X post.
Buterin outlined that a good celebrity crypto project must aim to create some kind of value for the community, either supporting an art project or charity, rather than enriching only the celebrity and early investors.
In addition, the project should include fun features that go beyond simple trading and also have a long-term sustainability of more than 10 years instead of being a short-lived bubble.
