The End of Meme Coins? Nic Carter Declares the Hype Over Amid LIBRA Scandal

The once-thriving meme coin sector may be facing its demise, according to Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures. 

In a Feb. 19 post on X, Carter stated that the era of meme coins is “unquestionably over,” citing the recent $4 billion LIBRA scandal involving Argentine President Javier Milei as a defining moment for the industry.

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“Memecoins are cooked,” Carter asserted, pointing to the Libragate scandal as an exposé of the deep-seated corruption within the meme coin ecosystem. While meme coins have been promoted as an alternative to high fully diluted valuation (FDV) venture capital-backed projects, Carter argues that their appeal as a fair and decentralized investment opportunity is now shattered.

Meme Coins: A Rigged Casino?

Carter acknowledged that meme coins initially gained traction because they were marketed as a more transparent alternative to traditional crypto projects. Retail investors could participate in meme coin launches with the expectation that the “casino was fair.” However, recent high-profile launches, including LIBRA and meme coins linked to former U.S. President Donald Trump, influencer Hailey Welch, and other celebrities, have exposed the dark side of the industry.

“The casino didn’t take a slight edge — it was more like 90/10 in favor of the house,” Carter remarked, suggesting that botting and insider advantage have made meme coin trading an increasingly predatory space for retail investors.

Also read: The Rise of AI Meme Coins Explained

Industry Leaders Push Back

Despite Carter’s grim assessment, not everyone in the industry agrees that meme coins are dead. Armani Ferrante, founder of Backpack, sees meme coins as a crucial “stress test” for blockchain technology and future financial infrastructure.

“Crypto itself is purpose-built technology for transaction processing in the context of finance, but finance itself is meaningless unless you have real-world goods and services being tracked on the ledger,” Ferrante told Cointelegraph. “That’s really what meme coins are. They’re an enormous stress test and proof-of-concept for real-world finance coming on-chain.”

Ferrante added that many of the biggest innovations in tech started as seemingly trivial novelties. “Memecoins are the toy, and sooner rather than later, we’ll find ourselves with what we are all hoping and dreaming about — all the world’s value, moving on-chain.”

Also read: How To Generate Your Own Meme Coin: A Step-By-Step Guide to Launch a Lighthearted Crypto

Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong echoed Ferrante’s sentiment, urging industry participants to remain open-minded about the evolution of meme coins. Comparing them to the early days of the internet, Armstrong suggested that even seemingly frivolous innovations can lead to powerful use cases over time.

The Data Tells a Different Story

While some remain optimistic, the data indicates that investor interest in meme coins is waning. According to Dune Analytics data from Adam_Tehc, the number of new tokens launched on Solana-based meme coin deployer Pump.fun has dropped by 59% in the last month. On Jan. 23, the platform saw a record-breaking 71,735 new tokens launched. By Feb. 19, that number had plummeted to just 28,898.

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The decline suggests that while meme coins may not be entirely “cooked” as Carter claims, the appetite for new launches is decreasing. Whether this signals the beginning of the end or a temporary slump remains to be seen, but one thing is clear: the meme coin market is at a crossroads.