Memecoins for the win? Exec talks about perks of meme culture

The memecoin supercycle is far from over. From Solana to Base, speculators are jumping on memecoins in droves. 

However, Solana [SOL] still commands the largest memecoin segment based on market cap. According to Coingecko, Solana’s memes had a market cap of $7.8 billion compared to Base’s $1.4 billion at the time of writing. 

Meme activity comes with crazy trading volumes that can boost a chain’s usage and fees. For instance, Slerf [SLERF] hit over $1.8 billion in volume on the first trading day. 

This could positively spill over to the chain, which is why Avalanche and Arbitrum want some meme action on their chains. 
Arthur Hayes, founder and former CEO of BitMEX exchange, confirmed that meme culture offers perks to blockchains. 

“The chains that can support meme culture are going to be the chains that have value.”

Solana benefits from meme attention

Hayes cautioned that one shouldn’t be quick to discredit memes as they bring the needed attention to the blockchain. Referencing Solana, Hayes noted that; 

“You can poo-poo on these things as stupid and valueless.”

However, he added that,

“But if it brings attention, more engineers in the space, then its positive value for the chain itself.” 

The above stance is very different from Vitalik Buterin’s position on memecoins.
Last week, Buterin called for more good memes that can help more people, like charity, rather than enriching creators and few people. 
That said, recent Solana revenue data backs Hayes’s inclination on the incremental value of memes to chains.

Solana flipped MakerDAO in revenue as SOL surged 50% in value. Ergo, more meme activity could help it reverse recent losses.