it's just astonishingly good value if you have no morals at all.
I suspect the folks who are interested in the cryptocurrency "ethos" as it was in the Bitcoin Whitepaper are not happy (although I think that ethos is exceptionally naive, I can at least respect it). I think they see the scams as real roadblocks to adoption and just a bad look / way to operate.
I do suspect that the vast majority of the crypto currency "community" are now just motivated by greed and/or other immoral activity like bribery, fraud, crime etc.
So yes I think some of the more thoughtful crypto community are disappointed .. but in reality much (in terms of dollars) of it really don't care.
the cryptocurrency industry love it and paid for it because it allows them to do unlimited crime against others with no consequences.
this isn't just a This Term Of Trump problem, either - letting these sociopaths get even richer now means they'll form a new layer of poison in the financial system for decades to come and have enormous influence regulation and politics.
At present I will acknowledge one great obligation to it, that is the Chapter sixth—of money page 21st “When these denominations are admitted & employed in transactions to diminish the quantity of metal to which they answer by an alteration of the real coins, is to steal, a theft of greater magnitude & still more ruinous is the making of paper. It is greater because in this money there is absolutely no real value. It is more ruinous because by its gradual depreciation during all the time of its existence it produces the effect which would be produced by an infinity of successive deteriorations of the coin.” That is to say an infinity of successive felonious larcenies. If this is true as I believe it is we Americans are the most thievish people that ever existed, we have been stealing from each other for an hundred & fifty years. If anything like health remains to me, you shall hear more upon this subject from your friend & humble servant.
-- John Adams
At worst, it's fraud, but I don't even believe that. Most people know the risks when they buy these coins. To them, it's a gamble the same as the as the lottery or sports betting. They know it has a negative expected value but they do it anyways because they find it fun.
Sports betting and lottery, while like gambling is legal in many states, is regulated.
Also, memecoins are unlike casino gambling, where there is a tiny chance of an outsider winning. That's where some of the "entertainment" in gambling comes from. In the case of sports betting there are also factors of chance outside the game that the game depends on. Again the adrenaline of betting on the unknown.
With memecoins, unless you are an insider, there is precisely 0 chance of winning. They are pure pump and dump schemes preying on the ignorant, or if the buyer is aware of how they work, they are no different from a bribery mechanism.
https://www.reddit.com/r/solana/comments/1gye9qf/cant_sell_m...
https://www.reddit.com/r/CryptoCurrency/comments/17zrvoj/hel...
https://www.reddit.com/r/solana/comments/1c3hxht/how_to_sell...
If you are buying this stuff retail, you are probably already too late to sell and make a gain, because insiders are ever innovating on strategies like "single sided liquidity" to get their money out before retail buyers can, i.e:
https://x.com/beaniemaxi/status/1891904092361879674
I suspect you were already aware of all that, though.
Also, casino gambling games are regulated.
Memecoins, like NFTs, are just a mechanism for exploitation of the uninformed and a channel for anonymous bribery of the powerful.
Also, lol at the reddit OP "I'm not the bagholder. I'm significantly in profit and want to take it. Any advice on the most cost effective way?"
Edit:
I dont have a lot of sympathy for cash strapped seniors who walking into a casino and blow their money.
NFT and meme coins have a Giant "CASINO" sign above them, and if someone goes in and get scammed or rug pulled before they can scam someone else, than that is on them.
There is a whole world of regulated markets. If you dont want to risk being scammed, dont go into the scam zone.
For all practical purposes, if you're not an insider, the timing of "probably too late" coincides with "precisely 0" and the availability of the memecoin for retail purchase.
> Also, lol at the reddit OP "I'm not the bagholder. I'm significantly in profit and want to take it. Any advice on the most cost effective way?"
I don't laugh at that person, because I don't know their circumstances. It's sad to see someone defrauded, regardless of what you or I might think about their level of knowledge.
Similarly, I also don't laugh at cash strapped fixed income seniors who fell for fraudulent financial products. The reason for regulation (and government departments like CFPB) is to protect such people from fraudsters.