In a heated back-and-forth exchange on X, Wolk claimed that Thomas, a well-known crypto influencer, promoted Solana memecoins without genuine market insight and benefited at the expense of his unsuspecting followers.

Wolk first mentioned Thomas during a discussion about Murad Mahmudov’s “Memecoin Supercycle” speech at Token 2049 last month. He accused Thomas of promoting coins to his followers instead of offering a genuine market advantage.

“It’s definitely the guy who blew up his fund in March 2020 with his own token down 80% in the past year and pivoted to promoting pump and dumps.” Wolk added, “If you resort to promoting new low-cap memecoins every few days to followers as a large account, it’s bc you have no edge and have to use your followers instead.“

Mahmudov served as the Chief Investment Officer of Adaptive Capital, a crypto hedge fund that collapsed in March 2020 during a broader market downturn. Since then, he has gained a significant following on X by promoting the role of memecoins in the cryptocurrency space and regularly sharing his top memecoin picks.

Thomas Defends Memecoin Promotions Amidst Harsh Allegations

When Thomas asked Wolk why “talking about low caps”—referring to memecoins with small market capitalizations—was considered “grifting,” Wolk claimed that Thomas, with over 507,000 followers on X, has a disproportionate ability to sway the value of these low-cap tokens. According to Wolk, this influence could result in significant losses for his followers, as they might chase after memecoin pumps without fully understanding the risks.

Thomas also defended his actions by pointing out that his promotion of Dogwifhat (WIF) to his followers at a $100,000 market cap had yielded remarkable results. The memecoin surged to a peak value of $4.8 billion in March. He argued that this was a far “better” outcome than endorsing a utility-based token like Chainlink (LINK), which has dropped by around 90% against Bitcoin this year.

“The ‘low-cap garbage’ you talk about has dominated 90% of retail mindshare in crypto over the past year,” Thomas countered. “Whether you like it or not, that’s what [people] want to trade.”

Wolk responded, accusing Thomas of promoting “hundreds” of low-cap coins such as BODEN, HOBBES, WYNN, and ZEUS. He also alleged that Thomas endorsed several celebrity-themed memecoins, including those linked to pop stars Jason Derulo and Davido.

“How you do not see the issue with having 500K+ followers and rotating micro-cap coin shills every few days when you know very well people blindly buy off your posts, impacting the price?” Wolk also explained, “Look at WYNN or all the celeb coins you shilled and all of the people who got rekt (then after posting about so many coins only point out 1-2, which end up being right).”

Memecoins in Decline

BODEN, a memecoin inspired by President Joe Biden, has plummeted nearly 99% from its all-time high in April. Similarly, other memecoins like HOBBES, ZEUS, and WYNN have also seen significant declines, each down approximately 98% from their respective peaks. This sharp downturn highlights the volatility and risks associated with investing in memecoins.

Source: BNC

BODEN has plummeted 98.9% since reaching its peak market cap of $1.04 billion back in April, according to Brave New Coin data.

Memecoin advocates argue that tokens like Dogecoin (DOGE), Pepe (PEPE), and WIF, despite being structurally worthless, offer a superior investment opportunity compared to utility tokens. They point to the significant returns these memecoins have delivered in this market cycle as evidence of their appeal. In Q1 this year for example, memes were the best performing crypto assets by a significant margin.

Critics argue that memecoins are inherently “extractive.” They claim that these tokens enable insiders and early investors to profit significantly from less sophisticated retail participants. Once they have made their gains, these individuals often vanish with the profits, leaving average investors at a loss.

Memecoin Mania 2024

At the start of the year, Bitcoin led the crypto market’s move into bull market territory, but it was meme coins that captured the altcoin zeitgeist. While Bitcoin comfortably outperformed the altcoin markets, there were some exceptions. Most of those exceptions were memecoins. This year’s surprising memecoin phenomenon is a potent demonstration of the power of memes to capture the cultural zeitgeist, and they have come to dominate the current crypto cycle.

Memecoins are an incredibly popular and volatile subset of the crypto markets. Memecoins are blockchain-based tokens that are based on popular pieces of internet culture. They are generally characterized by having minimal utility and extreme volatility. If you identify with cute dogs, the edgy Pepe frog, or President Trump, there is a memecoin for your tribe.

Top crypto narratives in Q1 2024. Source: CoinGecko

The craze around memecoins is reminiscent of the 2017 ICO bubble, except this time, there’s no illusion of value — the bar has never been lower. Memecoins represent the epitome of both greed and entertainment in the cryptocurrency world.

According to a report by CoinGecko, the memecoin sector has emerged as the most lucrative narrative of the year so far. The report reveals staggering average returns of 1,312.6% across the top memecoins by market capitalization. Notably, memecoins launched in March swiftly climbed to become some of the largest by market value by the end of the quarter. Examples include Book of Meme (BOME), Brett, and Cat in a Dogs World (MEW).

BRETT stands out with the highest returns of 7,727.6% by the end of Q1 2024, closely followed by Dogwifhat (WIF), which saw a year-to-date growth of 2,721.2% after gaining popularity during the Solana-based memecoin frenzy which has also propelled BONK to all time highs.

CoinGecko analyst Lim Yu Qian commented, “The memecoin narrative has proven to be significantly more profitable than other crypto narratives, including tokenized real-world assets (RWA) and layer 2 solutions, with returns 4.6 times and 33.3 times higher, respectively, in Q1 2024.”

Murad maintains that Memecoins are the new altcoins, and that they will continue to outperform this cycle with a new meme coin boom on the way. His strategy is a Bitcoin and Memecoins barbell strategy, Bitcoin is least risky, memecoins are most risky, but have the potential for high returns. For a full explanation of his memecoin thesis (it is fascinating), watch his presentation from Token 2049.