According to Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy, Ethereum leaders must choose between supporting a capitalist or socialist economic system, but they cannot address both. Gaevoy stated on June 6 on X, following recent comments by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and Ethereum-based decentralized exchange Uniswap founder Hayden Adams, that you can’t have both and mentioned the celebrities’ memecoin projects.
What’s Happening in the Memecoin Space?
Gaevoy argued that Buterin, Adams, and many others in the Ethereum community want to develop products that bring positive change to society and ultimately solve the issue of maximum extractable value, facing a contradiction:
“Vitalik, Hayden, and many others are trying to solve capitalism by saying that what we build is only valuable if it results in value or if the best developers can be respected.”
Gaevoy argued that blockchain technology itself helps create systems entirely based on capitalist incentives. This came after Buterin’s recent comments that celebrities’ memecoin projects provide nothing valuable to society.
Noteworthy Details on the Subject
Buterin explained on June 5 that he believes a project’s goal should be for the average participant to feel happy and satisfied even if the tokens eventually become worthless. Furthermore, he argued that financialization can only be justified if it serves a purpose that adds value to society, such as improving healthcare, supporting open-source software, and promoting art and creativity, and shared the following on X:
“I am quite unhappy with the celebrity experiences of this cycle so far.”
Meanwhile, Adams claimed he had no issues with celebrities’ memecoin projects. However, he criticized Buterin for his derogatory remarks about rapper Iggy Azalea, whom he described as the best developer in the space. Adams suggested that Azalea could use her profits to donate to a social cause.
On June 6, Azalea’s Mother Iggy (MOTHER) token reached an all-time high of $0.1272, defying the trend of failures in other celebrities’ memecoin projects. According to CoinGecko data, MOTHER was trading at a new high of $0.1522 at the time of publication.
