In a recent exchange on X, Joe Weisenthal, the co-host of What’d You Miss? on Bloomberg Television, he delved into the explosive growth and speculative nature of meme currencies, comparing their rapid rise to the traditional stock market.
In a recent exchange on X, Joe Weisenthal, the co-host of What’d You Miss? on Bloomberg Television, he delved into the explosive growth and speculative nature of meme currencies, comparing their rapid rise to the traditional stock market.
Weisenthal highlighted the unique appeal of meme coins, noting their ability to generate outsized returns that traditional investments rarely match.
“Memecoins meet the demand for extremely asymmetric betting in a way that almost no capital could meet,” he noted.
His comments were in response to discussions about regulatory challenges and the potential of meme currencies in the current financial landscape.
The appeal and risks of meme currencies.
Doug Colkitt, founder of Ambient Finance, recently started a conversation by criticizing the nihilistic tendencies within the meme coin craze and pointing out the regulatory obstacles to accumulating value on-chain.
He envisioned a scenario where small businesses could easily access global capital markets by issuing tokens, in contrast to the current pursuit of low market cap meme coins.
Weisenthal responded by questioning the likelihood of creating productive businesses in the face of quick scams in such a deregulated environment.
He argued that many meme coins are considered scams due to their lack of underlying productive enterprise. However, the phenomenon represents a deeper desire among people to engage in investing in a more traditional and practical way.
Rethink investment and regulation
Weisenthal and Colkitt’s discussion extends beyond the meme coin frenzy to address broader issues in financial regulation and investment strategies.
Despite acknowledging the high failure rate among small businesses and the prevalence of scams, Colkitt also argued that a more open market could encourage genuine business growth.
Weisenthal responded, warning against completely dismantling capital market regulations. He implied that, despite the speculative nature of meme currencies, they are part of a larger discourse about how modern financial practices may be disconnecting investors from tangible business and growth opportunities.
