The founder of the cryptocurrency company Synthetix, Kane Warwick, believes that the rush for memcoins can benefit decentralized exchanges (DEXs), attracting cash flows from DeFi traders to them.

In a speech at the MemeGlobal Sydney conference, Kain Warwick noted that many in the crypto community consider memecoins to be dangerous speculation. However, in his opinion, the arguments of critics against meme cryptocurrencies, that they do not bring any benefit, are unconvincing. On the contrary, thanks to memcoin trading, trading volumes on decentralized exchanges are increasing, and platforms are having to improve their trading tools.

“Even if investments turn into a purely speculative instrument, an entire ecosystem begins to form around it. Cash flow is happening, investments are building infrastructure, and that is very valuable,” said the Synthetix founder.

Warwick noted that the bulk of memcoin trading takes place on DEXs, since given the short-lived nature of these tokens, it is difficult for them to be listed on centralized exchanges. In March, monthly DEX trading volumes nearly reached a two-and-a-half-year high of $267.9 billion, according to DefiLlama. This figure is just below the November 2021 record of $292 billion.

According to Warwick, memecoins, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and gaming tokens tap into more human emotions and embody cultural ideas. Therefore, these kinds of tokens are much more interesting to the average person than DeFi. As Warwick puts it, not many people find the development of new financial instruments interesting. And movies, games and music are what the average person enjoys every day.

“Memcoins are the most simplified connection between finance, culture and tokenization. Memcoin is like a hook that catches people’s attention to DeFi and cryptocurrencies. There is something elegant about this simplicity. There is no profitability or revenue. It’s just a cool idea when a person wants to own something,” says Warwick.

However, not everyone agrees with this position. The technical director of the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz, Eddie Lazzarin, believes that memcoins only spoil the reputation of large cryptocurrencies and blockchains. According to independent “crypto-detective” ZachXBT, more than half of the meme tokens created on the Solana blockchain have already been abandoned.