Meme Coins Rise in Crypto Market

The emergence of many meme coins has sparked increasing controversy, especially after the emergence of meme coins that serve specific agendas and made some question the existence of controls and limits to decentralization.

The controversy recently increased after rapper Kanye West (Ye) announced his plans to launch a coin called “Swasticoin.”

His statements about launching the coin were accompanied by anti-Semitic comments, although he later returned to announce that he would open the smart contract address to Jews, while seeking advice on the blockchain.

The “Ye” coin is not an isolated case, as the past year witnessed the emergence of other racist digital tokens, such as:

“Hitler Musk,” which was launched after “Elon Musk” referenced during his speech at “Trump’s” inauguration.

“Gruber,” which was associated with far-right communities on the internet.

“Hitler” coin, which appeared briefly in 2021 before being removed from trading platforms.
While these projects are often short-lived, they highlight how open blockchain technology can be exploited to spread extremist ideologies.

Can such coins be stopped?
Some in the crypto industry are seeking to limit the spread of these coins, for example:

The Solana Foundation has proposed filtering digital tokens within apps to block offensive names or images, while the Ethereum founder has criticized racist meme coins and called for real projects.

According to CoinDesk, Ye may be renaming his project YZY from Swasticoin, in order to circumvent Shopify’s restrictions on the Yeezy store.

According to the same report from CoinDesk, he plans to retain 70% of the coin’s supply, suggesting that his goal may be more financial than ideological.

Racist meme coins continue to test the limits of blockchain freedom, presenting the industry with a growing challenge about the balance between decentralization and accountability.